The Eve Appeal is a charity for Gynecological Cancers. They provide funding for research into curing and preventing this callous disease.  They also provide support to individuals suffering from cancer, but also provide support and information to families. When Mum died, this kind of support was not as readily available and ovarian cancer wasn't as understood as well as it is today. Ovarian cancer is the fourth most common cause of cancer death in women and accounts for more UK deaths than all of the other gynecological cancers put together. Over 6,500 women are diagnosed with ovarian cancer every year in the UK and 4,400 will die.

 Last year most of the women on mum’s side of the family undertook a gene test to see if they carried one of the BRCA cancer genes. One of my sisters tested positive, meaning that she had a significantly higher risk of developing cancer. The average percentage of woman developing breast cancer is around 12%, testing positive for the gene this increases to 65%. Similarly with ovarian cancer, the average percentage of woman developing ovarian cancer is around 1.4%, testing positive for the gene this increases to 39%. By testing positive for one of the genes she had to have countless consultations and hospital appointments, along with two operations, one to remove her ovaries and the other to have a mastectomy. Although she’s come through strong and it making a good recovery, she still had an unbelievably tough year and I’m so proud of her for getting through it.

Because she has undergone this simple test, and the subsequent operations my sister will not be taken from us like Mum. If this sort of testing and prevention was around 20 years ago perhaps things would have been different for Mum.

Obviously developing testing, prevention and treatment takes years of research and a lot of money to fund it. Without the fundraising from people and charities this would not be possible. Therefore, I will be running the Silverstone Half Marathon to raise as much money as possible for The Eve Appeal and for people suffering with gynecological cancers.

I appreciate that you all probably get asked to sponsor people all the time for other charities, but if you could sponsor me with any amount of money, no matter how small, it will all go to an amazing cause and go towards preventing people developing cancer. Every single penny counts and goes towards helping someone. I’m sure that you will all know or heard of someone who has suffered from cancer, and know the devastating effect it has on individuals and their families.

Thank you so much in advance for any donations and sponsorship!!

Tara xXx