A man will visit more than 100 Cambridge pubs this weekend – not because he is very thirsty but in an extraordinary challenge to raise money to fund research into the rare cancer that killed his sister.
Tom Foddy who lost his sister, Samantha, six years ago to sarcoma is preparing to take on an extraordinary challenge across Cambridge to raise money for Sarcoma UK. The two-day effort is inspired by Samantha, whose diagnosis came after years of unexplained pain and whose death at the start of the Covid lockdown left a lasting impact on those who knew her.
Samantha’s problems began when she started having hip pain. She went to her doctor, had back and hip scans but was originally told she had period pain, then a joint problem or sciatica. Seeking relief, she went for massages and even tried acupuncture. She was aged 33 at time and was an active young woman who liked netball and jogging.
She had a second MRI scan on her hip and a doctor spotted a shadow. More tests followed and in April 2019 – two years after her first symptoms – Samantha received the shocking news that she had epithelioid haemangioendothelioma, a very rare type of sarcoma. A tumour in her thigh had grown into her hip and back.
After diagnosis, she had radiotherapy, a really strong dose that burnt her leg. Samantha was told the cancer was too far gone for surgery.
‘It was shocking how quickly she went downhill,’ said Tom. Three months after diagnosis, she was in hospital. Between July 2019 and March 2020, she was only out of hospital once, which was at Christmas.
Tom described her mindset as ‘denial, she thought she could beat it. Every day, she was planning for the future. Deep down she didn’t want to believe it. She had kept a lot from us, her family. It was only after she passed on that we found packets of painkillers around her home and in her car.’
He has since learned that, in her job for a water company, a colleague had caught her lying on the floor, screaming in pain.
Samantha, from Fordham, Cambridgeshire, died aged 36 in March 2020. Tom said: ‘She died on the first day of the first Covid lockdown. Only four people were allowed at her funeral. For someone so loved, it was such a sad way to go out.’
Tom said his sister helped food charities, the homeless and Water Aid at Glastonbury. ‘She was very giving, a ray of sunshine and loved sunflowers.’
Now Tom, 40, from Worlington, Suffolk, is taking part in a two-day pub challenge on 5 and 6 June in Cambridge for Sarcoma UK. The route will be more than 100 pubs over 47 miles. ‘Even I couldn’t manage a pint at every stop – this one’s about the miles, not the pints,’ said Tom.
He has already held three festivals in his sister’s memory and aims to raise £100k in total for charity. He hopes his pub challenge will bring in £2,500 for Sarcoma UK.
Tom works for a pub company himself and calls pubs ‘social anchors’. ‘My sister loved pubs, it was a big thing for us. When I turned 18, she was two years older and we went to pubs in Cambridge. She loved the city, loved its pubs. Pubs are community hubs where you can speak to people openly.
‘Raising money for Sarcoma UK feels like the right thing to do – personally and professionally. With my background in pubs, this challenge brings together everything that matters: community, resilience, and remembering someone properly.’
Sarcoma UK’s Director of Fundraising and Communications, Kerry Reeves-Kneip, said: ‘Sarcoma is a devastating disease that too often goes undiagnosed for far too long, as Samantha’s story so painfully shows. Tom’s incredible pub challenge will help us change that, funding the research and support that sarcoma patients and their families so urgently need. We are incredibly grateful to him for turning his grief into something so positive and so powerful.’
To donate to Tom, go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/cambridgepub2pub
