Little Bromley woman uses marathon challenge to find her dream job

Ellen Marshall, from Little Bromley, faces the challenge of a lifetime when she runs the London Marathon on 17 April. She will be raising money for Anthony Nolan, a pioneering charity that helps save the lives of people with blood cancer who need a blood stem cell transplant – and also her new employer.

Ellen, 25, decided to run for Anthony Nolan after hearing about the charity through friends. She explains, “A few of my friends have raised money for Anthony Nolan in the past, so I’ve always been aware of their work. I’ve already joined the Anthony Nolan register but I wanted to do something else to help. The thought that by raising money I might help to save someone’s life is incredibly motivating when I’m out training in the rain.”

She continues, “Coincidentally, when I visited their website to sign up, I noticed a vacancy in the Communications department. I’d been thinking about changing roles for a while, but this was the nudge I needed. I started my new job in January and now I couldn’t be happier.”

Ellen will be organising several fundraising events in Little Bromley, including a car boot sale and a quiz in her local pub. For more information, or to sponsor Ellen, please call 07824 362106 or visit www.virginmoneygiving.com/EllenMarshall. If you would like to sign up to one of Anthony Nolan’s events, or to find out about other ways in which you can help, please call 0303 303 0303 or email events@anthonynolan.org.

For more information, please contact Ellen Marshall on 020 7424 6606 / 07824 362106 or email ellen.marshall@anthonynolan.org.

Notes to editors

Anthony Nolan is a pioneering charity that saves the lives of people with blood cancer. Every day,  we use our register to match remarkable donors willing to donate their blood stem cells, or bone marrow, to people they have never met who desperately need lifesaving transplants.

We provide two potentially lifesaving transplants every day, but for every patient we can help, there is another who sadly we can’t because no match can be found.

To join the register, you must be aged between 18 and 40, weigh more than 8 stone (51kg) and be in general good health. For more information on the donating process, or to apply to join the register, visit www.anthonynolan.org or call 0303 303 0303.

On average, 65 people a day in the UK are diagnosed with a blood cancer – that’s one person every 23 minutes.

There are nearly 1,600 people in the UK in need of a bone marrow transplant.  This is usually their last chance of survival.

70% of patients will not find a matching donor from within their families.

80% of donations take place via PBSC (peripheral blood stem cell collection).  This is an outpatient appointment and is similar to donating blood.

Most donors talk about how wonderful it is to have saved someone’s life.

All new donors are welcome but young males and people from ethnic minority and mixed race backgrounds are underrepresented on the register.