THANK YOU for taking the time to visit my fundraising page. Please read my story below.

WHY THE ROYAL MARSDEN CANCER CHARITY?

In March 23 I got the 'ALL CLEAR' after being diagnosed with stage 1 cervical cancer. All the amazing staff at both St George’s and the Royal Marsden hospitals saved my life.

The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity raises funding for state-of-the-art equipment and ground breaking research, as well as creating the very best patient environments to improve the lives of people affected by cancer.

MY PLEDGE:

F*CK CANCER!

Am I crazy to want to raise £1.7million?! No absolutely not. This will pay for one of the incredible life saving pieces of machinery, a robot, that was used during my operation to save my life.

I give myself until I'm 50, so 8 years to raise this amount, which works out at around £213,000 per year. No small task! Even if it takes the rest of my life, I’m committed to making £1.7million.

I believe that this will in part go towards thanking the incredible team of NHS staff that I had around me, from the 11 people in my surgery, to all the day and night staff at both hospitals. I will never know how to thank them enough.

As part of physical, mental and emotional recovery, and as the biggest challenge I have ever set myself: I pledge to do a range of fun and challenging activities over 8 years to raise £1.7million. These will include:

2023:

Snowdon Summit, June 3rd: https://snowdonia.gov.wales/visit/snowdon/climbing-snowdon/ COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

Battersea Park Half Marathon, September 16th: https://www.runthrough.co.uk/event/battersea-park-half-marathon-september-2023/ COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

Muddy Dog Challenge (the tough mudder for doggo’s!) Also raising money for another fab charity, Battersea dogs and cats home. September 17th: https://muddydog.battersea.org.uk/muddy-dog-challenge-windsor COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

Tough Mudder, September 24th: https://toughmudder.co.uk/events/london-south/ COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

2024:

15 miles Banham Marsden March, May 12th: https://march.royalmarsden.org/event/marsden-march/?gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiArrCvBhCNARIsAOkAGcXGTg5oy4DlqyGPmaWBbdX6UFwDYrJHYOyfNn6eikXlGP5k3bRmfW4aAqbNEALw_wcB COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

2025:

Run 40 miles in January: https://www.royalmarsden.org/support-us/fundraise/events/jog-40-miles-january COMPLETED (see photo in gallery)

il-Ġirja t’Għawdex 10k 2025 Xaghra, Malta, 27th April: https://www.rungozo.org/ilgirjatghawdex/10km-race

15 miles Banham Marsden March, May 11th: https://march.royalmarsden.org/event/marsden-march/?gad_source=1&gbraid=0AAAAACvrwDnGFTBPeUbp1R8kuziJ6Ht6_&gclid=CjwKCAiA-Oi7BhA1EiwA2rIu20C2ZBIkidR3XlPfQKiOSHHWnI7TjizUwX4BJ4a6VdlU8l0ofUEizxoCVGsQAvD_BwE

2025 Swim Serpentine: 2 miles, 20th September: https://www.londonmarathonevents.co.uk/swim-serpentine?

Bournemouth half marathon, 12th October: https://www.royalmarsden.org/support-us/fundraise/events/bournemouth-marathon

2025 onwards:

Triathlon

London marathon

Camino de Santiago Pilgrimage, France/Spain (a months hiking)

Sky dive

Bungee Jump

Walking on fire/coals

Marathon du medoc

CHALLENGE ME:

Would you like to challenge me to an activity? Let me know?!

JOIN ME:

If anyone fancies joining me on any of these adventures get in touch and we'll make it happen.

CONTACT ME:

Email: Millersadie@hotmail.co.uk

WhatsApp: 07791334786

I’ll keep this page up to date with what I’m doing as and when I confirm activities.

A massive THANK YOU to everyone who has been there for me during this strange time - family, friends, work, everyone involved with helping me at both hospitals, and Macmillan cancer.

MY STORY: PLEASE READ:

In Dec 2022 I had a call from my doctors surgery saying that I had received some 'abnormal' smear test results. The fear started flowing through me. 3 days later on Thursday 22nd Dec I was in St George's Hospital, Tooting having a LLETZ treatment. Something I found extremely intrusive, violating and emotional. I later found out that they removed a tumour within 17mm, by 19mm, by 29mm from my cervix.

What do you feel when you hear the word 'Cancer'? I'm still not entirely sure, even having experienced it myself. For me it was kind of numbing, no thoughts, no feelings, shock, anger, self pity, a total head f*ck. How do you deal with it?

I chose to go away on holiday against doctor's orders (very me!) Arguably the wrong decision, but I stand by it. Advice is to not go away until 3-4 weeks after the treatment (due to risk of infection and heavy blood loss) I went away within the 1st week! Whoops - not something I should be actively promoting.

I had the most amazing holiday in Vietnam, Thailand and Singapore. I’m very grateful that I did not suffer with any infection, or heavy blood loss. At this point I was thinking that if it was going to be the last fun thing I got to do, then I wanted to have an amazing time.

I'm very glad I made this decision, as there's no doubt that it prevented me from dwelling too much on waiting for the results from the Lletz. Possibly the most draining and difficult part of it all. From the Lletz onwards, and throughout the entire holiday I was having little cries with myself, I was feeling scared, and the fear inside was gradually building.

Whilst I was away I was not meant to be doing anything strenuous or sporty, including swimming, which is difficult when you go to this part of the world! However, I did adhere to this - just about! The way I had planned the holiday was that the more active things were towards the end.

2 days before the completion of the 3 week recommended 'recovery’ time, I went on the most amazing ethical Elephant experience in Chiang Mai. We got to feed, touch, walk and bath with these incredible animals. When I went into the muddy, natural river to bathe with the elephants, I waded in to just below my crotch area and was very conscious about the water going any higher than this! The risk is of infection in the area that the treatment was given.

The day after, I received an email from the lovely nurse, Amy who had done the Lletz treatment. I had an online teams chat with her, where she carefully told me about the removal of the tumour and essentially that I had been diagnosed with cancer.

It’s a lot to take in. Even now it's still a lot. I broke down crying and cried myself to sleep that night.

I will never forget this holiday. Thailand where I spent the majority of my time is a totally mind blowing place. The culture, the food, the scenery, the people, the endless temples…. I made new friends from all over the world. I felt so happy. It put me on a high to come back to the UK and deal with what happened next!

I went for a consultation at St George’s hospital where I was told by the surgeon that I’d been diagnosed with stage 1 cancer, I would require an MRI scan, and my options were to have either a hysterectomy or a trachelectomy.

Collapse. I spiralled into a bottomless pit of nothing. A rollercoaster. How could I make this decision? A decision about whether to have children or not, that even now, I have not made in my 41 years, was coming down to 2 weeks.

This entire process has been a total head f*ck!

A few days later I had a CT scan as I couldn’t deal with the MRI scan on top of everything else.

In the end I chose to have the trachelectomy, which means I now have no cervix! I wasn’t ready to make the yes/no decision yet, even though it’s highly unlikely at this point that I will have my own children.

A trachelectomy is a more complicated operation than the hysterectomy as they use a robot to do keyhole surgery to remove lymphnodes (to check if the cancer has spread - once it gets into the lymphnodes, this is when chemotherapy is required) and then go through the vagina to take away the cervix.

I went into the Royal Marsden hospital for 7am for my operation on the 10th February 23. When I was taken down to the operating theatre to be anaesthetised I was so impressed by the machinery in the room that I really wanted to have a look around. State of the art, as you can imagine!

Instead they gave me a child sized plug into my veins (apparently they’re hard to get into due to being small - unsurprisingly!) was then given 3 epidurals, which is scary in itself, and then the morphine that is about the last thing I remember.

I woke up and remember seeing 2 30pm at some point so at least a 5 hour surgery by Mr Inns, my amazing surgeon and his team of 11. I was on such a high from all the drugs as many of you will know from the messages I sent to you in the middle of the night!

I got sent home the day after the operation. Wow! I had a catheter for 3 weeks and 5 sets of stitches where the robot went in.

It’s amazing how quickly the body adapts and recovers. I had no pain or bad effects after my Lletz treatment, and virtually no pain or side effects during this process of recovery from the trachelectomy. Admittedly I am a young, fit and healthy person which likely accounts for my quick recovery, but I still do not take this for granted.

‘Lucky’ is not a word I would use in this situation, however, throughout the entire process I was told by all the nurses that my stats were ‘perfect’ which made me smile. And my heart is with those women who:

- do not get the option of a trachelectomy

- do require radiotherapy and/or chemotherapy after.

This has not ended yet. It’s changed me - it can’t not. It has physical, mental and emotional impact on an intense scale. It will be with me for the rest of my life.

Yet I have won. I am here, appreciating every day, every person in my life and every single thing that comes my way. I can’t wait for the 6 weeks recovery time to be completed, which actually coincides with my 42nd birthday, when I’ll be able to run, swim, do yoga and be generally more active again. Which makes me very happy!

As they say - ‘if your dreams don’t make people laugh, then they’re not big enough!’ So please help in any way you’re able to, towards me raising this £1.7million! I appreciate any and every contribution.

You will be helping to save people’s lives, like mine has been, as well as supporting our amazing NHS. The best thing we have in the UK.

F*CK CANCER!

PHOTO’S:

1. Me in the recovery unit the day after my operation. Believe it or not, they discharged me the day after!

2. A beautiful dawn in Battersea, London. I walked to the hospital the morning of my operation.

3. A swollen mid area with the five sets of stitches where the robot went in to take out lymphnodes. About 3-4 wks after the operation.

4. Only 1 week after my operation, at my brothers birthday!

5,6,7. Celebrating getting the all clear

8,9,10. Lovely flowers sent to me from family and work who have all been amazingly supportive and helped to keep me in a positive mindset. Particularly my beautiful mum who became my carer for a month.

11,12. Me with the elephants at the Elephant Freedom project. https://elephantfreedom.org/

13. My stitches 5 weeks into recovery! 2023

14. Snowdon summit 2023

15. Finishing Battersea park half marathon 2023

16. ‘Dave Growl’ muddy dog challenge team 2023

17. Sufficiently muddy evidence after completing Tough Mudder 2023

18. With the fam, having completed the 2024 Banham Marsden March

19. After one of my Jan2025 runs, during the Run 40 miles in January challenge