This weekend, tens of thousands of people will take to the streets of the English capital for the London Marathon. Between them, they are expected to raise tens of millions of pounds for good causes.
For many charities, it is the single most important day in the fundraising calendar; a moment when they can tell their story to a huge audience, recruit supporters, and raise money to help fund research, support services and practical help for the people who need it most.
It is also one of the rare moments when London feels at its absolute best.
The city turns into one long corridor of encouragement. Police officers, volunteers, organisers, strangers standing outside pubs with jelly babies and orange slices, children holding homemade signs, people shouting the names of runners they have never met. Even the black cab driver who took me to the pub after I ran it a few years ago refused to take payment, donating his fare to charity instead.
I remember the marathon being painful when I was overtaken by someone carrying a washing machine. More painful when barefoot Jesus carrying a crucifix passed me around the halfway point. Then came the moment at mile 20 when an almost life-sized rhino ran past and I realised that I had absolutely nothing left in the tank. But somehow, step by chafing step, you get there.
Among those on the start line this weekend will be children’s TV presenter and actress Evie Pickerill. Best known for her work on CBeebies, Pickerill has become a familiar face to thousands of young families across the UK. Alongside her television work, she also hosts her own podcast and is an ambassador for the charity Children with Cancer.
“I’ve seen first-hand what the children go through, but also what their families go through too,” says Pickerill, who visited hospital wards dressed as a Disney princess, meeting children and families during treatment. “CBeebies is played in a lot of hospitals and on the wards. I feel like it’s a nice thing for children to have a recognisable face as one of their ambassadors for the charity that’s supporting them.”
When most people think of cancer, they tend to picture it as an illness of later life; something that happens to grandparents, parents, older relatives. Not toddlers. Not primary school children. Not teenagers trying to finish exams, see their friends, or work out what they want to do with their lives.
But every day in the UK, 10 children are diagnosed with cancer. Two of them will not survive.
“Of the eight who do survive, five of them, because of the treatment that they’ve gone through, are left often with cognitive impairment, fertility issues, hearing issues, seeing issues, stunted growth,” says Gavin Maggs, chief executive of Children with Cancer UK. They survive, but they’re not fine, to be honest.”
If you can have some escape and actually allow children to feel like children, that is so important in their journey
Children, adds Pickerill, receive the same chemotherapy that adults receive. “If you think about their smaller bodies, they’re still developing,” she says. “That really harsh treatment is going into their bodies.”
While survival rates have improved significantly in recent decades, thanks in part to better research and treatment, there is still a long way to go. Only around 2% of cancer research funding goes towards childhood cancers, despite the fact that children who survive can still face decades of physical and emotional consequences.
The impact of living with cancer stretches far beyond the hospital, too, and affects not just the survivors but those around them too. Children with cancer are often out of school for long periods. Their education can become fragmented and inconsistent. Friendships are disrupted. Family life changes completely.
“One of the observations that’s made by doctors and charities like us is that when a child is diagnosed, there’s something called ‘forgotten sibling syndrome’,” says Maggs. “All of the attention goes on to the ill child and then others fade into the shadows a little bit.”
Parents often have to give up work or cut back on hours. Families travel long distances to specialist hospitals. Financial pressure builds at the same time as emotional exhaustion.
Children with Cancer UK helps to ease some of that burden. While around 75% of the charity’s funding goes towards research, supporting hospitals, universities, academics and clinicians across the country to improve diagnosis and treatment, the remaining 25% goes towards welfare support for children and their families.
That includes travel grants to hospital appointments, accommodation close to treatment centres, days out, and respite breaks. One of the charity’s newest projects is a group of holiday cottages in North Yorkshire, where families affected by childhood cancer can stay free of charge.
It’s really powerful – and a huge visual joy for those of us who are involved in it
“They can come here, rest, recuperate, recover,” says Maggs. “They can bring their families, they can bring their siblings. A granny, grandad, uncle who leaned in and did more babysitting when it was required. The cancer treatment journey affects a lot of people.”
“If you can have some escape and actually allow children to feel like children, that is so important in their journey,” adds Pickerill. “Children with Cancer UK are not only trying to fund treatment – they are also trying to create ways of allowing children to experience childhood and allow parents that respite too.”
The London Marathon has become one of Children with Cancer’s biggest opportunities each year to raise money and awareness. The charity will have one of the largest teams in the race, with around one in every 40 runners wearing its bright orange t-shirts.
“It’s really powerful – and a huge visual joy for those of us who are involved in it,” says Maggs.
‘Hopefully more funding can be pushed to make childhood cancer no longer such a taboo subject,’ said children’s TV presenter and actress Evie Pickerill. Image: Rishi Issar, Bridgewater Film Photography
Getting to the start line was a challenge in itself for Pickerill. She only began training in January and admits to underestimating how much preparation it would take.
“I came into it a bit naive,” she says. “You have to really schedule your runs and strength training. It’s been a whole new world for me.”
But while sore knees and chaffed limbs are temporary, for the children and families she is running for, the challenges they face can last a lifetime.
“The more we talk about it, the more awareness we bring,” says Pickerill. “Hopefully more funding can be pushed to make childhood cancer no longer such a taboo subject.”
Even if she is overtaken by a rhino, a fridge or a superhero, Pickerill will cross the finish line having put childhood cancer, and the families living through it, in front of millions of people.
Main image: Alan Kean / Shutterstock.com
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