**Update 21/07/2016**

A huge thank to all of the cyclist and support team for taking part in our recent cycling challenge to Hunstanton, all of your hard training and fundraising efforts has paid off. On behalf of the cyclists we must say a huge thank you to our amazing support team who kept us going all those miles, we couldn’t have done it without you, not only did you keep us sane, you fed, watered and gave us enormous amounts of encouragement which clearly paid off. We have raised (and the donations are still coming in) an amazing amount of money for pancreas and liver cancer research already which is overwhelming and a 100% of the money we have raised will be used to continue to fund our research. Thank you

**Update**

A special thank you to all our patients, colleagues, friends, families who have helped fundraise in so many ways either by joining us in the charity bike ride, donating raffle prizes, donating on line, buying raffle tickets, baking wonderful cakes for our cake sale and donating in memory of their loved one, we are extremely grateful to you all.

Hello Everyone,

It’s that time of year again when we start to get ready of our charity bike ride to help raise funds for liver and pancreas cancer research in Leicester. This is a team effort and involves patients, surgeons, research fellows, specialist nurses, clinical support worker, theatre staff, scientists, anaesthetists, hospital nurses, senior managers, general practitioners and community nurses, family, friends and colleagues from the pharmaceutical industry who all come together and work extremely hard for months in their own time to prepare for this charity event.

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating disease that affects up to 8,000 people each year in the UK, it’s the 4th commonest fatal cancer in the UK with a worst survival than any other cancer.

It is very difficult to treat at any stage but sadly due to the fact that it generally presents when quite advanced the majority of patients cannot be cured. Liver cancers are most frequently caused by tumours which have spread from the bowel and affect around 18,000 people each year. If surgery is possible the outcome is dramatically improved.

The department of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery (HPB) at Leicester General Hospital regularly conducts research into the causes and treatments of these cancers. Unfortunately there is very little money available from the government or major charities who concentrate on better known cancers (breast, lung and prostate). Everyone involved in this charity event realises the importance of raising money to support the research being done in Leicester by our young surgeons and scientists. Organising studies and analysing samples to help us learn and understand the processes involved in the development and resistance of cancers is very expensive and as a consequence we need to find ways of raising money to ensure that this vital work can continue. Last year we raised an astonishing £42.544.17 and this is invaluable to support on-going research into these dreadful cancers. Despite all the hard work the event is a fantastic team building exercise and enjoyed by everyone who realises the importance of raising money to support the research being done by our young surgeons and scientists. These young doctors are doing their research for higher degrees and it costs about £12,000 to support their “bench fees”, the equipment, chemicals and reagents each year, so the money raised will allow two of them to continue for a further two years. All the research that is done in our unit is published.

Due to success of the bike rides and popular demand on Saturday 18th June 2016 the team have decided to take on the challenge again and raise more money to support our research and this year the challenge is to sunny Hunstanton again! 

For more information about Leicester HPB Unit please visit www.hpbleicester.com