The Lady Garden 2021 Challenge

Fran's Walking 100km for Lady Garden

£120

108 km

I'm taking part in the Lady Garden 2022 Challenge, which is a month long virtual challenge to walk/hike/run/crawl 100k. It begins on April 14th..

In 2015, one of my dearest friends lost her mother to ovarian cancer. The diagnosis came too late as it often does with the ‘silent killers’ like gynaecological cancers. The symptoms are often dismissed as IBS, endometriosis, menopause… and so on. Many of the symptoms are ‘too embarrassing’ to talk to a doctor about. And this charity is working to change that.

Kirsty decided to do this challenge to raise money and awareness and a couple of us are supporting her by doing it too as part of the ‘pink bubbles’ team. Julie was an incredible woman, full of fun, so generous and kind, and such a loving Mother and Grandmother. I count myself very lucky to have known her.

You can read about the story behind why we’re doing this here: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/kirsty-pascall2

Or I’ve swiped this from Kirsty’s page as it highlights the importance of this….

“Lives shouldn't be cut short. We need to keep the conversation going. We should not accept that women are dismissed more by doctors. Women are more likely to be given a mental diagnosis when they arrive in pain. PMS pain and post birth pain are dismissed as 'normal.' Women are less likely to be taken seriously in A&E, more likely to have heart attacks misdiagnosed as 'anxiety' issues. Its all in our heads...

Even when in comes to funding:

There is five times more research into erectile dysfunction, which affects 19% of men, than into premenstrual syndrome, which affects 90% of women! Historically, funding goes more predominantly to conditions that affect men.

Even the disparity between breast cancer and gynaecological cancers is huge (one study states breast cancer received 500million, compared to 54 million for cervical) There are prime time adverts about breast cancer, we wear the novelty t-shirts, we do the walks in our bras, we wear all the pink, all the glitter - and maybe, just maybe, this is because its ok to talk about breasts. We don't mind talking about breasts...but ovaries? Cervix? Vulvas? Vaginas? People cringe. Don't talk about menopause, periods, birth, and that, is half the problem. If we don’t talk about it, we can’t change it, change the conversation, make these cancers #SilentNoMore.”

The Lady Garden Foundation run is open to EVERYONE! We encourage you to take part with all members of the family or get involved with friends or colleagues in a team challenge. Now is the time to join us and start raising sponsorship money to help stop gynae cancers in their tracks and also open-up the conversation about gynaecological health.

ladygardenfoundation.com/2022challenge

You can check out how team Pink Bubbles are doing here:

https://lady-garden-challenge.blackbaud-sites.com/teams/pink-bubbles

Raised

£120

Target

£200

60% there