Running for Nevah

Hi, my name is Andrew Thorne and I am taking part in the Jurassic Coast Challenge on the 22nd to 24th March, which means I will be running/walking/crawling 3 Marathons in 3 days for Nevah Richards. I will be taking on this challenge with my friend Paddy Rice.

Nevah is a close friend of my daughter, Lily. Nevah was diagnosed with Ewing Sarcoma, which is a type of cancer that begins as a growth of cells in the bones and soft tissue around the bones and mostly happens in children or young adults. Any money raised will go to Nevah and her family for future plans.

Any Donations would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you, Andrew

If you want to follow my challenge, my instagram is: @andrew_runss

Nevah's story:

At the age of 13, you start to have dreams and visions of your future, as you’re about to navigate through your teenage years. Nevah has ambitions to see as much of this world as she can. But, in Jan 2023, Nevah started being hampered with fatigue, pain in her pelvis and subsequent pain in her legs. This didn’t hinder her sporting desires and the pleasures she got from playing cricket, hockey, school cross-country and athletics. Progressively, over the coming months, fatigue was impacting on her day to day activities and the pain in her pelvis became visible. Copious visits to the GP kept signposting them to thinking it was related to hormonal changes and sports injuries. After a trip to A&E, further investigations were carried out. It became very clear when the local hospital were liaising with Southampton Paediatric Oncology unit, we were suspecting the worst. Nevah became very unwell at a rapid rate and a formal diagnosis couldn’t come quick enough. Nevah was diagnosed with Metastatic Ewing Sarcoma on the 25th May 2023. It is a type of bone cancer, originating from her pelvis and surrounding soft tissue and had travelled to her lungs. Fewer than 30 children are diagnosed in the UK per year. As case studies are so low, allocated resources are limited to understand the exact cause of primary bone cancer and curative treatment plans, hence why progression over the past 30 years has been finite.

Nevah has valiantly endured 14 rounds of chemotherapy with a combination of 5 harsh chemotherapy drugs over the past 8 months and 30 fractions of Proton Beam Therapy to gain control of the bone cancer in her primary pelvic site. Surgery was not a viable option due to complexities with other vital organs, as her tumour was so large. Nevah is near completing her treatment plan following another 10 fractions of full lung radiation. Ewing Sarcoma is an indiscriminate rare bone cancer and Nevah's treatment has seen the family unit being uprooted as they've had to nomadically traverse between four different specialist hospitals.

Nonetheless, Nevah's fortitude in dealing with her cancer and treatment is nothing short of commendable and her aspirations for life still remain high.