I read a report the
other day. In it it said 4785 people were diagnosed with brain tumours in the UK
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
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