Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

In April my lovely Dad died. He was 84 so it wasn't an untimely death. He lead a long and full life but what I struggle to accept is the way he died. At the age of 84 you think that your parents will most likely die of old age, in their sleep quickly and peacefully. Instead Dad died of a horrible asbestos related cancer called Mesothelioma, an industrial disease that lies dormant in the lining of the lungs and or the stomach for many years.

Dad worked for BT (formerly the GPO) all his working life. In the 1960's he was a BT engineer which involved going into factories to lay and reroute telephone lines. He had to drill through floors and ceilings which contained asbestos without any protection from asbestos fibres.

Spurred on by Dad's courage and determination from the day he was diagnosed in October last year to the day he died in April, I am now doing something positive to stop others dying in the same way as Dad did. The disease needs to be diagnosed early to give people more treatment options, there is also a need for more mesothelioma specialist nurses and multi disciplinary teams to proactively support patients and families through the traumatic stages of this disease.

In time the disease will become scarcer as asbestos disappears from our lives but in the next few years it will continue to make lung cancer one of the most common cancers in the UK.

During June I will be attempting to walk 500,000 steps in memory of my Dad's determination to stay fit most of his life and to support the 'walk all over cancer' campaign promoted by Cancer Research UK. Please sponsor me to help change the future of mesothelioma and to also remember the many heroes and heroines like my Dad who have bravely battled this horrible, fatal disease.

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