Why I’m walking the SHINE night marathon

Greenwich resident Sinead Masterson explains why she is taking part in the SHINE night marathon this weekend.

My husband Tim and I have been living happily in Greenwich for 5 years, and we work nearby in Canary Wharf. In March this year, at the age of 40, I was diagnosed with stage 4 ovarian cancer.

I was shocked to be told I had a rare and very aggressive germ cell tumour, as I’d always been fit and healthy and had only recently started to feel unwell. I underwent surgery and very intensive chemotherapy from March until June which saved my life.

Thankfully I’m now in remission, but this experience has changed my lens on life. As a goal to help me get back my fitness and as a “thank-you” for my recovery, Tim and I are undertaking the SHINE night marathon in London in aid of Cancer Research on Sept 29th.

Completing the marathon is partly a goal for my recovery (since there were times during treatment when I couldn’t even walk the quarter-of-a-mile from our house to the train station, so being well enough to walk 26 miles will be a big achievement for me!), but it’s mostly because we’d like to give something back as a thank-you for my recovery and to help more people beat cancer in the future.

Overall this episode of my life has been an extremely positive and very humbling journey, and it’s given me a deep appreciation for my life and what is really important to me. I give my whole-hearted thanks to all the staff at the London Bridge Hospital and Guys Hospital for taking such great care of me.

Many other types of cancer do not yet have such high survival rates and unfortunately more than 1-in-3 of us will develop cancer at some point in our lives. A donation to Cancer Research will help to fund important scientific research and clinical trials for new drugs and treatments.

Please donate whatever you can – big or small – it’s an extremely worthy cause.

If you would like to sponsor Sinead, you can do so by visiting her JustGiving page.