Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

On the 1st of November 2026, I am going to complete a 141 kilometre cycle followed by a 50 kilometre run to raise money for Cancer Research UK. Any donation you can make will be greatly appreciated.

I am doing this in memory of my mum, Tessa John, who died from cancer in June 2016, when I was 7. She was only 37 years old.

Mum was an incredibly kind and caring person, and she would always put others before herself. She had a master’s degree in Medical Ethics and Law, and she devoted her working life to looking after unwell children. She started at Great Ormond Street Hospital, then moved into paediatric research with the Oxford Vaccine Group, and later worked at the Thames Valley and South Midlands Clinical Research Network. She was going to start a PhD in advocacy for children in medical settings until she decided to have me and my 3 siblings instead, starting a happy family.

In the second half of 2015, Mum started to feel unusually tired, and after noticing a lump on her neck in December, she went to hospital. This is when we received the tragic news that she had been diagnosed with lung cancer and had only 10 months to live. This was obviously incredibly hard for us as a family, but we tried to make the most of the situation. Mum had chemotherapy on a 3 week cycle, which would leave her feeling incredibly unwell for the first week. In the remaining 2 weeks, we would spend as much time together as possible, making memories and trying to enjoy things as much as we could. Although it was really hard, it was also a super-special time in my life.

On the 29th of June 2016, my younger brother Tris, my dad, and I planned to go and visit Mum in her hospice. We were super excited to be able to go and spend the evening with her, playing board games and watching films, especially as we hadn’t been able to see her for a few days. When we arrived, a nurse took Dad away, and, thinking nothing of it, Tris and I went and played a game with a different nurse. A while later, he came back and told us that Mum had died earlier that day. I still remember it like it was yesterday.

Life has been very hard since then, and we all miss her every day.

There were 191 days between her diagnosis and the day she died, which is why my cycle and run add up to 191 kilometres. It’s going to be hard, but nothing in comparison to what Mum went through, and I will use this to motivate me through training and on the day itself. This challenge is my way of honouring her and raising as much money as possible for Cancer Research UK so that, in the future, other families might not have to go through the pain of losing someone they love.

I’m going to be posting updates on my training and the challenge on Instagram: @alfie_j0hn