Project Overview

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Re: Cancer Research ride from Hants to Gibraltar, September 2010.
Aiming to raise £1M.

My name is Tim Frank. I am a 47-year old Hampshire GP (senior partner in a large practice in Eastleigh/Chandlers Ford). My wife, Marey died early this year from an aggressive, triple negative breast cancer. She would have been 46 on Easter Saturday.

Marey was unwell for only 18 months & we knew for the last 6 months that she was not going to survive. During that period I had been incubating a plan to raise a significant amount of money for Cancer Research UK once the inevitable happened; turning what is a devastating loss into something positive.

I have 2 teenage children, Amy 17 starting college & A-levels & Joel 15 doing his GCSEs, in year 11. They are accomplished swimmers, competing at a regional level.

Throughout her illness Marey & I had tremendous support from our many friends, the swimming club, my practice staff, partners & patients, as well as the children’s excellent state school, Thornden. In this area of Hampshire our family is well known & the tide of goodwill seems to offer a foundation to create a special project.

The project involves cycling from Winchester to Gibraltar via Portsmouth, through western France and the spine of Spain. My local hospitals in Winchester & Southampton are actively involved in cancer research & collaborate closely within the wider research network. We have been working on using the year-long training programme & 2-plus weeks event itself to study cancer markers & the effects of nutrition upon the participants, particularly as we change our eating patterns to suit the shift from Northern European fare towards the Mediterranean.

We now appreciate that nutrition is a key feature of cancer prevention & are particularly interested in involving a master chef, who can expand this concept. We aim to make an interesting programme educating palates & engaging the public in the health messages associated with lifestyle, exercise & fun, whilst appreciating the stunning scenery & useful medical science.

Additionally there is the personal aspect to the overall story regarding how ‘ordinary folk’ can turn adversity & grief into positivity & life. We believe that the whole offers a powerful media combination.

Of course, as a GP I have spent much of my professional life dealing with this sort of thing & its fall out; how different it is when it affects one personally. Being a doctor, I aim to prevent disease, as well as cure & outline a ‘road map’ to better lifestyle choices for those who seek advice. This project offers a much broader canvas upon which to draw out these themes. It offers hope, a key feature in cancer care, as I found out so dramatically over the past 18 months and a chance to fight back against a shocking set of diseases.

I would like you to help me to meet the aims of this project for my children & me as much as for future cancer sufferers. We three are already benefiting from looking forward with hope rather than backward with regret. Marey was a fantastic wife & mother; she would appreciate the sentiment that her death could become a catalyst to help so many others.

Dr Tim Frank
September 2009
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