A YOUNG woman who beat cervical cancer is planning a sponsored Wythenshawe walk to raise money for a cancer treatment centre that helped to save her life.
30-year-old Katie Wardle, support worker for young people with complex learning difficulties, is organising a 5k walk in Wythenshawe on 27 August in aid of The Christie, one of Europe’s largest cancer treatment centres.
At just 28 years old back in 2015, Miss Wardle was diagnosed with cervical cancer and was referred to The Christie in Wythenshawe where she took the opportunity to take part in a trial, which she believes may have helped to cure her.
Miss Wardle agreed to take part in a trial called INTERLACE where she was offered a combination of two chemotherapy drugs, carboplatin and paclitaxel, which is only being trialled in the UK.
Cervical cancer that cannot be removed with surgery is usually treated with radiotherapy and use of the drug cisplatin, which is called chemoradiation treatment.
Whereas the INTERLACE trial, supported by Cancer Research UK, uses the two chemotherapy drugs a few weeks before chemoradiation starts, which is thought to help improve treatment.
In a bid to thank them for saving her life, Miss Wardle raised £10,000 for The Christie in just over a year from 2015 after hosting Christmas fairs both years at Wythenshawe Cricket Club.
She is hoping the walk will raise a further £10,000 for the treatment centre as ‘the more money raised, the more lives saved’.
Miss Wardle said: “Staff at The Christie are really caring and patient, at times it must be repetitive to have people (if you’re anything like me) causing a fuss and getting upset about going into an MRI scanner, but the staff were so patient and supportive.”
“Although we don’t know officially if this helped me to get my diagnosis of “all clear” me and family like to think so. ” – Katie Wardle
“The treatment that you receive is amazing and when the doctor at the hospital gave me the diagnosis and asked if I had a preference in where I would be treated, I knew it had to be The Christie. The Christie do research and I was lucky to be offered a trial with them. I was unsure at first if I wanted to be a guinea pig but after some thought decided to go for it.”
“I’m very thankful for everyone who supported me through both the illness and with the fundraising. I had so much support and I’m very lucky to have such wonderful people supporting me.”
The walk ‘for all’, which will have wheelchair access and open to everyone from dogs to babies, will start at Wythenshawe Cricket Club at 11am where those taking part will walk to Wythenshawe park circling back to finish at the cricket club.
Miss Wardle has set up a team page on fundraising website JustGiving for people to donate and many of the team members taking part will be collecting their own sponsors through paper sponsorship forms.
You can find out more information about the event taking place on the JustGiving page or via Facebook.
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