I’m thrilled to be running the London Marathon in 2025 for Breast Cancer UK. Here’s why this means so much to me.

In March 2021, while we were all still focusing on Covid, and in my family we had some other tough stuff going on, I got a diagnosis that shook my world. Breast cancer.

I felt fit and well. I was a parent, sister, carer, executive manager, director, professor, dog walker, cyclist and runner. Except I wasn’t fit and well.

In the end my brush with breast cancer was relatively light, although the mental impact of a cancer diagnosis is hard to put into words. I was overwhelmed by the love and support from my family and friends and expert care and treatment from the West Herts Breast Cancer Service, who looked after me with their wonderful kindness and specialist knowledge for all my solo appointments (thanks to Covid restrictions) and got me through the whole thing. I marked the start of my active treatment with a 5km race the day before my surgery and the end of it with a 10km after my radiotherapy. I’ve only ever managed one little marathon though, and that was tough, so being fit enough to run in arguably the best marathon in the world London is a big deal for me!

When I got the diagnosis, after a few choice expletives, my first question was ‘why me?’ To which the only answer was ‘bad luck’.

That’s not good enough, with the latest figures showing cancer is on the rise generally and in the UK 1 in 7 women can now expect to get breast cancer. How many women are in your family? Your workplace? Your friendship groups? Breast Cancer is the most common cancer in the UK. Over 55,000 women and 390 men a year are diagnosed with breast cancer. Yet around a third of these cases are preventable.

Cancer will touch us all, unless we can change things. We need to focus on prevention as well as treatment and that’s why I’m so proud to be running for Breast Cancer UK. Here’s a bit more about what they will do with your money if you’re kind enough to sponsor me.

Breast Cancer UK is working to prevent breast cancer through education, scientific research, collaboration and policy change.    

Breast Cancer UK provides practical advice and tips on how we can reduce our risk. They campaign for changes to national health policies to support prevention, and fund research to help improve our understanding of how to stop the disease.

Thank you for reading my story - your interest alone is appreciated but if you feel able to sponsor me too, together we can make a difference and help prevent breast cancer.