Every 10 minutes somewhere another child, teenager or adult is diagnosed with this brutal disease and they face a 5-year chance of survival at little over 50%. This drops even further if the disease is discovered late and has already progressed.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is the only charity dedicated to this disease, it is a small but national charity based in Leeds, UK. They fund ground-breaking research, life-saving awareness initiatives and provide dedicated and trustworthy information and support to patients and all their loved ones... All without any government funding. They rely 100% on people like you supporting their work through donations.

Their work has never been so crucial and vital. Figures from the National Cancer Research Institute (NCRI) have shown that research into primary bone cancer continues to be critically underfunded, with the main UK charities allocating just 0.02% of the £630million research investment for 2020-21 to this devastating disease.

I am running the London Marathon for Bone Cancer Research in honour of Hannah Francis. Hannah was diagnosed with Osteosarcoma in 2015 at the age of 17 years old. Hannah fought as hard as I’ve ever seen anyone fight. Her strength, spirit and courage was truly the most inspirational thing I have witnessed. Hannah was a young star in the equestrian world at the time of her diagnosis. She gained the support of equestrians from all over the world to help raise money for vital research as well as getting the attention of many people outside of the sport. Even through all her pain, Hannah wanted to help other seriously ill people. Any money that was donated to Hannah went straight back out to cancer charities to help with the incredible research they do to help people like Hannah in the future. She felt it was terribly wrong for anyone to have to suffer in the way she did. Incredibly sadly, in August of 2016, Hannah passed away. Hannah and I had the same dream, to ride for our country. Hannah actually managed to do just that while fighting her cancer battle. One of the last things she said to me was “Never give up on that dream” and I told her I would never give up on that dream for her. Hannah’s motto was “Dream Big, Fight Hard and Never Give Up”. I have always tried to live by this and at the beginning of 2018 after a very tough year in 2017, I was awarded the Hannah Francis Award which was set up in her memory to be awarded to an inspirational young rider who did their best to live by Hannah’s motto even in the face of adversity. It was an honour and will always remain one of my proudest achievements in life. I will most definitely will be repeating Hannah’s motto to myself while training for and running the marathon. Please donate and help me raise as much money as possible for Bone Cancer Research to help seriously ill people like Hannah. I desperately hope she would be proud to see me tackle this and try to raise as much money as possible, just like she did.