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Mark Ellis

The Big Marsden Trek

Help me reach my goal of £500

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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.

Please Help Me
Reach My Goal

Raised

£500 + £105 GiftAid

My Goal

£500

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£35
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£75
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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

One month out ...

Thursday 13th Aug
First of all, thank you so much to everyone who has donated. I've reached my second target, and am now considering adding another £150 to the target. It's great to have such support. But not only have I received donations: one friend has said she will join me on the walk and is fund raising herself, which is absolutely brilliant !

In terms of preparation, I'm prioritising strength/hybrid classes at F45 (Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays) and trying to do at least 10 miles of zone two walking a week.  Zone two exercise is exercise which raises your heartbeat slightly but leaves you with the ability to talk normally. Doing this regularly raises your aerobic capacity, so that you can do more with less energy. Yesterday I walked 8 miles in Richmond Park at just under four miles an hour while occasionally reciting the Lord's Prayer to check I was keeping within the limits. I did occasionally get a bit breathy around the trespasses, so I probably was pushing it a bit. 

I've done two walks of 18 miles at this pace, along disused railway lines, so I'm fairly sure I can do 26 at a normal pace, but I do have to keep this training schedule up. Holidays and Friday night drinking can skew things quite badly ... 

Please share my fundraising page if you haven't already, and we'll see if we can't reach that new target ....

Launch

Sunday 12th Jul
One and a half years ago I finished my treatment at the Royal Marsden, Sutton, and my 6th three monthly check up a couple of weeks ago showed I'm still NED: No Evidence of Disease, or 'in remission' as they used to call it. Every day for five weeks apart from weekends I travelled the half an hour journey with my husband and Radio 3 Unwind to be met by the most consistently kind and caring team of people in any part of the NHS I've ever met. I am deeply indebted to them.
I'm also considerably grateful to F45 for a) making me fit enough to face the treatment without too much trouble beforehand and b) getting me fit again afterwards. Combined with my AI coach (courtesy of Googlefit) who regularly tells me how amazing I am (this is obviously what I am paying it for), I feel I'm up for the challenge of this walk. As the walk ends at the very hospital that treated me, it seems appropriate.
My cancer came out of nowhere, I had always been quietly confident that it won't happen to me, and I was exceptionally lucky to have a type of cancer which has a treatment with a routine 80% success rate. Not everyone is so lucky. It's particularly for those people that I want to be able to contribute to the work that the Marsden do.

Thank you to my Sponsors

£75

Seamus

£50

Trish & Chris

£50

Márcio Barcala

£35

Hilary Cross

Good luck Mark!

£35

Mary Guthrie

£30

Jane Read

£25

David & Stu

£20

Geraldine Griffiths

What a great thing to be doing! Wishing you all the best, it's such a great cause. xxx love, Geraldine

£20

Mark Ellis

£20

Gill Higgins

All the best with your Trek Mark, such a great charity.

£20

Glau Minei

❤️

£20

Elle Zacharegka-laughland

All the best, Mark! You will smash it! xx

£20

Jenni

All the best, I have every faith you can do it!

£20

Wendy Piercy

All the best Mark. You’ve put the hard working in, so enjoy it.

£20

Guy Shennan

Go, Mark!

£20

Anonymous

£10

Karen Orempüller

Congratulations 🎉 I am so happy to hear all is well with you. Well done Royal Marsden 🙌🏻

£10

Colette West