These were just some of the moving and heartfelt messages I read on the backs of my fellow Race For Life participants on Tuesday night.

On a warm summer evening, I and 2,000 other women, took part in the first of two races organised in Ferry Meadows by Cancer Research UK.
The sense of camaraderie and unity was overwhelming, and I spent much of the night fighting the tears.

Just before we began the organisers asked us to take a minute to remember why we were actually taking part. . . and within seconds the chatter and laughter of thousands of women was replaced with a moving silence which sent chills down my spine.

One of the things which moved me the most was the fact that every single person taking part in the event had been touched by cancer in some way, and all had decided to do something positive,
something that would raise thousands, if not
millions of pounds, to help fight this horrible,
horrible disease.

Up until last year my family had been relatively unscathed by cancer.
But in January my dad's younger brother, my uncle Philip, was diagnosed with cancer of the pancreas – because the tumour was pressing on a blood vessel the doctors could not operate so tried to shrink the mass with chemotherapy.

Unfortunately this was not successful, and in December my uncle was told there was nothing more that could be done.

Nothing can quite prepare you for the sense of helplessness you feel when you know someone you love has been given such a prognosis.
My uncle faced this news with courage and humour right up until the end, even comforting family and friends who visited him in the last few weeks of his life.

He finally gave up his fight in April.

For me, the hardest thing was to see the impact his illness, and subsequent death, had on my dad and grandma – I couldn't imagine how awful it must be for them to lose the brother they grew up with, and the son they gave birth too, in such a way, and at a relatively young age – he was 55.

I therefore decided I wanted to try to do something to show them how much I cared and to raise some money for Cancer Research UK – the charity which does so much in trying to find cures/treatments for cancer. Race for Life seemed the perfect event. . . and I am so pleased I took part.

I know nothing will bring my uncle, or all the millions of other people who have lost their lives to this disease, back, but it may do something to help those of us who will have to face this disease in the future. I would urge all of those women who took part on Tuesday and Wednesday night to collect their sponsorship money as quickly as possible and send it off to the charity.

I ran the course in 37 minutes and raised £125 in the process, of which I am immensely proud.

So, here's to you uncle Philip. . . rest in peace.

Full coverage of Peterborough's Race For Life 2008