Caroline, Joanna and Shona's OMC ride for The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
Caroline Gronvold is raising money for The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR)
Story
Four years ago Joanna, Shona and I successfully completed an epic Land's End to John O' Groats cycle and raised more than £10,000 for Save the Children. We wanted to challenge ourselves again, this time as part of the One More City team, cycling from Pisa to Nice, 600km with 9000m climbing, raising money to support important research into secondary breast cancer. This will be my fifth One More City ride, but the first for Shona and Joanna.
Our friend, Christine O’Connell, who was diagnosed and treated for breast cancer in 2013, created One More City in 2017 when she and three friends rode from London to Paris in 24 hours to raise money for breast cancer support services. As she was training for One More City’s second fundraiser in 2018, Christine learned that her cancer had returned, and it had spread to her brain and bones. This is when her journey as a secondary breast cancer patient and advocate began. In the years since, Christine and her fellow One More City riders have led seven rides through seven countries, raising nearly £400,000 for secondary breast cancer research in the UK. Since 2024, the target has been to raise a further £250,000 which will go straight towards the next campaign funding a Clinical Research Fellow.
Much of breast cancer awareness, campaigning and research is focused around prevention and detection in the case of primary cancer, when the disease is confined to the breast and lymph nodes. Early diagnosis provides the best chance for survival, as the disease is curable in most people at this stage. However, an estimated 20-30% of primary cancers spread to other organs, which is termed secondary cancer, and at this point, the cancer is no longer curable. Those diagnosed with secondary cancer will spend the rest of their foreshortened lives on some form of treatment.
The ethos of One More City is that the journey is never over; the team is always progressing towards the next city, there are always more kilometres to do, more climbs to conquer and more challenges to face. This is akin to the reality of anyone living with cancer, especially secondary cancer, for whom the challenge is never over; there are always more treatments to endure, more scans to face, more side effects to manage.
In Christine’s own words:
“In 20-30% of women diagnosed with early-stage breast cancer, the disease later spreads to another part of the body – and my hope is that One More City will help find a way to give patients a longer life. By funding a PhD student, we're contributing more than just a piece of equipment – we're helping to give someone a future, and that someone will become a great scientist. My hope is that one day we will be able to say cancer is a chronic disease that you can live with and live well with. I think this is a realistic hope. We are making exciting advances against cancer, which are helping people live longer and better. To continue discovering smarter treatments, we need the very brightest cancer scientists and clinicians.”
We would be so grateful if you would support us and donate to help train the next generation of scientists who will find tomorrow’s cancer treatments.
Thank you.
Caroline, Joanna & Shona
