Endurance athlete and childhood cancer activist, Ashley Cain, has run marathons, ultramarathons, cycled the length of Britain, kayaked for 1000 miles and climbed one of the world’s highest peaks all in the name of his daughter, Azaylia, and to help fight childhood cancer.
On April 24th, the anniversary of Azaylia’s passing, Ashley is stepping up the fight and taking on a world’s first challenge, ULTRAMAN 2024. He will be crossing Britain three times from Land’s End to John O’Groats - once running, once cycling, and once kayaking, over the course of three months. That’s nearly 3,000 miles of physical endurance and mental strength.
The motivation for this unbelievable endeavour is the tragic passing of Ashley’s (and his then partner Safiyya Vorajee’s) baby daughter, Azaylia Diamond Cain, of leukaemia in April 2021 at just 8 months old. This unimaginable tragedy led the couple to create The Azaylia Foundation www.theazayliafoundation.com to help fight childhood cancer and to help change the attitudes and a system that still considers this cruel illness to be rare in children.
But this isn’t just a world’s first physical challenge. It’s an important opportunity to:
• Fund Raise: Ashley’s GoFundMe campaign will help raise monies for The Azaylia Foundation’s Childhood Cancer PhD Scholarship Programme. It has already funded 5 PhDs at the University of Oxford and the University of Birmingham, with ambition to reach a game changing target of 20 PhDs in five years. https://www.gofundme.com/f/ultraman-2024-a-worlds-first-for-childhood-cancer
• Campaign for Change: Childhood cancer is the NUMBER ONE killer of children under 15 in the UK, yet shockingly, it receives less than 3% of cancer research funding from our institutions. The Foundation is campaigning for change - for the mandatory inclusion of children in adult cancer research.*
• Meet The Community: Along the routes Ashley will be meeting the people who support this movement and are joining the fight against childhood cancer, especially families of children with cancer who are directly affected. Ashley’s commitment to Azaylia’s legacy and the ongoing success of The Azaylia Foundation is awe-inspiring. This ULTRAMAN challenge will fundraise, will campaign for change and will help take action against the number one killer of children in the UK.
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