May 2025 F45 FINSBURY PARK TAKEOVER! 💪💙💖

F45’ers – welcome to my JustGiving page & THANK YOU for taking part in F45 Finsbury Park’s amazing fundraiser this month – whether that’s pulling an all-nighter at the studio, buying a t-shirt, entering the raffle or making a donation.

If you’re interested, you can find out more about CoppaFeel!, the Sahara desert trek & my story below 👇

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Hi 👋 for those who don’t know me, I’m Grace, I’m 31 & live in London with my husband Marcus, whom I married in September 2024. I am fundraising for CoppaFeel!, the charity that saved my life, by doing a 100km trek in the Sahara desert. More on that & my story below…

Four weeks before our wedding, in the midst of final preparations, I found a lump. Three weeks before what we were expecting to be the happiest day of our lives so far, I was diagnosed with Stage 1 Breast Cancer. The weeks that followed were surreal. We went from discussing seating plans to scheduling surgeries, and from thinking about cocktail choices to discussing fertility treatments.

We’ve worked so hard to stay positive, but the last 4 months has been a gruelling and painful process; a whirlwind of appointments, surgeries, injections & some Christmas Eve and NYE chemotherapy thrown in for a dose of festive fun. There is still a long way to go, and although my tumour was aggressive at Grade 3, my prognosis is good thanks to early detection.

I am young, have no family history of Breast Cancer and am otherwise fit and healthy - cancer does not discriminate which is why knowing your normal is so important for early detection & better chance of survival.

1 in 7 women are diagnosed with Breast Cancer, and it affects men too.

CoppaFeel!’s Breast Cancer awareness campaigns are the reason I was checking my chest regularly - the charity has quite simply saved my life.

I still have 4 months of chemo, radiotherapy, and the start of hormone treatment to go before I can think about remission, but I am so excited to have the opportunity to give back to CoppaFeel! & help spread the message to check your chest through their “CoppaTrek! with Gi” fundraising trek in the Sahara desert this year.

More about the trek…

🥾 It is a 5 day, 100km trek across sand dunes, valleys & gorges, culminating in a climb up Jebel Zereg, this means an average of 7 hours trekking a day! We have been warned that the challenge will test us physically, mentally and emotionally.

💊 My training starts now. A key challenge is, health permitting, maintaining my fitness throughout chemo so I can kickstart full training with a bang in the summer.

⛺️ Facilities will be limited; camping with no electricity, freezing night time temperatures & hot day time trekking temperatures.

More to come on fundraising events & plans in due course, but for the time being I’d be eternally grateful for 2 things:

1) Please sign up to CoppaFeel!’s free monthly text reminder to check your chest:

Www.coppafeel.org/get-a-reminder/sms-reminders/

2) If you’re able, any donation you can give would be so gratefully received & put to important use saving more lives through early detection.

As a cheeky boob related incentive, I’ll bake some personalised boob cupcakes for anyone who donates £50 or more or sets up a £10 monthly direct debit until the trek, and a whole boob cake if you make it £100 🧁🍈

Finally, if anyone has any UK hiking suggestions or would like to join me on training treks then I would love to have you join me! 🥾🥾🥾