Take a place in the London Marathon to help a Banbury boy's bone cancer charity

Emma Fisher who is running the London Marathon again n 2023 for Freddie's Future

There are 26 places still up for grabs to join five other local runners, all raising money for Freddie’s Future – a fund helping to find a cure for a rare bone cancer suffered by nine-year-old Freddie Croft, of Bodicote.

Team Freddie already has three people running with the charity and and two more through on the ballot raising money for the Bone Cancer Research Trust (BCRT) into which all Freddie’s Future funds go.

Freddie has Ewing Sarcoma, a particularly rare and aggressive bone cancer, which has meant many arduous cycles of chemotherapy and radiotherapy.

Karen Ellis, showing off her medal at last year's marathon. She runs again this year for Freddie's Future

Freddie’s Mum, Nicole Croft, said: “I run a fund within the BCRT charity and anyone running for Freddie’s Future would go to his fund.

“So far we have three people doing it for us through the charity place and a further two people who got through on the ballot and therefore don’t need to raise anything. However they are kindly going to quietly raise anything they can.

"They are Emma Fisher, Tammy Green, Tom Durnin, Karen Ellis and Kirsty Sims.

"There is no limit to how many could join us up to the 26 limit so we warmly welcome people into Team Freddie,” she said.

"Our group from last year were so amazing and have all kept in contact and are friends; it’s been lovely.”

"This cancer is rarer than rare and its nature is metatastic - where it appears in different parts of the body. It's commonly misdiagnosed because it is so rare and very aggressive," said Mrs Croft.

Freddie’s scans are currently clear but the Croft family has not stopped fundraising for the BCRT to help its vital research programme.

To read the full story about the Croft family’s experience – how Freddie was diagnosed, the course of his treatment and the fundraising many local people have undertaken to raise funds for bone cancer research, see Freddie’s Future page on Facebook.

For those interested in running the London Marathon for Freddie’s Future, see www.bcrt.org.uk/get-involved/events-and-challenges/tcs-london-marathon-2023