running4charity.com » Your Stories

Kerry Burton: Triple Negative Diagnosis

peterhier — Tue, 22 Jun 2010 08:43:19 +0000

Breakthrough Breast Cancer is a pioneering charity dedicated to removing the fear of breast cancer for good, through research, campaigning and education.

Because early diagnosis is key to survival, our education and health information raises awareness of the signs and symptoms of breast cancer, making sure that women get that vital head start.

Our campaigning work has opened doors in parliament, allowing us to directly influence politicians and policy makers to improve treatment and care for people with breast cancer.

Kerry Burton: Taking the positives from a triple negative diagnosis.

Kerry joined the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Running Team in October 2009 when she bravely signed up for the 2010 Virgin London Marathon. Her inspiration was her recent fight with breast cancer. Kerry says “I took part in the Great North Run in September 2008, 2 days after having a mammogram and biopsy. I was diagnosed with breast cancer 4 days after the run. Taking part in the London Marathon in 2010 took me full circle and helped me to confirm that I’m back again – and maybe a new improved model too!

Sadly, Kerry was diagnosed with triple negative breast cancer in October 2008. She had a mastectomy and reconstruction in the December, followed by months of chemotherapy and radiotherapy throughout 2009 – at the end of her treatment she decided to run the marathon!

Kerry finished the marathon in X hours and X minutes and says of her experience: “My aim was just to get round the course and to raise as much money as possible for a great charity. It’s been great to have something so big to focus on – and getting out in the fresh air during my training was brilliant.

I wanted to support Breakthrough because they are a major player in developing new drugs. Someone before me ran a marathon and raised money to get my treatment to where it was. I’ve got a daughter: so who knows what the future holds for her and her friends. It’s great to know that my fundraising efforts will go towards helping their generation. I just wanted to give something back.”

Happily Kerry is now in remission and looking forward to taking part in the Virgin London Marathon again in 2011, reaching her personal best and raising even more for Breakthrough Breast Cancer’s lifesaving research, campaigning and education work.

There are so many negatives attached to cancer, but I have taken so many positives from the whole experience. I know that all that positivity – and the thought of my wonderful family – is the thing that got me around the course”. Kerry Burton

To find out how you can join Kerry and run for breakthrough Breast Cancer in one of our many events visit http://breakthrough.org.uk/running_club/

Lucy and Christopher Clubbe go the extra mile!

peterhier — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 08:18:09 +0000

Lucy and Christopher Clubbe go the extra mile for Thames Hospicecare.

Lucy and Christopher Clubbe have raised an astounding, £10,483.72 plus gift aid for Thames Hospicecare. Lucy and her family experienced first-hand how invaluable the care and support from Thames Hospicecare could be, during the last two weeks of her mum’s battle with breast cancer in April 2009. This fantastic total was raised through both kind donations made in Peni Clubbe’s memory, along with the money raised in sponsorship from Lucy, Christopher, Lucy’s brother-in-law Tom Berry, her boyfriend Gary Bailey and four other friends running in the Windsor Half Marathon in September 2009.
“We are passionate about providing the best possible care we can to people and families coping with life-limiting illnesses, but we couldn’t be there for them without the help of people like Lucy and Christopher. We are overwhelmed by their enthusiasm and determination in training and fundraising and cannot thank them enough for this tremendous amount of money raised for the Hospice”. Claire Sugg, Community & Events Fundraiser.

This money will enable us to provide 699 hours of specialist palliative care to local patients.

Heavenly Stars

peterhier — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:06:10 +0000

Heavenly Stars was started by my friend and her husband in memory of their son who died after surgery to remove a brainstem tumour, before which he had already endured tests and surgery for a condition called Pyloric Stenosis Baby Callum died at just four months old. Another friend of mine, who also runs the charity, lost her daughter Ellie to a rare genetic disorder at approx 18 months old.
Heavenly Stars was set up in loving memory of Callum and Ellie to help raise money to support families faced with the unthinkable task of caring for a life limited child (“life limited” means those children with a medical or genetic condition that significantly reduces their life expectency) either directly or through local children’s Hospices/Hospital Department. Reg. Charity no. 1127948, www.heavenlystars.org.
The race was the Great South Run, a 10 mile road race, on 25 October 2009. I managed to raise the magnificent sum of £600, which included £50 raised by Callum and Ellie’s elder siblings, and my son, by running a cake stall at their primary school.
I was surprised (and slightly embarassed) to be called to school assembly a couple of weeks later to be presented with a bouquet of flowers by the children to say well done! The Headteacher also asked me to talk to the children about the race. I tried to impart how we can help other people, and how they had helped by buying cakes at the cake staff. It didn’t matter how long I took to do the race, I just wanted to raise money to help.
I cannot imagine the unbearable thought at the loss of a child and believe we should all give something back to this world. The strength and positivity of my friends is not something I’m sure I could find.

Carol

Marathon Woman

peterhier — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 12:05:10 +0000

In May this year, I will be attempting to run 10 marathons in 10 days around Lake Windermere for the Brathay Trust, joined on Day 10 by 1,000 other runners in the Windermere marathon. 15 of us will be running the event which follows an official measured marathon course of 26.2 miles from Ambleside, through the stunning scenery of the Lake District past Hawkshead, Newby Bridge, Bowness and Windermere, keeping the UK’s largest lake on our left and some of its finest hills on our right. Only 27 people have completed the challenge before, and I will be the youngest female at 28 to make the attempt. It certainly isn’t a sport just for those male greyhounds in split shorts you see at the local running club – Sir Christopher Ball who founded the event in 2004 was 70 when he ran it, and runners’ ages this year range from 24 to 54.

I’m running the event to raise funds for the Brathay Trust. Brathay is based near Ambleside in the Lake District and works with young people across the UK. It especially aims to develop those who are at risk of falling out of mainstream society and becoming part of the problem commonly described as antisocial behaviour. By raising their aspirations and developing positive attitudes and behaviours, the young people they help are enabled to move onto successful education, training and employment. Brathay’s work develops successful, confident and responsible young people who are empowered to make a positive contribution to society.

When people hear what I’m planning to do, most think I’m mad, with only a few agreeing with me that it’s an exciting new challenge. It tends to be the runners who can appreciate just how hard 10 marathons in 10 days is going to be, especially if you’ve suffered the pain that comes in the days after your first marathon. There were a few reasons I decided to apply for selection to the 10 in 10: after about a dozen marathons, my recovery had improved to cope with doubles pretty comfortably, that is, two marathons on consecutive days. Realising you can get out of bed the morning after a marathon and go out for another was a big leap – sure, the first few miles are stiff and sore but gradually you loosen up and the endorphins kick in and you feel like you’re invincible. I wanted to see how far I could push myself and my recovery and this seemed like an appropriate next step.

Most people, when they’ve mastered the marathon distance, graduate to ultras. I’ve run a handful of shorter ultras up to 40 miles, but they are mostly on trail in the UK and I’m very much a road runner. I like the feeling of smooth firm tarmac under your feet, the way you can get into a rhythm of your legs turning over and over and over, the ground almost feeling like it’s rolling beneath your feet. On trail, I’m reduced to a shuffling old lady, so aware of where every footstep is planted that the seconds become minutes and the minutes become hours and I’m testing my mental endurance more than my physical reserves. I run because I like to run, so 10 marathons in 10 days, on a UKA recognised, measured road marathon course, is the perfect opportunity to test how far my body will go.

I’ve never had a running background, doing as little PE at school as I could get away with. I entered my first marathon, Paris 2003, only when I could manage 20 minutes on the treadmill in one go 6 months before the event, and I really didn’t appreciate how hard it was going to be. It was 4 years before I ran my next marathon and that was because I’d finally got a place in London 2007 and had always wanted to have run it. That’s “have run it”, not actually run it! I finished London in 6 meagre seconds over 5 hours so of course I had to beat that, and I did, smashing my PB by 40 minutes in October that year.

Naomi Prasad