Press release
9 March 2026
Year on year the hundreds of runners taking part in this event for Addenbrooke’s have been raising extraordinary amounts of money to help make this amazing hospital even better – with money raised through the event over the past three years going towards helping build the groundbreaking new Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital.
Sophie Street, Community Fundraiser at ACT, said in response to the success; “It’s incredible to think that as recently as 2022 we had just four runners taking part in this event, and this year over 200 runners registered to toe the start line as part of Team Addenbrooke’s!”
“Seeing that many people running in our tops, each one with their own personal story of why Addenbrooke’s is special to them, and why the Cancer Research Hospital is so important, has been incredible. All the events we get involved in are special but seeing those hundreds of people coming together and running this race, right here in Cambridge, was amazing, and I loved how so many of our runners made an extra special effort to come and say hi at our charity marquee before and after the race!”
Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital is planned to be built on the Cambridge Biomedical Campus, Europe’s largest biomedical campus. The specialist facility for the East of England will unite world-class healthcare with cutting-edge research to transform the way we prevent, diagnose and treat cancer. The pioneering research that will take place in the three research institutes embedded inside the hospital is expected to have a global impact – starting here in Cambridge but changing the lives of people with cancer all over the world.
Dr Hugo Ford, Clinical Lead for Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital and Director of Cancer Services at Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said:
“It’s fantastic to see so many runners raising money for the Cambridge Cancer Research Hospital, we’re grateful to everybody who took part this year. The funds raised will go towards our ground-breaking new hospital which will enable us to detect cancer earlier, treat it more precisely, and save more lives.”
For Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust this event has grown year on year, and with each year it just gets better and better. ACT’s Director of Communications & Impact, Paul White, who laced up his trainers for the event, said at the end: “This event is on our doorstep, so of course it was always going to be special to us. But the whole way around I was looking at my fellow runners, the thousands of people lining the course cheering, and the crowds of people at the event village on Midsummer Common, thinking each one them will have their own story to tell about Addenbrooke’s, and that really helped me to carry on putting each foot in front of the next.”
Among the 200 runners representing Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust on Sunday was Boe Claybourn (R), who clocked an extraordinary time of 1hr 16minutes. Boe was running for Addenbrooke’s having been treated at the hospital for Addison’s disease, a rare, chronic, and potentially life-threatening disorder where the adrenal glands are damaged and cannot produce sufficient cortisol and aldosterone. Often resulting from an autoimmune attack, the symptoms of Addison’s disease include extreme fatigue, weight loss, low blood pressure, as well as nausea and abdominal pain. What makes Boe’s result even more amazing was that he was running with an arm in a cast following a recent car accident!
Also crossing the finish line on Sunday was mother-of-two Sunita Mena from Essex, who underwent a lifesaving liver transplant following acute liver failure. Sunita, who had been fit and healthy up until a few days before, learnt her condition was brought on by two overlapping autoimmune conditions.
Unable to breathe following surgery, Sunita was given a tracheostomy – and had to re-learn how to walk, talk, eat and drink after the operation. Whilst recovering and undertaking regular physio and speech therapy sessions, Sunita was diagnosed with cancer and remarkably it was during her treatment that she decided to sign up for this year’s race.
Before race day, Sunita told us “This, for me, is not ‘just a half marathon’. It’s a deeply personal way to honour a second chance at life, raise awareness of organ donation and support a future where cancer care improves the lives of many. This half marathon is my way of giving back, and in honour of my donor and her family, my fellow transplantees, cancer warriors and their families, and everyone facing health challenges along their journey.” Read more of Sunita’s story.
Running for the second year in a row was Chris Doughty, 47, from Elmswell in Suffolk who was keen to raise money for the new cancer hospital after his son, Oli, was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia back in 2018 when he was just 10 years old and treated at Addenbrooke’s.
In a cruel twist of fate, Chris and his wife, Claire, found out Oli had leukaemia whilst supporting their close friends, Garry and his wife, Lisa, who were going through the same journey after their daughter, Arlea, then 11, had been diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia a year earlier.
The two men, whose friendship spans over 20 years after meeting in the prison service where they both work, ran the Cambridge half for ACT last year, along with Chris’s wife Claire, Chris’ daughter Lottie, now 22, and son Tom, now 25.
Although Chris alone ran this year, both men want to use their experiences to raise awareness of childhood cancer and to champion the new cancer hospital and the innovative new treatments and specialist facilities that it will offer – something that Garry has experienced himself after Arlea relapsed back in 2024.
Garry said even with only five years between Arlea finishing her treatment and her second cancer diagnosis, he could see how much treatments for cancer patients like Arlea had progressed. The now 20-year-old received genetic mapping as part of her second treatment and whilst she wasn’t able to undergo immunotherapy treatment, she received a progressive treatment called Car-T therapy and later underwent a bone marrow transplant thanks to a donor from Germany.
Describing childhood cancer as a “whole world you don’t want to be exposed to”, Garry said the care that Arlea had received at Addenbrooke’s had been “second to none.” Read more of their story here.
To show runners like Boe, Sunita, and Chris how much their efforts were appreciated the charity had over 50 people at their dedicated cheer point in St John’s College, along with friends and family of the runners, and joined by the Cambridge Community Samba Band, Arco Iris, and Victoria’s Academy of Dance cheerleading group – all of whom helped make a riot of noise that carried participants through the miles to come.
ACT’s Sophie said:
“We wanted to make sure no runner was left in any doubt as to how proud we were of them, and we wanted that noise, that experience to be so rapturous that it would stay with them all the way around the course.”
Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust are looking to carry on their record-breaking run next year with even more runners raising even more money. Head of Community Fundraising at ACT, Donna Lee-Willis, said after the race; “Every year we increase our target for the number of runners we want to join Team Addenbrooke’s and every year we exceed that. We’re expecting our places for next year’s race to go as fast as some of our runners ran, so if anyone reading this wants to be part of the greatest team in Cambridge get in touch fast!”
Runners’ places on the official Cambridge Half Marathon website sell out within minutes once places go live, but anyone who wants to guarantee their place for next year can sign up and run for Addenbrooke’s Charitable Trust today by visiting www.act4addenbrookes.org.uk/cambridgehalf.
The Cambridge Half Marathon has become one of the country’s bucket list races, and by running for Addenbrooke’s you get the added benefit of helping to change and save lives!
