Recently, one of my closest friends, was diagnosed with cancer. He's currently going through treatment, and honestly, having someone that close to you go through this makes it all feel a lot more real.

A few of us have decided to run the Robin Hood Half Marathon together for JvGCRC. The research they do, into diagnosing cancer earlier, understanding how it responds to treatment, and helping the immune system fight back, is exactly the kind of work that can make a real difference for people going through this.

We're doing this to support him and to help fund research that might make things a bit easier for someone else down the line. Any donation you can give, big or small, would mean a lot to us and to him.

Based at Nottingham Trent University, JvGCRC specialise in research into blood cancers as well as colorectal, pancreatic and brain tumours.

Your kind donations help to find ways to:

- Diagnose cancer better

- Predict how it will respond to treatment

- Develop ways of boosting the immune system to fight it

The presence of cancer in our lives might remain inevitable — but the scale and devastation of its impact need not be. Your donations help to continue this life-changing work.

Thank you for your support.