Gower Tan
Cancer Research UK supporter, fundraiser, Campaigns Ambassador
Runner, challenger, crafter of great cocktails, lover of hospitality and life
BACKGROUND
If you ask people who know me the first word they would associate with me, then runner or running would probably top the list. I would hope that additional adjectives might include determined, passionate, inspiring and purpose driven. It wouldn’t surprise me if crazy or insane featured as well. The one other word I’m certain would feature is cancer. Thankfully not because I have cancer, although statistically one in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime so it is actually quite likely. So what is my link between running and cancer?
My dad was a lifelong smoker and died aged just 66 from lung cancer. Ironically he quit a couple of years earlier, sadly too late. I also smoked, starting aged just thirteen and spent twenty-five plus years unsuccessfully trying to quit. As a young kid I was the ‘sporty one’, running cross country and middle distance and a member of pretty well every sports team at middle school. Then I became addicted to a product which, when used as intended by the manufacturers, kills one in two long term users. The same product that undoubtedly led to my fathers lung cancer.
My closest effort to quit came shortly after I graduated from university, when unsurprisingly I was skint. My brother wagered me £500 that I couldn’t stop, so I took the challenge and lasted two years before paying him back after a drunken night and one fateful dose of nicotine. Approaching my fortieth birthday, I vowed to quit, get fit again, run the London Marathon and raise money for Cancer Research UK. Dad had run the very first London Marathon in 1981 and again in 1982 and I vividly remember watching him almost collapsed on a rain-swept Constitution Hill where the race used to finish.
My brother featured again, having just successfully quit himself, I took the same option and booked a session at the original Allen Carr quit clinic. I walked in to the upstairs room of his house in Raynes Park and emerged a few hours later with no desire to smoke whatsoever. However I did learn a great deal about smoking, tobacco manufacturers, lobbying, nicotine and other poisons found in cigarettes and much more – all of which were seeds that would later lead me to become a Cancer Research UK Campaigns Ambassador.
Having finally quit smoking in November 2009, I signed up for the 2010 London Marathon through a Cancer Research UK charity place. I’d barely run since middle school and the training was challenging, but I kept at it and finished the race. More importantly I smashed my fundraising target raising over £2,000. As I crossed the finish line on The Mall, I swore never to run a marathon again. I’ve been running and volunteering for Cancer Research UK ever since, attempting increasingly crazy challenges to raise awareness and funds for the lifesaving research they undertake.
Hence ‘Running All Over Cancer’
Increasingly motivated and angered by what I had learned at the smoking quit clinic several years prior, I became a Cancer Campaigns Ambassador in 2012. At the time, a campaign calling on the UK Government to introduce legislation requiring tobacco to be sold in plain, standardised packaging was about to start. Campaigns Ambassadors work with their MP, other local and central government politicians, ministers, committees and the like to help influence and shape policy and legislation to improve cancer outcomes.
The campaign for standardised tobacco packaging took three years and numerous actions, ranging from PR stunts to lobbying at political party conferences, media photo-shoots and helping publicise research evidence before the legislation was finally passed. Prior to becoming a Campaigns Ambassador, I had no real understanding of how our legislation was made, had never met my MP, didn’t really know the difference between Parliament and Government, I’d never campaigned at a party political conference, sat through a Lords or Commons debate – and certainly hadn’t met with any Government ministers, especially the Health Secretary!
LATEST PRESS
Marathon runner to see mum on 100-mile race
Henley Standard, 06 May 2022
Video interview with Alice Chancellor
MyLondon, 27 Dec 2021
(Also available here)
Running in memory of my father
Southwark News, 02 Dec 2021
The man who never stops running wins national award (Cancer Research UK Flame of Hope Award 2021, Allington Castle, Kent)
London Post, 17 Nov 2021
A tale of endurance and survival
London News Online, 25 Oct 2021
Taking on the ‘toughest footrace on earth’
London Post, 07 Oct 2021
WRITING
Lessons from the Sahara
[coming soon]
Face to Face with the Health Secretary
[coming soon]
GET IN TOUCH
If you fancy a chat about running, support for crazy challenges, fundraising, campaigning, cocktails or anything else, don’t hesitate to get in touch. I’m always available for help and advice and happy to come and talk in person or virtually about my experiences.
Running All Over Cancer 