Daughter takes on ‘Challenge 24’ to raise money to tackle pancreatic cancer in honour of her Father

A Winchester local who lost her father to pancreatic cancer has been raising money to tackle the disease, as part of national effort.

November marks Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Month (PCAM) and this month Pancreatic Cancer UK has launched ‘Challenge 24’, in honour of the 24 people who die daily from the cancer in the UK.

Those deciding to ‘Take it On’ could complete 24 miles, 24 activities or give up something they love for 24 days, as part of the challenge.

Nicolette Lock, from Chandlers Ford, exceeded her 24 mile target, completing over 30 miles in just five days. The £460 Nicolette has already raised will be matched by her employer HSBC (up to £1000).

Before her father passed away with the illness in 1992, Nicolette told WINOL that she wasn’t very familiar with this specific cancer

She said: “There’s so many things that you don’t really know anything about and then when it hits your family in some way, you suddenly become aware there are a lot of people who have it.”

Pancreatic Cancer has the lowest survival rate of all the common cancers, with just 7% living past five years of diagnosis.

Sadly, this was also the case for Nicolette and her family.

She told Winol: “My dad didn’t actually receive any treatment; he was diagnosed on a Monday and he died on the Wednesday so it was incredibly quick.

“He had been unwell for quite a while. And to start with, he was being treated for an ulcer and he gradually lost weight and then in the end he went into hospital to have an exploratory operation and it’s when they did that, they found the tumour.”

Doctors “expected that he could live anything up to six months, but he died two days later. Obviously, it was a big shock.”

Since losing her father, Nicolette has been raising money for Pancreatic Cancer UK, supporting research to find new treatments and improve the speed of diagnosis.

With only one in three people being able to name a symptom of the cancer; many cases go unnoticed. More than half of people, with the disease, die within just three months of diagnosis, according to Pancreatic Cancer UK.

To support Pancreatic Cancer UK or ‘take on challenge 24’ yourself visit https://pcam.pancreaticcancer.org.uk/.