I'm doing 100 press ups every day in November for Cancer Research & The Fountain Centre.

In October 2023 my brother-in-law, Martyn O’Rourke, died of cancer. In January 2023, he first went to his doctor with some unexplained chest pain, the first sign there might be something amiss. Less than 10 months of bad news after bad news and he was taken from us.

Cancer is not like other diseases. Unlike viruses it cannot evolve to evade our treatments. We just have to find the right way to treat each and every type, and we will defeat cancer forever. It is just a matter of time, and money.

I'm going to be completing the 100 press-ups a day in November challenge to help raise money for Cancer Research UK in order to try and get us a little bit closer to that time. Cancer survival rates have doubled over the past 40 years. Consistent progress is being made but improvements to technology and ground-breaking work offer new opportunities to find different ways to prevent, diagnose and treat cancer and improve survival rates even further.

I’m also raising money equally for The Fountain Centre; a small independent cancer charity located within St Luke's Cancer Centre at the Royal Surrey Hospital. They run family rooms in the hospital which to provide support and a place of respite for the families of people unlucky enough to find themselves spending a lot of time there. As well as the rooms, they provide a great many vital services to families and patients in need, from financial planning to therapy.

I’ve already started my 100 press ups a day challenge. At the start I could barely do 20, so I have to break them down throughout the day. The first week was particularly hard as my muscles weren’t used to that sort of pain…in particular, I have learned in retrospect it’s best not to leave yourself with 60 press ups to do at 11pm! I have, however, kept it up, and I’m on track to complete over 3000 press ups in November (feel free to donate more if you want me to do more!).

Thanks for taking the time to visit my giving page. Please show your support and help fund life-saving research by donating to my page.