East Yorkshire woman’s sponsored swim raises £1,500 for Yorkshire Cancer Research

An East Yorkshire woman has raised £1,500 for Yorkshire Cancer Research by completing a sponsored swim 11 years after being treated for breast cancer.

Louise Hatfield, from Ferriby, swam a total of four miles over the course of a month to help raise funds for vital cancer research.

She said: “I wanted to do something that helps other people, and being able to fundraise for Yorkshire Cancer Research makes me feel like I’m doing something worthwhile.”

Yorkshire Cancer Research funds world-leading research to help prevent, diagnose, and treat cancer in the region.

Louise continued: “While I was going through treatment for my breast cancer, I started having problems with my walking and I wasn’t sure why.

“After some tests I was diagnosed with a very rare condition that affects cancer patients called ‘paraneoplastic neurological syndrome’, which has affected my balance and walking.”

Louise was successfully treated for her breast cancer but has continued to have difficulty with her balance.

She continued: “I started swimming and realised that I could do a length or so. To encourage me to keep up my swimming I thought that I’d do a sponsored swim.

“I decided to fundraise for Yorkshire Cancer Research because when I was being treated for cancer, I bumped into someone on the street who was fundraising for the charity. It was such a comfort to hear about the work that they were funding. From then on, I’ve always chosen to support the charity.”

Louise started her fundraising with an aim of completing a mile across a month, which meant she’d need to swim six lengths of her local swimming pool each day.

Louise said: “On my first day I ended up doing 30 lengths, so I increased my target to four miles, which felt like more of a challenge. I managed to do it with six days to spare."

For Louise, the support from family and friends helped her confidence grow as she continued to tackle the challenge.

“Everybody was talking about it and asking how I was getting on, and that really made me feel good.

“Often you can feel like people are feeling sorry for you when you’ve had an experience like mine, so there was something really empowering about being able to show people what I’m capable of.”

Emma Jacob, Communications Officer

Yorkshire Cancer Research

Tel: 07903225991

Email: emma.jacob@ycr.org.uk