2013 was not a good year in the Kent-Mullen household as the "Big C" entered our life in a rude and unexpected fashion. 2014 is off to a great start and we have put 2013 behind us already. This time last year, my Janey underwent 2 operations to remove an aggressive cancerous breast tumor. Following the operations, Janey endured a brutal chemo treatment for sixteen weeks followed by radio therapy for five weeks. She was at war with this thing for most of the year, she stared it down, and prevailed. That's my girl!! I am taking on three big challenges in honour of Janey and as a token of my love, admiration, and gratitude for all that we have together, especially our lovely kids Jenna, James, Hugo and Jack who were absolute little heroes throughout the difficult periods in 2013. First, I will run the Boston Marathon on April 21 2013 with Dana Farber. I will be accompanied by six friends (Thomas Hickey, Niall Kearns, Willy Walker, Tony Zappala, Frederic Berney and Giles Peterhans) all running for Team Janey under the DFMC banner. Nine days later, I will take on my second challenge, the formidable Patrouille des Glaciers www.pdg.ch, skinning / touring from Zermatt to Verbier over 53KM with +4,100M of climbing and -4,000 of decent. I hope to accomplish this enormous challenge with my good friend from Brown and HBS, Oliver Gardey. Thank you Oliver for the inspiration! We will be accompanied by Nico Poncet who is a Chamonix Mountain Guide. Again, I will be participating under the Team Janey banner. Then in July, I will complete the Etape de Tour de France from Pau to Hautacam which includes the famous Col du Tourmalet. Depending on her strength and fitness, Janey may join me in this challenge. My objective is to raise at least €100,00 for three cancer focused research and treatment groups. First, Dana Farber in Boston who need no introduction. Thank you to my old friends Jan Ross and Jack Fultz for facilitating my team's participation, we won't let you down. Second, I will direct one-third of the funds raised to SONGE www.songe.ch in Geneva which is the breast cancer expert network group to which Eric Megevan (Janey's surgeon), Anne Hugli (Janey's Oncologist) and Bernard Ody (Janey's Radiologist) belong. Thank you guys for the phenomenal care you delivered, world-class and so warm, not much more I can say. Finally, one-third of the funds will go to the Irish Cancer Society www.cancer.ie. Both Janey and I were very moved by the completely selfless and brave actions of Majella O' Donnell when she shaved her head on national TV the night before her chemo was to begin last year. It was very moving and we would like to add to the enormous funds she raised that evening with our own small contribution from this fundraising initiative. We will get the ball rolling on the €100,000 objective with €33,000 of our own funds and look forward to your support and encouragement in the coming months. Please excuse my intrusions in the coming months as I put a sharp focus on this objective. I hope you won't find my emails and updates to bothersome. Thank you to all our family and friends for the enormous support last year. We would not have made it without you. You can support the Janey Kent Mullen Challenge Fund using the following channels:
(1) Dana Farber Marathon Challenge at www.rundfmc.org
(2) The Irish Cancer Society on Just Giving at www.justgiving.com/TeamJaneyKentChallengeFund
(3) SONGE Geneva or any of the chosen charities by wiring directly to any of the accounts below at UBS Geneva. Account CHF : CH50 0024 0240 3977 6104 Q
Account EUR : CH73 0024 0240 3977 6164 E
Account USD : CH67 0024 0240 3977 6165 M
Each of the above accounts are segregated sub-accounts under our main UBS account so you should wire to SONGE Geneva C/O Fergal Mullen & Jane Kent at UBS Geneva per the above account details. All our love and warm hugs,
Fergal and Janey.
