West Lothian superheroes to run marathon to raise money for cervical cancer mum-of-two

Two superheroes will be running from Livingston Village to Whitburn this Sunday March 21 in an effort to raise funds for inspiring Rachel Kennedy who, at age 32, has been diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Stephen Brown and Ross Delaney will don Spiderman and Iron Man morphsuits to run the 7.5 miles to raise funds which will go towards alternative treatments for Rachel and a treat for her two young children, Lewis, aged five, and Jude, aged four, who picked out their two superhero costumes.

In November 2020, single mum Rachel was devastatingly diagnosed with cervical cancer.

Originally she thought that she was experiencing abnormal bleeding due to having a mirena coil fitted after the birth of her second son, however it turned out to be stage three cervical cancer.

A gruelling treatment plan was put in place, however, in February this year, doctors described her cancer as ‘aggressive’ and she was told that her tumour had grown and spread to both her lungs, which tragically meant that her cancer was now stage four, and treatment was no longer in place to cure her but to prolong her life.

A new treatment plan was discussed and should Rachel tolerate a gruelling round of chemotherapy her life expectancy would be between 12 and 17 months.

A fundraiser set up by Rachel’s family has so far raised more than £30,000 for alternate treatments, with a proportion to be given to her two children as something special.

Mr Brown, 37, a long time friend and former colleague of Rachel’s wants to do all he can to help the mum-of-two.

Stephen and Ross will don superhero costumes picked out by Rachel's children to raise money on their run this Sunday

“Myself, like anyone who knows Rachel wants to help out as much as possible,” he said, “We’ve already been involved in the fundraising so far, last weekend we did a two hour long raffle to raise money for the fundraiser which raised an incredible £10,000.”

He added that through work he has helped with a number of fundraisers over time, and has never seen a reaction like it.

“For the run this weekend we wanted to make sure that the kids were involved, so we made it based around superheroes, because Rachel is a superhero to us,” he said, “Lewis and Jude picked out the costumes and chose Spiderman and Iron Man and we are running from ours in Livingston Village to Rachel’s in Whitburn.”

The superheroes will set off at around 10:30am on Sunday morning and will pass through Eliburn, Seafield and Blackburn before completing the run in East Whitburn.

They have mapped out their run with estimated times so people can show up to support or local kids can see the superheroes

“There’s a lot of motivation to complete it from an emotional perspective,” Mr Brown said, “Rachel and her family have done so much to raise awareness of cervical cancer and we want to help raise awareness and money for the cause as much as possible.”

Since she was diagnosed with the condition, Rachel has been keeping a blog of her experiences and raising awareness of cervical cancer on Facebook and Instagram titled Be the Queen of your own Castle which has more than 8,000 followers.

Those wishing to support Stephen and Ross’s run with donations can do so on the dedicated PayPal.

Rachel Kennedy’s fundraiser can be found on GoFundMe.

They hope to raise as much as possible for Rachel's fundraiser which will go towards alternate treatments and a special treat for her young children

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