The Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust

• Morocco - North Africa

Why I choose this charity:

When a dear friend was fighting her battle against breast cancer, I spent many evenings at the Marsden hospital in London and was introduced to the Anthony Nolan Bone Marrow Trust by a young couple who was losing their toddler to leukemia. I went to the hospital to provide a blood sample and became a bone marrow donor.

How I planned to help:

Sadly, they both lost their battle to cancer. I decided to raise funds for the trust and went solo to trek the Atlas Mountains in Morocco for a week accompanied by a bunch of beduins and their donkeys and shared my experience hoping to encourage others to become bone marrow donors like me.

What we raised:

A couple of thousands pounds and raised awareness in events about becoming a donor and the importance of ethnicity which is a factor in finding a matching donor. Its so important to increase the racial diversity of the donor registry to save more lives.

Achievements:

It was a very tough week, emotionally physically and mentally hiking for over 8 hours every day, mainly alone with my own thoughts but nothing in comparison to what people affected by cancer go through. It gave me the permission to slow down, mute the noise around me and find my purpose in life. Although I was the only person going there on behalf of the trust, cancer affects everyone and so I met many people who were fundraising for cancer in memory of a sister, brother, father, mother, partner or friend they had lost or were about to lose and somehow I realised that I was not alone after all and the impact of our actions in this world when we are united.