A DIGITAL marketing executive at Bromsgrove-based security specialist Ecl-ips is taking up a challenge to run 56 miles this month to raise funds for Cancer Research UK.
Karen Uppal is undertaking the task which can be completed any way, as long as the target distance is fulfilled by the end of February.
Karen planned to run – and sometimes walk – at least two miles per day around Inkberrow where she lives and by day seven had already notched up 47miles by yesterday and had £1,100 pledged.
Karen decided to sign up to the challenge in memory of her step-sister, Pollyanna West – she died recently and was only in her early 40s.
Pollyanna had been battling cancer for three years after been diagnosed with bowel cancer.
Unfortunately, despite operations and chemotherapy treatment, Polyanna’s diagnosis had been caught too late.
Karen, who was also looking for a goal to regain her fitness this year, said: “My step-sister was incredibly brave enduring challenging chemotherapy and even when they decided this treatment was no longer effective last year she was researching and volunteering for medical trials to try and prolong her life and help others.
“You do not want what she went through to happen to other people, and obviously the more we know about cancer diagnosis and treatment, the more we can stop that.”
Cancer Research UK is channeling its research into cancer with the ambition that cancer survival rates will increase from the two in four of today to three in four patients surviving the disease by 2034.
Karen has worked in digital marketing and website development at Ecl-ips since January 2019.
Visit fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/karens-run-56-giving-page-33 for more information and to donate to her cause.
