Sadly, so many of us know someone who has been, or is, continually affected by cancer, I long for the day when a cure for all cancers is found. So I'm aiming to raise £100,000 for Cancer Research before my demise.

As many of you know, after five and a half years of being in remission from my original breast cancer diagnosis in 2016 (aged 33), and despite still receiving a plethora of ongoing preventative treatments from that point on, (that I was still having) in November 2021 I was devastated to be told that the cancer had returned in my liver and spine and is now stage 4 and incurable - yes, terminal. This was despite previous immediate mastectomy surgery, chemotherapy, radiotherapy, immunotherapy, targeted therapy, hormone therapy, bone strengthening infusions and continued exercise too. Nothing I could have done could have prevented this recurrence. It was stage 3 when originally found in 2016, so my odds were really against me from the beginning, despite my positivity.

So I then found myself aged 39 with a terminal illness, facing the realisation that unless a cure is found, I wouldn't live to see my then nine year old son grow up to become a young man and settle into adulthood and quite possibly not even into adolescence. And as you can well imagine, it is just utterly heart-breaking.

After having dared to dream that I was finally clear of the awful disease and had started to look forward to the future, I’ve instead been propelled back into the never-ending cycle of hospital appointments, procedures, injections, infusions, tablets, tests and scans and this time it’s indefinitely. So after another six months of gruelling IV chemo in 2022, I'm now on a palliative treatment plan – as all my treatment will now be. This is because stage 4, metastatic cancer (i.e. a cancer that has spread / reoccurred from its original primary source) is not currently curable and can only be managed to delay the inevitable progression.

So, in a bid to twist this sick turn of events into some sort of positive as best I could, I decided to focus on my fundraising and achieve my goal of raising £10,000 for cancer charities (£6,000 of which I had already raised over the years for Cancer Research, Macmillian, Marie Curie and The Elimination of Leukemia Fund. This was through a sponsored hair chop on my 21st Birthday, a Skydive in 2010, Malaysian charity run in 2016, the London Marathon in 2018 and various other runs and events over the years. Ironically, I even donated my long hair to a lady who made wigs for cancer patients in 2003 (before such charities existed) before then becoming bald through chemo myself years later!

So just before chemo for my secondary (incurable) diagnosis started on New Years Eve 2022, I decided to host a gala ball, dinner and auction in June 2022, aiming to raise £4,000 - well, thanks to the huge generosity of friends, family and auction gift donations, we in fact raised £10,162.80 with 102 tickets selling out in under three weeks!

So as a result of it's huge success, I've decided to host this ball annually. This is now my fourth ball and my fundraising total for Cancer Research is currently at just over £28,000 inc. gift aid. So I've a way to go, but am determinted with your kind support to help me reach my target for this incredible charity whilst I'm still alive to see it.

Tickets are £60pp and include;

Three course meal (Menu options will be emailed to you in due course)
High quality auction
Quality raffle
Music and dancing

Location: Wokefield Park, Reading

So if you are able to either buy a ticket to attend, donate because you can't attend, (https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/lucys-fundraising-page-2252) or donate an raffle or auction prize to help raise the total, I'd be immensely grateful for your kind support. All raffle and auction proceeds and 25% of all ticket sales will go to Cancer Research UK, the EventBright ticket platform takes a small percentage of ticket sales, with the rest of the ticket sales revenue going to the venue to pay for the event itself. So all proceeds go directly to Cancer Research UK.

I'm now aged 43 and having had a 'bad' scan in August last year that showed that the cancer has progressed to my hips and pelvis, my Oncologist has moved me to my 'line two' treatment. An ongoing three-weekly chemo, that is gruelling, but so far working to keep the cancer sleeping. But after a chemo-related hospital admission in Jan this year, another emergency admission in April, and several deferred chemo cycles (one just last week) due to my white blood count (immunity) being too low, it's not been a year of plain sailing. But on the plus side, I haven't yet lost my hair again!

So as I said before, the more money we raise, the more we’re supporting the invaluable research that could one day lead to a cure — let’s just continue to hope that it’s sooner rather than later. Because no child should face the prospect of losing a parent before they're even grown up themselves, as my poor boy now does.

Thank you for your support — it’s very much appreciated.

Lucy. x

N.B. The picture below is me receiving one of my many regular treatments - with a lot less hair, (and a fair bit of hairspray to tame the re-growth mullet!) but still focusing on enjoying the time I have left, despite everything.

Lucy's 2025 Charity Ball and Gala Dinner for Cancer Research