Thousands join walk – all with common cause
Shine Night Walk for cancer charity
AN RAF Northolt air traffic controller has walked through the night to raise money for Cancer Research UK.
Wade France, 47, and his wife Emily, 46, completed the charity’s Shine Night Walk on September 26 by walking 26.2 miles through London and taking in the sights of Tower Bridge, Big Ben, The Shard and St Paul’s Cathedral.
They joined 17,000 men, women and children to paint the town neon and help raise almost £5 million for research.
Wade was inspired to walk because his daughter Callie, now 10, was diagnosed with a type of kidney cancer called Wilm’s tumour a week before her third birthday in March 2008.
She received chemotherapy at Great Ormond Street Hospital and surgery which included the removal of a kidney which had been destroyed by the tumour.
Wade said: “There are no words to describe how it feels when you are told your child has cancer. I really feel for any parent who has to go through that.
“Callie was absolutely amazing, she went through everything without batting an eyelid.”
Fortunately Callie, a pupil at Whitehall Junior School, responded well to treatment and now only has to attend a check up every 12 months.
Then in April 2013 Wade’s new partner Emily was diagnosed with breast cancer just weeks before they were due to marry.
Wade, who is also dad to Cade, eight, said: “Emily had a lumpectomy the following day and we went ahead with our wedding on schedule. It was just before she started chemotherapy so she still had long hair, a few weeks later she started to lose it.
“Throughout everything she was really brilliant. She was always so sure it was going to be okay. She was stronger than the rest of us around her.”
Emily had six months of chemotherapy at University College London Hospital which was followed by a mastectomy and a year’s course of herceptin.
It was while she was going through treatment that Wade first took part in Shine Night Walk. In 2014 the couple completed it together and were quick to sign up again for this year’s event.
Wade added: “This was the third time I’d taken part in Shine Night Walk and the atmosphere was just as fantastic as everyone united together to take on the challenge.
“So many people at the event had been touched by cancer and if felt amazing to be surrounded by walkers with a common cause.”