St Neots man Iain Holiday, is taking on a gruelling cycling challenge where he will cycle for five days, and cover five hundred miles, in a bid to raise money for a cancer charity, in memory of his fiancé Helen.
Iain, aged 28, from Howitts Gardens, in Eynesbury, will cycle 500 miles up the UK three peaks to raise money for cancer research UK.
Iain, a project manager, decided to raise money and awareness for the charity after his fiancé, Helen West, was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2017 at the age of 25. Helen died aged 27 six weeks ago, and Mr Holiday is now to take on the challenge to remember her and raise awareness for the disease.
In 2017, Iain ran four marathons in four weeks and raised thousands for the charity and now is set to embark on his second gruelling challenge.
Iain said: “After a long road of chemotherapy, operations and recovery I set myself a challenge to raise money for Cancer Research UK, in which I ran 4 marathons in 4 weeks raising a total of £7,000 for fighting cancer. In doing so nearly broke me.
“During the treatment and on-going tests Helen was diagnosed as a BRCa carrier which means she carries the Cancer Gene. While this is not the news you would want to receive, it meant checks were done throughout the family. In doing so, it was discovered that her Mum, Sister, Uncle, and 2 Cousins have it (who both have kids). This opens up the possibility that they can act and provide preventative treatments.
“At the end of October, we received the bad news again that the cancer had returned and spread. Helen, now my fiancé was diagnosed terminal with cancer of the Brain, Lung, Liver and Bone. She sadly passed away on January 20th two days after my birthday, and we never got the chance to get married. At the same time Helens mum condition worsened, and after being 10 years free of cancer, she is now becoming subject to the same fate with liver, pancreatic, lung, lymph node and back cancer.
“In an effort to break myself again, raise money for a good cause and raise awareness to the 5 gynaecological cancers ,which there are globally around one million new cases per year, which cause nearly 500,000 women deaths each year. I will be undertaking the pedal the peaks challenge this July.”
To sponsor Iain visit: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/helenwest
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