Our friend Sam Gilbert, a 42 year old father of 2, was diagnosed with Stage IV Bowel Cancer in April 2024. The cancer has spread to his liver and lymph nodes. To date, he has been told his treatment is about management, not cure.

Whilst Sam is undergoing regular chemotherapy at the moment, his doctor has advised potential private treatments that aren't funded by the NHS, which could cost up to £5k a month.

Sam's not one to give up though, and he's doing everything he can to fight for his and his family’s future. As well as following all the medical advice, he's fundraising, managing his diet, his exercise and maintaining a positive mental health outlook.

We're a group of Sam's mates from secondary school (KEGS in Chelmsford) who have remained close for over 25 years. We're supporting Sam in every way we can, and wanted to set ourselves a challenge to raise funds and achieve something special together. On 5th July we're going to undertake a 30ish mile walk from Danbury to Colchester where we’ll be supporting Josh Gilbert (Sam’s brother) in his heavyweight boxing title defence. We anticipate about 12 hours of walking with plenty of reminiscing, blisters, laughter, tears, and a few celebratory pints at the end.

Our fundraiser contributes to Sam's main one, which has done incredibly so far, raising a huge amount of money to date for his treatments.

You can keep up to date with Sam's progress on his main page below:

https://gofund.me/b0379f17