Family's vow to raise £10,000 for dad Chris

Chris Robinson, of Grenoside, was diagnosed with the disease - often labelled ‘the silent killer’ - just two weeks before his death, last October.

Now wife Annette, and daughters Jenny Christie and Sami Massey are undertaking a series of challenges to raise funds in his name, for Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Jenny, aged 36, said: “My dad had just taken retirement when he started complaining of stomach ache that he said felt a bit like trapped wind. After a few weeks, he went to the GP who prescribed him something to relieve trapped wind. A week later, the pain was still there and the GP sent dad straight to the hospital that same day, September 28. He died on October 20, just two weeks after being diagnosed with Stage 4 Pancreatic Cancer.

“My sister and I did a lot of research into pancreatic cancer while dad was in hospital and we learned that a diagnosis often comes too late as its early symptoms are so vague and often attributed to something less serious. Unlike other cancers, pancreatic cancer has seen no significant improvement in survival rates in the last 40 years. Research is severely underfunded but desperately needed.”

Six months after Chris’s death, Jenny, Annette and Sami formed ‘Robbo’s Angels’ to raise awareness of the disease, along with £10,000 which they hope will fund life-saving research into the early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.

Jenny, of Barnsley, said: “The gap in all our lives since dad’s death is immense and we are truly heart-broken, but we’re also determined that something good come out of all this. We’d really love the money we raise to be invested in further training for GPs and perhaps even to go towards developing a tool which would aid GPs in identifying some of the common symptoms of pancreatic cancer that patients present with.”

Robbo’s Angels have already raised £2,700 towards their target, and will take on their biggest challenge yet when they walk 210 miles in November, from Brentford Football Club in West London - where Chris was originally from - to the family home in Grenoside.

Visit www.justgiving.com/fundraising/RobbosAngels to donate.