North lecturer’s bid to help cancer charities

Aug 17 2008 by Pauline Holt, Sunday Sun

A LECTURER who has seen two loved ones battle breast cancer will put his best foot forward in the North’s very first SunWalk.

Keith Anderson, 58, of Newcastle, will join hundreds of people in the charity event next month — a series of walks in aid of breast cancer causes — having watched his new partner fight the disease two years after losing his wife to breast cancer.

The Gosforth dad-of-two, a principal lecturer at Northumbria University, vowed to live life to the full when Louise, his wife of 13 years, died three years ago, so when he met his new partner Helen Simms, he put his new philosophy into action by taking up hobbies such as scuba diving.

It was during a trip to Thailand in Easter 2007 that the unimaginable happened.

Keith said: “I’d never contemplated that lightning would strike twice, but when Helen discovered a lump in her breast I was devastated.

“Helen thought it was probably just a cyst as her mother had previously developed them, but I couldn’t help but fear the worst and encouraged her to have it checked as soon as we returned.”

On their return, Helen, who was only 33 at the time, was indeed diagnosed with breast cancer.

Keith said: “The whole experience was unbelievable, there we were in the same waiting rooms and seeing the same nurses I’d met with Louise.

“Thankfully, Helen’s prognosis was much brighter as the cancer had been caught early.”

Following a lumpectomy, Helen underwent a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy because the cancer had spread to her lymph nodes. The treatment was successful and Helen has returned to work in the Applied Sciences department at the same University as Keith, though she’s still having courses of Tamoxifen and Herceptin.

Earlier this year, Keith, 58, proposed to Helen at the top of the Eiffel Tower and they are to wed next July.

Keith said: “Helen is one of those characters that really motivates other people.

“Apart from a couple of days when she hid under the duvet, Helen has stayed consistently positive.

“She’s always been a great fundraiser and over the last five years she has raised money for various cancer charities and this has continued through her own battle.”

The pair have formed a 24-strong team, The Pink Panthers of Northumbria, who will take part in the half marathon part of Newcastle’s SunWalk on Sunday, September 7.

The event consists of three power walks — a 5k, a 10k or a half marathon — and will see not just women but men and children take to the streets of the city.

And all participants, including Keith, taking part will be wearing decorated bras . . . a trademark of the organising charity, Walk the Walk.

The walk at Newcastle’s Exhibition Park follows in the footsteps of its sister event in Bristol which this year has already seen almost 2500 people hoping to beat last year’s fundraising of nearly £250,000.

Newcastle’s event is expected to draw over 1000 walkers.

Walk the Walk’s chief executive and founder Nina Barough said: “Helen and Keith’s story is really inspirational and also highlights the importance of raising awareness of breast cancer.”

For more information about The SunWalk Newcastle, which is sponsored by SCA Prudhoe Paper Mill, please visit www.walkthewalk.org

To sponsor the Pink Panthers go to www.justgiving.com/ PinkPanthersofNorthumbria