Usually Dr Fran Richards wears a lab coat to battle cancer, but this July the cancer researcher will be pulling on a pair of trainers and working up a sweat to take on the disease alongside the pink army at Cambridge’s Race for Life.
The drug development expert will be running alongside her 14-year-old daughter Rosemary in the 5k Race for Life event, which takes place on 17th July at Parker’s Piece.
Dr Richards runs a team of researchers at the CRUK Cambridge Institute, in a group led by Professor Duncan Jodrell. Together they are developing new drugs for pancreatic cancer – a disease that’s often diagnosed at a late stage and only one out of every 100 patients will survive for 10 years or more after diagnosis.
Surgery gives patients the best chance of a cure but only 10 to 20% of patients are diagnosed early enough for this to be an option.
Dr Richards has worked in cancer research for almost 25 years – for the past seven she has been based at the CRUK Cambridge Institute. The research carried out by the Institute relies on the generosity of our supporters, and that’s why Dr Richards wants to support the pink army at Race for Life.
Dr Richards said: “I run Race for Life for two reasons. Firstly, I want to show my support for all the women who are running for their loved ones and raising money to support labs like mine, and to do my bit for fundraising because I know how precious each pound is.
“Secondly, I run with my daughter and we’ve taken part together five times now. I want her to see how much cancer matters to people and also to show her that exercise can be fun.
“At the moment there is very little therapy that works for pancreas cancer patients and so we’re trying to find new combinations of drugs to hit this disease from lots of different angles. We’re also looking at the biology of pancreatic cancer so we can find new and better ways to treat it.
“Since last year’s Cambridge Race for Life, more than 8,000 people in the UK have died from pancreatic cancer. The CRUK-funded team that I work with are doing our best to reduce that number and events like Race for Life will help us to do that.”
Cancer Research UK’s Race for Life, in partnership with Tesco, is an inspiring women-only series of 5k, 10k and Pretty Muddy events which raise millions of pounds every year to help beat 200 different types of cancer.
Money raised through Race for Life allows Cancer Research UK’s doctors, nurses and scientists in Cambridge to advance research which is helping to save the lives of more men, women and children affected by cancer.
Fran explains how every penny raised for Cancer Research UK goes towards funding life-saving science:
- £2 buys a box of microscope slides, just like the ones used in breakthroughs such as the discovery of tamoxifen.
- £250 buys special chemicals, called antibodies, to light up vital, tiny parts of the cell, to shed light on new ways to beat cancer, sooner.
- £4,000 buys a machine that can make 80,000 copies of DNA in just one second, like a turbo-charged genetic photocopier.
- £75,000 buys a microscope that can detect, monitor and track tumour cells.
- £450,000 buys a flow cytometer – this can sort out which cancer cells are reacting to different treatments.
To enter Race for Life today go to raceforlife.org or call 0300 123 0770.
