Mum's birthday

My mum was 81 this week. She's had a strange old year. Last year she became very tired just after her 80th and following various tests we found out she had bowel cancer and needed urgent surgery. Fortunately she didn't need further treatment and made a remarkable recovery for someone of her age. After that she had squamous cell carcinoma on the top of her head which has taken months to improve. She has regular checks now and a scan next week. 81 eh? I wonder if I'll still be doing Factor 50 stuff when I'm 81??? Probably!Next weekend I'm doing a presentation to a gang of marshals at Oulton Park which is a race circuit. This connection was made through Paul Sutcliffe who is a great lad - he contacted me through the website www.factor50.org.uk because he has malignant melanoma. He asked me if I'd mind visiting the circuit and chatting with the marshals, given that they spend such long hours out in the sun during the races. Haven't prepared the talk yet..... Something to keep me quiet this week!!!!

Mum's birthday

My mum will be 81 tomorrow. She's had a strange old year. Last year she became very tired just after her 80th and following various tests we found out she had bowel cancer and needed urgent surgery. Fortunately she didn't need further treatment and made a remarkable recovery for someone of her age. After that she had squamous cell carcinoma on the top of her head which has taken months to improve. She has regular checks now and a scan next week. 81 eh? I wonder if I'll still be doing Factor 50 stuff when I'm 81??? Probably!

Next weekend I'm doing a presentation to a gang of marshals at Oulton Park which is a race circuit. This connection was made through Paul Sutcliffe who is a great lad - he contacted me through the website www.factor50.org.uk because he has malignant melanoma. He asked me if I'd mind visiting the circuit and chatting with the marshals, given that they spend such long hours out in the sun during the races. Haven't prepared the talk yet..... Something to keep me quiet this week!!!!

Factor 50

My name is Gillian Nuttall. I am the founder of Factor 50 - www.factor50.org.uk Factor 50 was "born" in December 2007, when I discovered that one of my friends, Jon Herron, was not going to survive Malignant Melanoma. When I picked myself up off the floor and stopped crying for long enough, I sat back and thought "Well, that is it then, we really are going to lose him", then I thought long and hard about what I could do. There was nothing I could do for Jon but what about everyone else?

Jon was being treated by Dr Paul Lorigan at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. I contacted Dr Lorigan to see if there was anything I could do. He told me about the Malignant Melanoma Research Fund which is his fundraising department, and said I could help out with that. He explained that he wanted to bring a clinical trial from America to the UK, and that the only hospital in the UK which could facilitate this trial would be the Christie. And there it began.

I took the Malignant Melanoma Research Fund, renamed it Factor 50, had the website built and the rest just followed on. That makes it sound very simple, it wasn't and isn't. Obviously, we are just one charity/fundraising group amongst thousands, all needing help.

We have had several events which can be seen on the website and we are working slowly and surely towards our goal of £250,000 which is what Dr Lorigan needs to bring the clinical trial to the UK.