Non-smoker Kelly is facing second lung cancer fight, but vows to battle on and help research programme
STABLE GIRL HOPES TO INSPIRE OTHERS TO SUPPORT VITAL TRACERx PROJECT
A DERBYSHIRE woman has been diagnosed with lung cancer for the second time – despite never smoking.
But Kelly Harrop is not letting her most recent diagnosis slow her down, and while she waits to find out what the future holds, she has thrown her backing behind a newly launched campaign led by Cancer Research UK.
Following tests to investigate digestion problems in 2015, Kelly, 48, who has always kept fit, was stunned when doctors found a tumour on her lung at age 40.
She went from working in stables and running marathons to scheduling her life around appointments.
Kelly, who lives and works on a farm in Chisworth, near Glossop, had never smoked but developed lung cancer due to an abnormal gene.
She had surgery to remove the tumour, followed by chemotherapy.
But doctors knew there was a risk of the tumour reappearing, so they enrolled her in a new research programme called TRACERx, made possible after extensive research development.
Funded by Cancer Research UK, the £14million More Research, Less Cancer project was set up 10 years ago to find new ways to treat future patients more effectively by investigating how lung tumours evolve over time and why treatments sometimes stop working.
Kelly is closely monitored as part of the study and was given the all clear after five years.
But after a recent check-up, she was told the cancer had returned.
She said: “Because I took part in TRACERx they monitored me longer than the usual five years and it’s a good job they did as when I went last time, they said they had found more cancer. If I hadn’t been checked I wouldn’t know anything about it. Then here we were in a whirlwind for a couple of weeks, and
it always seems to happen just before Christmas.
“I am now on a targeted therapy treatment which can’t cure my cancer but can slow it down.
“I am just getting on with my life. I love being outside in the fresh air every day, it just keeps everything normal.
“Then when the time comes to face things, I’ll face it then. I don’t know how long it’ll be, and so I’ll just keep doing my normal things until I can no longer do my normal things.” Kelly is urging people to support the new campaign More Research, Less Cancer, which aims to raise £400m to help accelerate progress in the fight against the disease.
It is looking specifically for large organisations to link up and donate such as the owner of Blackpool Football Club Simon Sadler, and his wife Gillian, and the Chris Banton Foundation, which has given £50m.
Latest analysis from Cancer Research UK reveals around 110,000 deaths could be avoided in the UK alone over the next two decades if cancer mortality rates are reduced by 15 per cent by 2040.
Kelly added: “I want to give back for the treatment I have had. So many people’s lives are touched by this disease and the numbers are only growing.
“Now, I want to do everything I can to help raise vital awareness and funds. I hope that sharing my story I will inspire the philanthropic community to give what they can.
“I’d say to people who can donate to think about how investment now may even help yourself in the future or members of your family or friends. Cancer is a strange thing, it is changing all the time, making it more challenging to treat.
“There isn’t one treatment for everyone, so it needs so much more money to keep the research going to make treatment easier and kinder for people. Hopefully one day we can beat cancer for good.”
For more information about the campaign, visit www.cancerresearch.org.uk
Think about how investment now may even help yourself in the future or members of your family or friends. Kelly Harrop