The Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital team and Addenbrooke's Charitable Trust have extended their heartfelt thanks to everyone who took part in this year’s Cambridge Half Marathon, celebrating the incredible efforts of runners who helped raise over £105,000 for the new Cancer Hospital.
"It’s incredible to think that as recently as 2022 we had just four runners taking part in this event, and this year over 200 runners registered to toe the start line as part of Team Addenbrooke’s!"
Sophie Street, Community Fundraiser at ACT
Year on year the hundreds of runners taking part for Addenbrooke’s have been raising extraordinary amounts of money – with funds raised over the past three years going towards the ground-breaking new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
Sophie Street, Community Fundraiser at ACT, said: “Seeing that many people running in our tops, each one with their own personal story of why Addenbrooke’s is special to them, and why the Cancer Research Hospital is so important, has been incredible.”
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital is planned to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe's largest biomedical campus. The specialist facility for the East of England will unite world-class healthcare with cutting-edge research to transform the way we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. The pioneering research that will take place in the three research institutes embedded inside the hospital is expected to have a global impact - starting here in Cambridge but changing the lives of people with cancer all over the world.
Dr Hugo Ford, Clinical Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital and Director of Cancer Services at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
"It’s fantastic to see so many runners raising money for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, we’re grateful to everybody who took part this year. The funds raised will go towards our ground-breaking new hospital which will enable us to detect cancer earlier, treat it more precisely, and save more lives."
Dr Hugo Ford
ACT’s Director of Communications and Impact, Paul White, who laced up his trainers and ran the half marathon, said: “This event is on our doorstep, so of course it was always going to be special to us. But the whole way around I was looking at my fellow runners, the thousands of people lining the course cheering, and the crowds of people at the event village on Midsummer Common, thinking each one them will have their own story to tell about Addenbrooke’s, and that really helped me to carry on putting each foot in front of the next.”
Also crossing the finish line on Sunday was mother-of-two Sunita Mena from Essex, who underwent a lifesaving liver transplant following acute liver failure. Sunita, who had been fit and healthy up until a few days before, learnt her condition was brought on by two overlapping autoimmune conditions.
Unable to breathe following surgery, Sunita was given a tracheostomy – and had to re-learn how to walk, talk, eat and drink after the operation. Whilst recovering and undertaking regular physio and speech therapy sessions, Sunita was diagnosed with cancer and remarkably it was during her treatment that she decided to sign up for this year’s race.
Before race day, Sunita said: “This, for me, is not ‘just a half marathon’. It’s a deeply personal way to honour a second chance at life, raise awareness of organ donation and support a future where cancer care improves the lives of many. This half marathon is my way of giving back, and in honour of my donor and her family, my fellow transplantees, cancer warriors and their families, and everyone facing health challenges along their journey.” Read more of Sunita’s story.
Running for the second year in a row was Chris Doughty, 47, from Elmswell in Suffolk who was keen to raise money for the new cancer hospital after his son, Oli, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia back in 2018 when he was just 10 years old and treated at Addenbrooke’s.
Chris and his wife, Claire, found out Oli had leukaemia whilst supporting their close friends, Garry and his wife, Lisa, who were going through the same journey after their daughter, Arlea, then 11, had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia a year earlier.
The two men, whose friendship spans over 20 years after meeting in the prison service where they both work, ran the Cambridge half for ACT last year.
Although Chris alone ran this year, both men want to use their experiences to champion the new cancer hospital and the innovative new treatments and specialist facilities that it will offer – something that Garry has experienced himself after Arlea relapsed back in 2024.
Garry said even with only five years between Arlea finishing her treatment and her second cancer diagnosis, he could see how treatments for cancer patients like Arlea had progressed. Area, who's now 20-year-old, received genetic mapping as part of her second treatment and whilst she wasn’t able to undergo immunotherapy treatment, she received a progressive treatment called CAR-T therapy and later underwent a bone marrow transplant thanks to a donor from Germany.
Describing childhood cancer as a “whole world you don’t want to be exposed to”, Garry said the care that Arlea had received at Addenbrooke’s had been “second to none.” Read more of their story here.
"Every year we increase our target for the number of runners we want to join Team Addenbrooke’s and every year we exceed that. We’re expecting our places for next year’s race to go as fast as some of our runners ran, so if anyone reading this wants to be part of the greatest team in Cambridge get in touch fast!"
Donna Lee-Willis, Head of Community Fundraising at ACT
Runners’ places on the official website page for the TTP Cambridge Half Marathon website normally go within a record time – but anyone who would like to sign up to run for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust next year can do so by clicking here.
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital is a partnership between Cambridge University Hospitals and the University of Cambridge. Additional fundraising and philanthropy is required to realise the vision for the new NHS hospital, as has always been the case. Fundraising efforts are being led by the University and by CUH’s hospital charity, Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust.