Running five marathons in five months for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity

Dr Netty Kinsella, who works for The Royal Marsden, has completed five marathons in five months to support The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity.

07 November

In the run up to her 50th birthday, Dr Netty Kinsella completed five marathons to raise money for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity. The Uro-Oncology Nurse Consultant is passionate about improving cancer patients’ experience, and also helps run the Charity-funded Man Van – an outreach programme which provides free health checks for men and aims to ensure more cancers are diagnosed sooner.

Five marathons in five months

Dr Netty Kinsella completed four marathons solo and was joined in her fifth and final marathon by some of her colleagues from the Urology Unit.

Dr Netty Kinsella and colleagues — Dr Netty Kinsella (second from right) with colleagues from the Urology Unit at The Royal Marsden

Dr Kinsella said it was on her bucket list to do 10 marathons before she turned 50 but realised this year that she would have to do five more to hit her target.

“I had done a few half marathons at the beginning of the year but had to really step up my training for this challenge," she says. "I started doing daily runs to work at the Royal Marsden as well as an extra 20-30km run at the weekends.”

The Urology Unit team were due to run the Richmond Marathon as the final of the five marathons but it was cancelled. Instead they did their own version along the River Thames, which turned out to be Dr Kinsella's “favourite of them all”.

Improving cancer patients' experience

Dr Kinsella's incredible fundraising for The Royal Marsden Cancer Charity will support the creation of informative videos for patients that explain the diagnostic experience and pathway, a subject that is close to her heart.

Dr Kinsella runs a nurse-led diagnostic service at The Royal Marsden, where she has worked for seven years. “I’m especially interested in pathway innovation, including improving the speed of the pathway and the patient experience.”

Supporting Man Van

Dr Kinsella is also involved in running the Charity-funded Man Van – an innovative outreach programme which was launched by The Royal Marsden to provide free health checks for men and boost early diagnosis of prostate and other urological cancers.

Royal Marsden Nurse and patient wearing facemasks having a consultation inside the Man Van — A nurse and patient in the Man Van

The mobile health clinic is visiting workplaces and community organisations in London to improve healthcare access for men who are less likely to receive regular health checks and are at risk of having cancer diagnosed late, when it is more difficult to treat.

“It’s a challenging project," says Dr Kinsella. “But it’s been really interesting to work with the local community and collaborate with the team to work through the challenges.”