Respiratory nurse to run her first marathon to help those with lung cancer

Sharon Weston, Respiratory Specialist Nurse from the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital (NNUH) is to run Kielder Marathon in Northumberland on 9th October 2011 to raise money to buy an invaluable piece of diagnostic equipment to help ease the suffering of people with lung cancer.

Lung cancer is the second most common cancer and the most common cause of cancer death in the UK, accounting for 1 in 5 deaths. The staging of the lung cancer is crucial to determine the treatment required and the important part of this is to see whether there is spread to the lymph nodes in the chest.

Usually this is done by a small operation done under a general anaesthetic, where a cut is made at the root of the neck to allow the lymph nodes to be sampled. However, the method we would like to adopt involves endobronchial ultrasound (EBUS) which is a new less invasive technique and allows sampling to be done as a day case, using a small camera (bronchoscope), introduced through the mouth and using sedation only. This technique was approved by The National Institute for Clinical Excellence in 2008. The equipment needed for the procedure is a bronchoscope and a processor.

Sharon said “At the NNUH we are fortunate to already have the processor in the Gastroenterology Unit so we need to raise the £65,000 for the EBUS bronchoscope which would help us provide a world class service to patients in Norfolk and surrounding counties and save a lengthy trip for patients to Papworth, which at present is the only other EBUS service in the East of England.

“So to raise money for the EBUS myself and a friend Karen Grapes, in a fit of madness decided to run our first marathon. We felt that we needed a challenge so we have signed up to run the Kielder Marathon”.

If you would like to make a donation visit http://www.justgiving.com/out-of-puff for more information about the marathon visit www.visitkielder.com/site/kielder-marathon/kielder-marathon