I am raising funds for the Albie Sugden Foundation by completing the Leeds Abbey Dash on the 30th November this year. This charity lies very close to my heart because Albie is my nephew and he was taken from us far too soon. He's left a huge gap in all our lives.

In October 2022, Albie was diagnosed with a rare and aggressive brain tumour. Despite multiple brain surgeries and chemotherapy rounds, Albie died in October 2023. He was two years old.

Sadly ours isn't the only story like this. 5 children every day are diagnosed with cancer in the UK. Each year 16,000 people in the UK are diagnosed with a brain tumour, 500 of those are children. It really could happen to anyone.

So it's for Albie and the many children like him that are the beating heart behind the foundation. They are the reason that we strive to do better, the reason we want to improve the lives of children with cancer and people with brain tumours. We do it for them.

Oncology treatment for children is aggressive, painful, and unforgiving. Side effects from the drugs can have devastating and life altering outcomes. Life during treatment can be incredibly difficult for children and their families.

This cause is deeply personal. I was diagnosed with a low-grade glioma, and having gone through brain tumour treatment myself, I know firsthand how brutal and draining it can be. I simply cannot imagine facing that kind of battle as a child. Albie was so incredibly brave and always full of light and joy right up till the end of his life. Knowing what he had to go through was truly heart breaking.

The Albie Sugden foundation has 2 goals: to support children with cancer and to fund research into brain tumours. They aim to make the treatment experience more tolerable by providing toys, equipment & experiences for children whilst in hospital.

Brain tumours kill more children & adults under the age of 40 than any other cancer yet receive only 2% of cancer research national spend.

They fund research to make kinder, more effective treatments for young people affected by a brain tumour diagnosis.