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29June7 year-old Ruby wanted to raise money for Secondary1st in honour of her Auntie Charlie. So she set up a stall selling homemade lemonade at 50p a cup…. and raised a fantastic £100.
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27MayAngela had decided to take part in the 2.6 Challenge which started on 26th April, the date planned for the London Marathon, to raise money for Secondary1st. She had been treated for breast cancer in 2009 and then diagnosed with secondary breast cancer at the end of 2019. She found her old cross-trainer and was determined to complete the full 26 miles on it however long it took. Little by little and day by day, she added to the total of miles she had achieved. Each day she felt able to go a little further and each day her arms and legs felt a little stronger. She completed her challenge and finished her 26 miles sooner than she had expected, to the congratulations of her socially-distanced family and friends.
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04May
Angela had been treated for breast cancer in 2007 but was diagnosed with secondary breast cancer at the end of 2019. She wanted to raise money for research into the disease and decided to take part in the 2.6 challenge for Secondary1st. She dug out her old cross-trainer and found that she could manage a few minutes at a time before becoming breathless. She remained determined to complete the full 26 miles in stages over many days and at the same time has raised a magnificent sum for Secondary1st.The following is an extract from Angela’s own blog:
I retired from teaching last summer, aged 65, had a fabulous U.S.A road trip in September (with many more holidays planned), to discover at Christmas that my breast cancer was back, BIG time!
Why? How? In 2007, I had a double mastectomy, chemotherapy, radiotherapy followed by 5 years of hormone therapy drugs. I used to laugh and say “At least I won’t die of breast cancer as I haven‘t any breasts!” The hospital discharged me. Naively, I thought my battle was won!
I put it down to ‘getting old’ the achy bones, the terrible tiredness and forgetfulness. It was a morning of vertigo combined with losing weight that prompted my G.P to request blood tests. Then to get the devastating news that my breast cancer had now spread to my spine, pelvis and brain and that it was NOT curable, shook my family to their knees, knowing that my life has been cut short.
I don’t want this to happen to others. Vital research is needed so there is early detection and diagnosis and also a better understanding of the treatment of secondary breast cancer. Great progress has been made, however, there is still a lot more to do. That is why I’m doing this challenge in the hope that my small effort can go towards a significant advancement into finding a cure.
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24AprilOn Sunday 26th April, the date planned for the 2020 London Marathon, there is the opportunity for everyone to take up the 2.6 Challenge. This is a nationwide event inviting people all over the UK to take part in an activity based around 2.6 or 26 while following the social distancing guidelines and at the same time donate or raise money for their favourite charity. As well as running, walking, cycling, skipping distances from 2.6 km to the full 26 km activities could include learning 26 words in a foreign language, listing 26 book titles recently read, drawing 26 rainbows, dancing to music for 26 minutes, baking 26 cupcakes, making a list of 26 plants or fruits or vegetables; alternatively people can do invent something different to do as long as they stay safe.
https://www.twopointsixchallenge.co.uk/
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03AprilAs Trustees of Secondary1st we want to send our very best wishes to all our supporters and fundraisers and assure everyone that Secondary1st is in a stable financial position. We will survive through the current situation and emerge ready to continue funding vital research into secondary breast cancer when life returns to normal.
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03AprilThe theatre company “Take Three Girls” toured Exmoor performing Alan Bennett’s “Her Big Chance” and publicising the work of the charity to raise money for Secondary1st in honour of the late Mary Richards. “Her Big Chance” is from the “Talking Heads” series of dramatic monologues and is the story of Lesley, an aspiring actress, who, after a series of unpromising extra roles in television programmes finds what she believes to be her big break in a new film, but all is not what it at first seems. The theatre tour raised a magnificent £701.70 for Secondary1st.
Photo from www.ninadodd.com
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03April
Michele planned to run a half-marathon and then a marathon this year after taking part in a 10k and a half-marathon in 2019 to raise money for Secondary1st. When both of this year’s events were postponed because of the Coronavirus she refused to sit back and managed to run a half-marathon around her garden in about 316 laps. She then went for a local 10k run on the day she should have been running in London, as the organisers had arranged a “Local Landmarks Challenge” with a special medal to encourage people to run locally.
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03AprilWhile everyone is encouraged to stay at home as much as possible and so many shops are closed more people are turning to on-line shopping. AmazonSmile makes no charge to the buyer, provides the same products at the same prices as Amazon and will donate 0.5% of the net purchase price (excluding VAT, returns and shipping fees) of eligible purchases to Secondary1st. It is an easy and cost-free way to give money to the charity.
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03AprilBefore the lockdown, Andrea’s sisters and best friend managed to add three more challenges to their 40for40 campaign in Andrea’s memory. These were the shoeathon, which involved wearing 40 pairs of shoes, a metafit class and a friend duathalon and they were held to raise money for Secondary1st and the Beatson Institute in Glasgow where Dr Seth Coffelt and his team are carrying out research into secondary breast cancer with funding from Secondary1st.
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17February
Researchers in the US have successfully conducted the first small-scale clinical trial to test a gene-editing treatment for cancer. They extracted t-cells, which are immune cells, from three cancer patients and edited their DNA with Crispr-Cas9, a powerful tool which works like molecular scissors to remove with great precision part of the cells’ genetic code and replaced it with new sections. These genetically engineered t-cells were then injected back into the patients. So far these cells have been able to attack tumours over a period of some months. Cancer cells multiply because they find ways to evade the immune system. Immunotherapy boosts the body’s natural defences and allows white blood cells to attack cancer cells.
This very small-scale trial shows that this particular technique of genetic engineering has been safe so far, but much more work is needed to make sure that it remains effective and is suitable for all cancer types.
