Several years ago my father passed away and in his final years he suffered from colon cancer which greatly reduced his quality of life and ultimately contributed to his death.

I found out afterwards that whilst colon cancer is the second most lethal cancer in the UK after lung cancer this needn’t be the case. Colon cancer is one of the easiest cancers to treat if it is detected early. The really good news is that this cancer is also preventable in nearly all patients, through regular screening.
So every few years I take on a sporting challenge to raise money for an innovative charity, 40tude. Our purpose is to transform the detection and treatment of colon cancer. We do this in two ways:

• We raise funds to support leading-edge research, led by St Marks Hospital in London, that will help transform the detection and treatment of colon cancer
• We promote awareness of the need to get screened regularly for colon cancer

We’ve raised more than £1.7m over the last 11 years and work in formal collaborations with other venerable organisations, such as The Institute of Cancer Research, Royal Cancer Hospital, Bart’s, Imperial College and The Royal Marsden.

This year a group of us will be cycling 460km over 3½ days, in the southern Alps to the north of Nice, climbing around 8000 metres starting on 28 September.

40tude and I would be very grateful for any support and my charity link is on this page. We all pay fully for our trip so all proceeds go direct to the charity:

More importantly though if you are concerned about colon cancer or have any of the symptoms please see your GP and get it checked out, more information is available on our website https://www.40tude.org.uk/signs-and-symptoms

Jonpaul Miller