Karen takes up Cancer Research UK running challenge

Karen Cancer Research Uk Close UpKaren Cancer Research Uk Close Up

Our Digital Marketing Executive, Karen Uppal, is taking part in Cancer Research UK’s Run 56 Miles Challenge this month.

The challenge can be undertaken in any way you want to as long as you complete 56 miles by the end of February. However, Karen is doing it steadily by running – with just a little bit of walking – two miles each day around the village she lives in, Inkberrow. By day seven she had completed 18.4 miles.

Karen decided to sign up to the challenge following the recent death of her step-sister, Pollyanna West, who was in her early 40s and Karen is running in her memory. She had been battling with cancer for three years having initially been diagnosed with bowel cancer. Unfortunately, this was a late diagnosis and the cancer spread despite operations and chemotherapy treatment. Karen was also looking for a goal to regain her fitness this year.

She 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 channelling its research into cancer with the ambition that cancer survival rates will increase from the 2 in 4 of today to 3 in 4 patients surviving the disease by 2034.

Karen has worked in digital marketing and website development at Ecl-ips since January 2019. She enjoys writing blogs explaining the benefits of effective CCTV, access control and intruder alarms and keeping people up to date with our news on our social media platforms. If you want to help Karen raise money for Cancer Research UK this month you can visit her fundraising page at: https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/karens-run-56-giving-page-33