There are several different types of cancer which can affect the throat, mouth, neck and chest. We refer to these as ‘throat cancers’, but medically they are known by other names that you may hear from doctors, nurses and researchers: oropharyngeal cancer, head and neck cancer, oral cancer, and mouth cancer.

From my perspective it is an horrific instance of the disease that has had a huge impact on the lives of my brother-in-law, my wife and the rest of our family, and one that is not commonly discussed. As always early diagnosis is essential but for throat cancer it is often missed, unsurprisingly when you see the list of possible symptoms here.

And so to the challenge…to raise money for the foundation I’m planning to run, walk and quite possibly crawl the 70 miles, climbing up and sliding down the 3500 ft of elevation along the iconic Hadrian’s Wall. Setting out from Carlisle Castle heading to Gateshead Baltic Quay, The Wall’s route is a classic, shrouded in myth, legend and enveloped in glorious English countryside, moor, river, and valley. The run then culminates in a dramatic finale amongst the bridges of the Newcastle Gateshead quayside.

Since I signed up to this in June this year, incidentally done whilst on crutches with a torn calf, I’ve probably not even managed to run a total of 70 miles…at 20 kg over my fighting weight and generally starting from scratch please know this isn’t going to be a walk in the hills…26 hours of movement is going to test me physically both mentally … but a small challenge when you hold it up against those fighting with cancer of any sort.