Fw: prostate cancer research

[Guest guest]

prostate cancer research

Snowdon 500 - A Charity Challenge for prostate cancer research 17 May 2008

Hi

I hope you won't mind be e mailing you but I wondered whether you would be able to promote / advertise the Snowdon 500 charity event through your support group in case anyone might be interested in joining us for this unique and exciting fundraising event.

First of all let me introduce myself. My name is Matt Rannamets, I'm a retired tax inspector who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in January 2004 with a PSA of 153 and a Gleason score of 8 (4+4). My initial prognosis was poor and my Consultant urolgist gave me two / three years as the cancer had clearly spread beyond the prostate and to the pelvic lymph nodes. I was however referred to University College London under the care of a most wonderful consultant oncologist who refused to give up on me and came up with a strategy of curative intent rather than palliative management. In November / December 2004 She organised and orchestrated a procedure known as HDR Bracytherapy followed by an intensive course of external beam radiotherapy and the results have been remarkable. My PSA went down to 0.2 and there are no visible signs of cancer anywhere. Last June I stopped taking hormone drugs (Casodex and Zoladex) and so while nothing is ever certain I feel able to look forward to the future in a very positive way.

Like many other cancer sufferers I wanted to put something back for all the fantastic care and treatment I had been lucky enough to receive. On the second aniversary of my original diagnoses I climbed Mt Kilimanjaro and raised around £9000 in sponsorship for the Prostate Cancer Research Centre. Now I am organising a charity challenge event we have called Snowdon 500 to raise further funds for prostate cancer research (our target is £100,000) and to help raise awareness about prostate cancer in general. The idea is to recruit up to 500 people willing to take part in a charity ascent and descent of Mt Snowdon in North Wales to be held on 17 May 2008. Registration for this event is just £25 and we are asking participants to aim to raise £250 or more in sponsorship (but less than that is also acceptable).

I have attached a couple of documents that tell you a little more about the event - (a) Snowdon 500 leaflet/poster (pdf file) and ( a recent press release. Full details about the event (including route descriptions, downloadable registration forms and lots more) can be found at the web site www.snowdon500.co.uk.

We already have more than 100 people signed up for the event but we need more support if we are going to reach the targets we have set. If there is anything you are able to do to help spread the word I will be very grateful and if there is anything more you or others want to know about the event please get in touch - my contact details are:

Tel. 01727 812326 e mail. matt@...

Thank you for reading this.

Matt Rannamets