At 79, I am walking 10km of the Cotswold Way to raise money for Ellison’s Fund which funds research into Ewing’s Sarcoma treatment through the Bone Cancer Research Trust.

Ellison’s story:

My grandson, Ellison James Knightly Dawes, died on 3 Feb 2021 after battling Ewing’s Sarcoma, a rare form of bone cancer. He was diagnosed in April 2020 and fought with the utmost bravery through 9 months of aggressive cancer treatment.

I frequently look for the words to adequately describe those 9 months, and life now, but I can't. Physically, my stomach feels like a ball of concrete being twisted and twisted and I still feel overwhelming moments of dread that the world continues on without him in it. But Ellison never complained about his cancer, asking only once ‘why is this happening to me?’. He faced his illness not just bravely, but with patience and grace – even teaching me along the way that I needed to be kinder to the doctors and nurses, when I became frustrated that they weren’t curing him quickly enough.

During his last month, he read a story about a little boy whose sister was ill and an angel called Skellig cures her. Ellison asked his teacher, during one of his final zoom calls before he became too ill for school work, why an angel couldn’t come and save him.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is dedicated to saving lives & improving outcomes for people affected by primary bone cancer. Despite being small, they fund more research projects exploring primary bone cancer than any other organisation. Other large UK cancer research charities do not prioritise bone cancer patients, in 2019 just 0.028% of their research spend went to bone cancer – not even close to 1%!

Last year alone, Bone Cancer Research Trust committed an incredible £807,824 to pioneering bone cancer research - to save lives!