John Kenny and Gary Nathan from Liberty Living’s senior management team, are embarking upon a charity motorbike ride to raise funds for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. The Royal Marsden is one of the largest cancer centres in Europe for children and young people. Liberty Living provides student accommodation in 42 student residences across 17 UK cities and John and Gary will be visiting residences in each city as they ride across the UK between 19th-23rd June – a stunning 2,537 miles!

Here are few words from John Kenny sharing his experience: 

"Both Gary and I are inspired by a number of stories of those affected by cancer within our organisation. I would like to share my own story and in addition we are aware that many of our students are coping with the impact of cancer within their families also and it’s our aspiration that this ‘ride’ can engage both our workforce and our customers around raising money for cancer research, diagnosis and treatment at the Royal Marsden – in this case we have chosen The Royal Marsden because of their specialisation around treatment for children and indeed because that is where my daughter Sinead was treated for 7 long months in 2013. I would mention that in raising money we seek to respect our colleagues and customers by raising money to combat the very illness that has affected their lives – this is of real importance to us both.

Sinead was diagnosed with stage 4 (of 4) Hodgkin Lymphoma in November of 2012 after cancer was found in a number of places around her body including her lungs. She was prescribed Chemotherapy and Radiotherapy to start in December of the same year to be administered at The Royal Marsden in Sutton – chosen for its experience and ability around the treatment of cancer in children and its links to other cancer hospitals around the world, notably in Berlin. We attended The Royal Marsden on a part time basis to receive treatment and were visiting The Royal Marsden for 3 days a week generally. 

For us treatment was uncomfortable, uncertain, painful and we handled many side effects along the way and as a parent I learned just how important the care delivered by the outstanding staff at Royal Marsden really is. Renowned around Europe for the quality of its research and care, The Royal Marsden relies heavily on charitable donations and during our time there we encountered the many heart breaking cases that benefitted from these donations. We witnessed treatment for babies and young adults alike and always delivered with the greatest of professionalism and care imaginable – having undergone treatment for cancer twice myself earlier in my life I believe this is a statement I can make. The staff at The Royal Marsden work in the most challenging of circumstances to help the most vulnerable in our society and do it with professionalism everyday – their attitude is truly amazing.

The outstanding commitment of the staff, facilities such as parents room, treatment rooms, study rooms, play rooms, music facilities, children’s only rooms and the deep commitment to finding a cure for all cancers all conspire to bring comfort and dignity to those being treated and their families – personally I cannot imagine how I would have coped without it and I expect this is the first of many events that will underpin my commitment to ‘paying back’ to The Royal Marsden". 

Please support us in our efforts and contribute as generously as you possibly can for such a worthwhile cause.