Edinburgh Marathon runner raises money to support cancer screening

A Hellesdon man who credits the bowel screening team at the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital with saving his father's life is pulling on his running shoes as a gesture of thanks.

Shaun Lowthorpe, 42, is running the Edinburgh Marathon at the end of this month to raise money for the bowel cancer screening fund at the hospital.

His father Walter, 70, from Mile Cross, was successfully diagnosed and treated for the disease at the hospital.

Father-of-two Mr Lowthorpe, publishing editor (business) at Archant, which produces the Norwich Evening News, said: 'Without the screening team at the hospital my dad Walter would not be alive today.

'They first diagnosed that he had cancer and since then he has been successfully treated and has not looked back since.'

Walter had surgery to remove sections of his bowel and received eight months of chemotherapy. He has been given the all clear.

The hospital was one the first sites to introduce the new national screening programme to help detect bowel cancer at an early stage, when treatment is more likely to be effective.

Shaun's daughter Josephine, nine, has already raised £60 for her dad's fundraising effort by selling cakes.

To sponsor him visit https://mydonate.bt.com/fundraisers/shaunsedinburghmarathon2015The Edinburgh Marathon is on Sunday, May 31.