Fundraising Family – meet Kirsty & Fin
The coronavirus pandemic has been a difficult time for many people, we’ve all missed ‘normal’ life but for many the opportunity to exercise more frequently has been wonderful for both body and mind. Supporter Kirsty and her son Fin, used the opportunity to set themselves a ‘lockdown’ marathon challenge whilst raising funds for Scannappeal.
“I am running a marathon over seven days for Scannappeal because their scanners have saved my life twice!” was the headline message used by Kirsty on her Just Giving page. In December 2019, eleven years after Kirsty’s first diagnosis of breast cancer, she had a mastectomy and reconstruction when cancer returned to the same breast. Kirsty is passionate about the support Scannappeal gives to local hospitals and wants to share her story to ensure as many people as possible understand the importance of our work at hospitals in Bucks.
“Without the scanning equipment provided by Scannappeal at Wycombe and Stoke Mandeville Hospitals, the Breast Cancer Team would not have picked my cancer up so quickly, and been able to provide the various scans needed so promptly that I was able to have surgery within three months of me finding the tumour. Scannappeal’s equipment has also helped to diagnose several of my friends, some of whom are out the other side of treatment, some of whom are still enduring both the treatment and the uncertainty and are dependent on regular scans, and one who has died, but was bought extra time through diagnosis and treatment”.
Kirsty ran 6k every day for a week to reach full marathon distance and was keen to pass ‘the baton’ on to another runner in order to keep the fundraising marathon going, which is when Kirsty’s son 15 year old Fin, stepped forward keen to do his bit to support his Mum “football is cancelled, school is cancelled, PE is cancelled and Mum felt I needed something to get me exercising. I have astonished everyone (my parents especially) by getting up at 6.30am two days and running 6km each day. I am doing the Marathon In A Week challenge because I love my mother very much. I think I would probably have missed her a lot if Scannappeal hadn’t equipped Bucks NHS Trust so well that they picked up her cancer super-quickly and got rid of it – twice. Admittedly, the first time around, I hardly knew what was going on, but this time was a bit scarier because I was so much older and wiser”. Fin went on to complete the challenge, even donating a month’s pocket money to sponsor himself!
Kirsty, who works as Marketing Manager for Florence Nightingale Hospice Charity, recognises only too well how small charities are struggling right now “ Right now, Scannappeal are not able to raise much money at all, and the Bucks MRI Appeal has stalled. When the hospitals open up and patients return to the screening programmes, the demand for scanning equipment will be greater than ever, and the funding for it will be crucial to the saving of lives in Buckinghamshire. It’s not just cancer screening and scans that their equipment provides. Anyone who has had knee, ankle or hip problems, back problems, kidney or liver problems, gallstones…the list goes on and on…will also have benefited from Scannappeal’s work”.
We are thrilled Kirsty and Fin have jointly raised close to £800 and together have shared a wonderful story of the impact our fundraising has on families throughout Bucks – thank you guys and we hope to see you soon!