RUN4CANCER!

Families, children and famous faces

RUN4CANCER

On streets of London for a very special mile

There are plenty of reasons to go for a run.

But for hundreds of people pounding the streets around St James’s Park, this one meant rather more than beating a personal best.

Families and supporters of Children with Cancer UK joined the Vitality Westminster Mile in London on Saturday, 26 September, taking part in a dedicated charity wave during Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.

And they had quite the finishing line waiting for them.

The one-mile route began on The Mall, swept around St James’s Park and ended in front of Buckingham Palace.

Participants didn’t have to be seasoned runners, either. Children and adults were invited to run, jog or simply walk the course together — with no minimum age for those taking part in the Children with Cancer UK wave.

Broadcaster and DJ Adele Roberts, an ambassador for the charity, got the wave under way before joining the event herself.

She was among thousands who descended on central London for the wider Westminster Mile, with organisers reporting more than 8,000 finishers across the day’s different events.

But behind the medals, T-shirts and celebrations was a much more serious purpose.

Children with Cancer UK funds specialist research aimed at developing safer, kinder and more effective treatments for childhood cancers, while also providing practical and emotional support to children, young people and their families.

According to the charity, around 10 children and young people are diagnosed with cancer every day in the UK.

Research has helped transform the prospects for many of them, with around eight in ten young cancer patients now successfully treated.

But surviving cancer can come at a considerable cost.

Treatments designed to destroy the disease can also cause serious and sometimes lifelong side effects — which is why research into therapies developed specifically for growing bodies remains so important.

Every runner taking part in the charity’s Westminster Mile was therefore doing considerably more than travelling 1,760 yards through London.

They were helping fund research.

They were supporting families facing one of the most frightening diagnoses imaginable.

And they were helping make sure that children with cancer can look towards a brighter future.

One mile. Thousands of steps. And one very worthwhile reason to keep moving forward.