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I'm taking part in The Big Marsden Trek
I’m supporting The Royal Marsden, a world-leading cancer centre. By donating to my page, their nurses, doctors, and research teams can provide the very best care and develop life-saving treatments. Together, we can save the lives of cancer patients everywhere. Please support me today.My Achievements
Received First Donation
Added Blog Post
Has Created Team Page
Self Donated
Reached Fitness Target
Uploaded Profile Pic
Has Shared Fundraising Page
Received 10 Donations
Received 5 Donations
Reached 50% of Fundraising Target
Reached Goal
My Updates
Our story so far...
Thursday 13th AugIn June 2022, while pregnant with my second child at 35, I was diagnosed with angiosarcoma, which generally ranks highly in the "cancers you'd rather not have" category.
At the time, my daughter was 18 months old and my son was days away from his (slightly early) arrival.
Like most people, I'd never heard of angiosarcoma. I'd initially been told the lump was probably pregnancy-related, but because it’s so rare I was referred to The Royal Marsden for specialist expertise and confirmation of the diagnosis, as everyone was a bit perplexed (“are you SURE you’ve never had radiotherapy???!”). Since then, I've had quite a few more recurrences and surgeries than originally envisaged, radiotherapy and more scans/biopsies/etc than I can remember. Each time we've got rid of it, the cancer has unfortunately shown an annoying tendency to pop up again or reappear somewhere else.
Throughout all of that, The Royal Marsden has been brilliant. They are one of the leading centres in the world for sarcoma treatment, and I've always had confidence that I'm getting the best care available. They've repeatedly picked up sneaky recurrences, and somehow managed to remain reassuring without ever being patronising. My surgeon is apparently enough of a celebrity to have appeared on Channel 4's Super Surgeons. The Royal Marsden is where Princess Kate was treated. I get heated blankets after surgery. It’s in Chelsea. I prefer to think this means I have access to a kind of exceptionally posh cancer-related spa.
My children are now five-and-a-half and four. A lot of what has happened over the last few years has been fairly rubbish, but thanks to the care I've received I've been able to carry on making memories with them, which is more important to me than pretty much anything.
I'm currently NED (no evidence of disease) and, having made fairly extensive use of The Royal Marsden's services over the past four years (with more of the same expected), I feel it is only fair that I attempt to contribute something back. My chosen contribution is to walk a long distance – with almost no training and pretty abysmal fitness levels - and persuade other people to give money. I will therefore be dragging myself over 26.2 punishing miles of the Surrey countryside on 13 Sep in an attempt to do something helpful. If you'd like to sponsor me, I'd be hugely grateful. Share
Thank you to my Sponsors
£100
Caroline Sargeant
£100
Vicki Buckingham
Great initiative. I hope you have some good blister patches and a chilled glass of your favourite tipple lined up for the finish line.
£100
Anonymous
£100
Mum
Another reason to be proud of you my brave Claire ❤️ Or did you just need a new t shirt? 😊
£75
Henry Volans
£50
Emma Bates
Love from all of us xx
£50
Carol And Dave
Good luck with the walk Claire.
£50
Elizabeth Frain
Good luck and so proud of you! Hope they’ll be plenty of pints waiting for you at the end
£50
Aunty Kathryn And Uncle Les
Best of luck with your trek Claire, sure you'll do it! Lots of love xx
£50
June Coleman
Good luck Clare! Lots of love ❤️xx
£50
Jen Horton
£50
Claire Jones
£50
Hope Beresford
Good luck!! I hear there's a few decent pubs in Surrey if you get lost along the way...
£35
Matt Morris
Glad you're doing ok at the moment. Good luck with the marathon distance!
£35
Eleanor Johnson
Wishing you all the best Claire, all my love xxxxx
£35
Luke T
£25
Dan Edwards
Enjoy the yomp!
£20
Katherine W
I didn’t think anything was more fire than your Teams chat game but apparently there is - fighting cancer while raising 2 small children. Blows my mind. Lots of love and solidarity xxx
£20
Nick Monkhouse
Good luck Claire!
£20
Anonymous
£20
Lorel Scriven
Good luck!! I think you are amazingly impressive, not just for this but also the way you handle everything generally and manage everything!!
£20
Michael Howard
Best of luck Claire!
£20
Bradley Willis
Proud of you for doing this, shows real resilience. You got this!
£20
C
Here's to you, your children and anyone who walks down the same path Claire - thank you.
£20
Anonymous
£20
Danielle De Feo
£10
Anonymous
£10
Charlotte O'connor
£10
Robbie Fay
All the best Claire :)
£10
Warren
Hi Claire, I am so sorry to hear about your condition and please G-d just wish you and your family the very best! Wishing you lots of love, Warren
£10
Sadie Cole
Best of luck with the challenge, Claire! Your resilience and strength is very inspiring x
£10
Emily Jayne Peters
£10
Emma
Wishing you the very best for the trek, Claire! An inspiring cause and a very worthy challenge. Good luck!!
£10
Leon
£10
Liza Pacarada
DSIT women's network
£10
Hannah
£5
Katie O'neill
£5
Anonymous
£5
Don’t forget to have a couple of pints at the end :D