So much more than just a run

Every year for the past decade they have faithfully signed up for the emotion-charged event.

Many will run in memory of loved ones they have lost to cancer, while others will celebrate the fact they have conquered the disease.

Whatever the reason, they are united in one cause raising money to fund further research into cancer, with the hope of one day finding a cure.

There are plenty of tears, but the overall feeling on the day is joyous it is a celebration of life and what can be achieved when thousands of women get together to make a difference.

In the early days, about 1,000 women gathered to meet the 5km challenge at the Royal Victoria Country Park in Netley.

Since then it has grown into the largest single event of its kind in the country attracting 10,000 participants and hundreds of well-wishers to Southampton Common.

Organiser Lorna Glanfield said: "Cancer Research UK's Race for Life in Southampton is a fabulous event and I am delighted to be involved.

"I would like to wish all the women taking part, the best of luck with their fundraising and training."

Since the city's first race in 1997, the Southampton event has raised a whopping £2m.

Breakthroughs Organisers hope to raise £600,000 from this year's race, which will be started by round-the-world yachts-woman Dee Caffari.

Since Race for Life began in 1994, women across the country have raised more than £100m for Cancer Research UK.

In the past decade there have been many significant breakthroughs in the treatment of cancer, with more lives being saved all the time.

At the forefront of research in Southampton is Peter Johnson, Professor of Medical Oncology and Director of Cancer Research UK Clinical Centre.

"In the past decade there have been two major breakthroughs in cancer treatment," he said.

"One is the use of antibodies to boost the immune system. We are using antibodies to specifically target cancer cells instead of or as well as using chemotherapy. It gets the body's own immune system locked on to cancer cells and makes them more susceptible to chemotherapy.

"Then there are treatments that target specific pathways of cancer cells.

"The second treatment has come about as a result of understanding what makes cancer cells tick and what the crucial drivers are then we have developed a treatment specifically to interfere with that.

"It's like looking at a car and finding out where the fuel pipe is and specifically blocking that rather than just stopping everything in the car."

These treatments have helped to increase survival rates and made cancer care a more positive experience.

"When I tell people what I do for a living, they often say to me it must be depressing. But I tell them far from it there are lots of people in my clinic who are getting better and living normal lives.

Treatment "The treatments we have now are making real differences in people's likelihood of surviving certain types of cancer, like non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and breast and bowel cancers."

It costs £7m to finance the research programme in cancer at Southamp-ton Hospital, and Cancer Research UK gives £2m a year.

Researchers in Southampton are currently working on new types of antibodies and looking at the biology of cancer.

"More people will gradually be cured of cancers as time goes by, but that's not to say there will ever come a time when nobody dies of cancer.

"But if cancers can be caught early you have a much better chance.

"Cancer treatment is really changing astonishingly rapidly at the moment.

"The greatest problem is not the ideas, but how we best test them."

Last year, 1,400 patients took part in cancer trials in this area. In 2001 there were just 500.

"I find that people are very altruistic and concerned about the welfare of other people, and that's why they agree to take part in the trials.

"Often they can't see any good in their situation, but by getting involved in the trials they can see they might be able to help others in the future."

Race for Life takes place on Southampton Common on Sunday, July 16.