Rising Up Against Pancreatic Cancer
Lauren Davey, 22, from Essex, is on a fundraising mission to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer Action. Lauren will be scaling the O2 Arena at the end of the May, then she will be doing a skydive and to cap it all off will be attempting to climb Mount Snowdon next year.
Lauren is taking on these challenges to help people like her mum, who sadly, has just been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic cancer is the UK’s 5th biggest cancer killer. The survival rate is just 5% which is the lowest of any cancer.
Lauren describes when her mum, Wendy, first realised something was wrong, “She had constant indigestion and backache that would spread up to her shoulder blades and to her front.
She would have diarrhoea constantly, the pain would have her doubled over, she couldn’t stand up straight and would be vomiting every one to two hours.
She would be unable to touch where it would hurt as the pain was so explosive. When the pain got so bad to the point she could barely breathe that is when she knew she had to go to hospital to be checked over”.
To find out more about the symptoms of pancreatic cancer, click here.
Lauren says, “The more awareness I can get, the more people we will help get an early diagnosis, which is why I am doing these fundraisers, so that families can catch it earlier and have more of a chance of beating it.”
Pancreatic Cancer Action is committed to working towards earlier diagnosis of the disease so that surgery, currently the only cure, is made available to the sufferer. The charity fund research into early diagnosis, provide medical education programmes and launch awareness campaigns.
Ali Stunt, Founder and CEO of Pancreatic Cancer Action, said: “We are delighted that Lauren is giving her time to support Pancreatic Cancer Action in such great challenges.
We are very sorry to hear about Wendy, it is lovely that you are raising awareness of the disease to help people like your mum.
We rely solely on donations from the public and thanks to people like Lauren that we can continue our vital work. Please back her in her fundraising efforts so that we can continue research into early diagnosis and raise awareness of pancreatic cancer”.
You can sponsor Lauren on her JustGiving page