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This morning, I brought everything I would need for the day downstairs after getting dressed, so I don’t need to excruciate myself by going up again. The pain continues to be beyond painful, but a sleeping tablet last night means I’ve had eight hours of relief from it.
Seems like a good day to tell you about Race for Life, organised by Cancer Research UK.
Race for Life is a series of events up and down the UK where women can walk, jog or run 5km and get sponsored for it, in order to raise money for research into cancer.
On Sunday 19th July, my daughter Joy and I will be taking part in Race for Life in Hyde Park in London at 11am.
We’d love it if you could join us, or take part in Race for Life at a different location. It costs £12.99 to enter, plus some fundraising. (If you don’t fancy setting up your own fundraising page, I can add you to ours – just email me.)
If you’re male, don’t feel left out – you can volunteer to help. (I’m guessing this will mean standing in a park watching lots of ladies run past. Maybe not a bad use of a morning.)
And whoever you are, you can sponsor us. Please! We’d like to raise £500 – and if the emotional and practical support I’ve been offered via this blog is any indication, we’ll raise that without a problem. Just click here to donate. It’s easy and it’s safe.
Right now, my covering 5km feels absolutely impossible, unless the 5km starts at the top of a very big hill and I can slide down on my backside. So this entry is an act of faith and hope: by 19 July I will be 3 months clear of chemotherapy and, if not fighting fit, at least comfortable able to cover 5km. As I write I have a vision in my head, of Joy and I at the centre of some of the old and new friends who have supported us through this dance with breast cancer, running through Hyde Park in the glorious summer sunshine. (OK, that last part is a bit far fetched. How about ‘running through Hyde Park while a rather feeble, watery sun attempts to penetrate the greyness’?)
So! Please either:
- Join us in Hyde Park on 19 July
- Take part in another event
- Volunteer to support the event in another way
- Sponsor us here
I’ll keep you posted on progress here on the blog….
Thank you for supporting us and for helping us to make sure that our daughters don’t need to dance this wretched, tiresome, exhausting dance.
Hi Stephanie, I have been sorry to read that your latest dance has been more of a pavane than a tango. I hope your improvement in the past 24 hours continues.
I am indeed doing the Race for Life (Bakewell not Hyde Park) and will be thinking of you. This has reminded me that I must email all my friends to get them to sponsor me! I was startled when I first saw your email because my race is in May, which I thought might be a touch close to your last chemotherapy, even for you, but I see yours is in July, so I am sure you will enjoy it.
Have you done it before? I did it in 2007 (long before my “dance” began – except of course that maybe the cancer was already there… what a strange thought) and found it was a very friendly and enjoyable event, although I hadn’t in my training regimen prepared myself for having to race while crying (from reading other people’s backs).
Anyway, you are more than half way though the chemo – I hope it is downhill from here. Thinking of you.