A woman who is running the Virgin Money London Marathon dressed as Batman wants to honour the ‘heroes’ that live with cancer every day.
Sarah Dyce, 34, from South London is raising money for blood cancer charity Anthony Nolan after the charity organised the stem cell transplant that saved the life of her friend’s father. Sarah has also donated her own stem cells to the charity twice, using blood from her children’s umbilical cords.
Mum-of-two Sarah, a partner at EY, said: ‘My friend’s father was diagnosed with leukaemia out of the blue and needed a stem cell donor – the fantastic news is that a match was found from umbilical cord blood. He’s recovering now and doing well and it really reinforced how important it was that we donated my cord blood.’
Sarah gave birth to Lucas in March 2013 and Hayden in November 2014 at King’s College Hospital in London, where Anthony Nolan has a cord blood collection centre (one of four cord collection centres operated by the charity).
Although Sarah and her husband came across scepticism when they told people they were planning to donate her cord blood, she said reading up on the process convinced her it was the right thing to do. ‘We did some research and felt comfortable that it wasn’t anything risky.’ The blood, which is rich in potentially lifesaving stem cells, is taken after the cord has been clamped and would normally be thrown away. It is then banked and could be used at any point in the future in a stem cell transplant, if it is a match for a patient. ‘At the time I barely noticed it happening. It didn’t change anything about the way I gave birth and yet it could save someone’s life.’
Now, Sarah is training to run the Virgin Money London Marathon to raise money and to spread awareness of how easy it is to join the Anthony Nolan register. What’s more, she will run the entire route dressed in a Batman costume. She said, ‘Batman is a hero, and people who are suffering from cancer and the people who take care of them every day are heroes too.’
Sarah is hoping to raise £2,000 for Anthony Nolan, including holding a pub quiz night, a champagne tasting, and sponsorship. This could help fund an additional 33 new donors, as it costs the charity £60 to add each new person to the register. For someone with blood cancer, that’s 33 more chances of a cure.
According to her, the biggest challenge has been finding the time to train: ‘Fitting in running round family life has been hard. The tricky thing has been balancing the training with a full-time job and spending time our two young sons. My husband has been very supportive as he has to look after the children when I go out running.’
However, she added, ‘As well as raising money, I want to raise awareness that donating stem cells isn’t scary. If I inspire a handful of people to sign up to the register then it’s worth it.’
Kirsty Low, head of events at Anthony Nolan, said: ‘We’re so excited to see Sarah run the marathon as Batman – a testament to all the superheroes who make our lifesaving work possible. All our 2016 runners are helping to save lives, mile by mile. The money raised will help us recruit more people onto the donor register to make sure we can find a match for everyone who needs a transplant.’
Interested in running a marathon or taking part in another event with Anthony Nolan? Take a look at our amazing fundraising events.
