When Mark Solan signed up for a charity event he had no idea he would become a record-breaking fundraiser, be short-listed for a Pride of Britain award and end up heading up a movement that aims to knock out cancer. Catherine Priestley spoke to him about his journey so far and where he is heading

MARK and I had been trying to catch up for months and when we finally managed to do coffee I was sandwiched between two meetings about his new cancer trust.

He’d taken a few days off work at menswear store Woven in Durham City to get on top of his bulging inbox, full of offers and cries for help, and to catch up with people who all want to be part of his campaign.

Last year Mark, from Spennymoor, County Durham, signed up for an Ultra White Collar Boxing match in aid of Cancer Research UK and raised an event-record £22,000 for the charity.

In doing so he won an army of admirers and built on the momentum by launching The Solan Connor Fawcett Family Cancer Trust- its name a tribute to friends Billy Connor and Margaret Fawcett who lost their lives to cancer during his fight training.

“To raise the national record was amazing, but I realised I wanted to do more, I had all this support and wanted to do something for local people so that is how it started,” he says.

In reality his journey from shop manager, which he still manages to do full time, to cancer crusader started with heartache.

When he was 22, and brother Michael was in his mid-teens, their mother Kay was diagnosed with terminal cancer. His dad Michael gave up work as a diesel fitter to care for her but she died within a year.

A decade later another key woman in his life, gran Edith Solan, lost her life to breast cancer.

“They were the most influential people in my life, to lose them almost killed me, I have struggled ever since.

“Seeing mam with cancer, then losing her was devastating and I don’t think we’ve ever come to terms with it.

“2015 was a massive year for me, I kept thinking it was nearly 20 years since mam died and I was about to turn 42, the same age she was when she died.

“In lots of ways I was dreading it so I wanted to turn it into something positive.

“At the time I thought she was so old, now I realise I’ve lived longer than she did so I have to make something of that.”

With friend Allan Wheatley as his wingman and a vast network of supporters, Mark is helping 54 families from Spennymoor and increasingly further afield.

Their support ranges from a well-timed bunch of flowers to funding a life-changing piece of equipment, replacing a broken television or vacuum cleaner for a cancer patient who already has enough on her plate to regular dinner dates at KFC with the family of a girl with leukaemia.

Such is his passion and empathy, Mark has become genuine friends with many of the cancer patients and families that have made contact with the trust.

Those closest to him worry he is taking on too much.

“It is hard but the memory of those I’ve lost and all the people we’re helping drives me on, I want Spennymoor to be known as a town fighting cancer, not being victim to it.”

He has big plans, securing charitable status for the trust at the top of the list.

In November it won a public vote- and £3,000- from Spennymoor Area Action Partnership to fit out a charity boutique which will become a base for all its activities and employ people affected by cancer.

It will funds its work by selling goods- with fancier stuff sold online to maximise its fundraising potential- and hugely popular branded merchandise- Team Solan hats, hoodies and baby grows are a regular sight around the town and have been snapped up by ex-pat supporters around the globe.

Mark won’t stop there- with an epic fundraiser being organised for late summer, plans to open a drop-in centre in Spennymoor and links with charities and health services growing he looks set to get even busier.

“It has got huge but I feel it is an opportunity for this community to stand up together and say we’re not going to let cancer beat us, we’re not going to watch families struggle on their own like mine did but support them,” he says with determination.

A few days after our coffee, Mark’s dad passed away. As we’d parted company he said he hoped his dad would read it and be proud. I think so.