BUSINESSWOMAN Leah Chowdhry has faced many challenges in her life, not least a terrifying swim across the English Channel – the first British Asian woman to do so.
But none of them match the emotional challenge of watching her father go through gruelling cancer treatment.
Her dad, Jeff, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia six years ago and needed six months of tough chemotherapy.
The experience drove her to want to help improve future treatments for other cancer patients, so she began fundraising for Cancer Research UK.
Her Channel swim raised an impressive £105,000 for CRUK.
Her latest venture draws together many of her life milestones – an early holiday experience in India that taught her life wasn’t fair for all children, challenging cultural and gender ‘rules’ and the lessons she learnt when taking on the Channel – an aim that pushed her to the limit of her physical and mental strength.
This is all encapsulated in a book called Making a Splash, the story of a little girl working her way through life’s challenges on her way to adulthood. It aims to inspire and change children’s mindset from a ‘I can’t’ to ‘I can’ and raise money for Cancer Research UK for Children & Young People, the part of Cancer Research UK dedicated to supporting research into cancers affecting 0-24-year-olds.
Leah, 29, runs a childcare event company called Pop up Party & Play and lives in Victoria, central London.
She said: “My dad was diagnosed six years ago. It was so shocking. He needed chemotherapy and it was hard. He was nauseous, he was exhausted, he couldn’t leave the house. He got through it, but it was hard.
“At the time, there was a drug being developed on a clinical trial but dad couldn’t join it. However, six years on, because of continued research, the drug is available and he is now able to have it. It isn’t chemotherapy, it’s a targeted treatment and it means he just has to take two tablets a day, so not the debilitating experience he had before.
“The drug, *acalabrutinib, will basically keep him alive, and we are so grateful for that.”
Leah will launch the book in London on March 3, with celebrity support from football manager Jimmy Floyd Hasselbaink, JLS singer Aston Merrygold and singer and former EastEnders actress Preeya Kalidas.
The aim is to get the book into schools, hospitals, children’s homes and orphanages abroad to help guide children through some of the challenges she faced and instil in them that whatever their fears, anything is possible.
Included in the book is a Q&A on her Channel swim, which answers the questions from inquisitive young minds like ‘Were there sharks?’ and ‘Did you wee in the sea?’, It also includes suggested activities and exercises for turning negatives into positives.
Leah has already sold more than 1700 advance copies and aims to raise £35,000 for Cancer Research UK.
She has also recently become a campaigns ambassador for Cancer Research UK and aims to set up a Business Beats Cancer group which will draw together other like-minded business people, to raise money for the charity’s life-saving research.
Michelle Mitchell, Chief Executive Officer of Cancer Research UK, said: “Leah is a much-valued supporter of Cancer Research UK.
“We’re delighted and grateful she has decided to continue to support the charity. The proceeds of the sale of Making A Splash are pledged to Cancer Research UK for Children & Young People, where the money raised will be ring-fenced to fund research to improve survival and reduce long-term side effects for children and young people with cancer.
“Our vision is to bring forward the day when all cancers are cured. In the 1970s fewer than a quarter of people with cancer survived. During the last 40 years survival has doubled and today half will survive their diagnosis. Our ambition is to accelerate progress and see three quarters of all those diagnosed surviving cancer within the next 20 years.
“With the help of people like Leah we are moving closer to that vision every day.”
