Thank you

I read a report the other day. In it it said 4785 people were diagnosed with brain tumours in the UK. 3794 people died. That is a percentage of 79%. In 2012 this figure is unacceptable.

Harry Moseley, was 11 years old, and he was one of the 3794 that died. Of the 3794 that died 10% were children aged under 12.

I have lost 2 grandparents to cancer, a friend to cancer and whilst I didn’t personally know Harry I ‘lost’ him to cancer too. 1550 children under the age of 12 will get told they have terminal cancer. To put it another way – the primary school I went to and the primary school you went to equals half the number of children who died from cancer last year. The problem we have is that we accept these stats. We accept that children under the age of 12 are dying. We accept that cancer kills children. We accept it because we do nothing to help fight it, beat it, kill it. We know it’s going on but we don’t do anything. However those that read this blog post, those who are thinking ‘hang on this is unfair’ are right – it is unfair. Because every single one of you has stood up and done something. Every single one of you has given time, given money, given support and said ‘you know what I want to do something’. Every single one of you has helped my friends and I raise £10,250.

We raised this last week and are incredibly proud that we have achieved our figure of £10,000. People say to me that donating money is not the hard bit and what my friends and I are doing is the hard bit. That’s bullshit. You should be given so much credit. From all over the world you have sponsored us, given us your time, given us your support, sent texts, made calls, and helped us. All we do is run. We run because we have inspiration – inspiration from a child that showed me that I wanted to do something to change the stats. To change lives. But if you didn’t donate. If you didn’t spread the word about Harry, his charity, his bracelets, his story – then my friends and I are just 7 idiots running in Pyjama bottoms.

I desperately want to change the stats. I want to do that more than I have wanted to do anything my whole life and you guys are making that happen. I promise that I will keep running if you keep sponsoring, keep spreading the word about this amazing boy and if you keep standing up and saying ‘this is unacceptable’.

When I decided to run I wanted to raise £10,000 but I had very little confidence that I’d make it. But then I underestimated people and how great they can be. £10,000 – that’s a lot of money and that’s all your doing, not ours. From all of us we owe you a big thank you. Stats are there to be changed you just need to want to change them. With more friends like you cancer doesn’t stand a chance.

We have 8 runs remaining, my foot is fractured at the moment but will be ok in a few weeks and then we will finish our runs which include two marathons. We’ve raised £10,000 together, let’s see how much more we can raise. We’ve run 350 miles let’s see how much further we can run. Who knows, we may have saved a childs life, let’s see, together, how many more we can save.

Steve

www.justgiving.com/steven-whyley

An unlucky break...

My friends and I have now run 350 miles of the London Underground. We've run the entire Bakerloo, Waterloo & City, Hammsersmith & City, District, Northern, Circle and Central lines. We've almost finished the Piccadilly and Jubilee lines. We only have the Victoria and Metropolitan lines left to begin. We have 100 miles left to run. We've raised £9450 and only have £550 to go before we reach our target.

I have run all 350 miles and have run 18 half marathons, five 18+ mile runs and a marathon. For the last 6 weeks I have been running in a lot of pain in my right foot and unfortunately this morning it was confirmed that I have sustained a stress fracture to my foot and that I have to have 6 weeks complete rest otherwise the fracture of my metatarsel will turn in to a break. Needless to say I am pretty devastated.

No matter what the weather or how I felt I have run and I have run because I really, really wanted to make a difference to Harry Moseley's charity. The only way I knew how to do that was by coming up with a stupid challenge, a challenge that caught people's imagination, and then hope that off the back off this people would donate and money could be raised for Harry's wonderful charity. Amazingly people have donated. Donated an awful lot of money. We've had over 300 donations. Some people have donated more than once. Some have donated more than twice. One person, who I have never met, has donated 8 times. He lives in India and not only has he donated but he has bought bracelets made by Harry, shared Harry's story with friends and family and he has even run part of his rail network to raise money for Harry. He is not an isolated case - people have been amazing. They've donated £100s and £100s of pounds and for that I am so grateful and I guess that is the reason I feel so guilty - I said I'd finish by May and I now can't but I promise that I will finish.

I have ran past awful, awful areas! Dagenham, Neseden, Becontree, Upney, Woodford. The list goes on and on. I've done it in PJ bottoms, often at night, but I've run with friends and every step of the way my dad has been there - this has made this whole process doable. Without these people I'd not of completed 1 line let alone approaching 9.

When I pitched this idea to my mates I'd never done any running. I was unfit but I was inspired by an incredible young boy. A young boy who didn't give up and wanted to raise as much money as he possibly could. The last 6 weeks I've been running in real pain as my mates and dad would testify to. The last 3 runs there have been tears in my eyes such was the pain. Today confirmed what I already knew to be honest. But this is in no way the end of the running. I said, we said, that we would run the tube to raise money for Help Harry Help Others and we will. I have to rest my foot for 6 weeks but the minute that is up I will be back and I will be running back through the grim areas! I will be running with my friends and I will be running to raise money to try and do my little bit to help children with brain cancer. I tried my best to run and to run through the pain but I am afraid my body has given up. I am hoping you'll all continue to amaze me and to keep supporting us even though we will be finishing the challenge a little later than planned.

We'll still be putting on events and you can still sponsor us. Thank you for all your kind words and I promise that we'll finish it. Our new aim is to finish 6 weeks later - so around the middle of July. If any of you plan on doing something like this in the future I would suggest to train for it, to eat properly and to buy proper running shoes! All these things I have not really done and unfortuantely it has come to bite me on the ****. Still, we've raised £9450 and run 350 miles...not bad for some idiots in PJ bottoms.

thanks

Steve

www.justgiving.com/steven-whyley

Look how far we have run..

These two picture show how far we have currently run compared to how far we need to run. The picture with the blue bar is how far we've currently run.

We have completed the Waterloo and City Line, The Hammersmith and City line, the Bakerloo line, the District line, the Circle line, the Northern line. 53 miles of the Central line, 54 miles of the Piccadilly line.

We have the DLR, the Victoria and the Metropolitan to begin and we have 1 run left on the Central and 1 run left on the Piccadilly.

We've now run over 300 miles. I have been doing this since October but due to a knee injury I have only actually run for 4 months.

I have 12 runs left including a marathon. I have around 150 miles to go. I have just over 6 weeks to complete it. I have never done something this difficult nor have I ever felt this much pain. We have £600 left to raise.

Help us.

www.justgiving.com/steven-whyley