'I'm fighting cancer but I'll do the 2025 Great North Run - even if it's in a wheelchair'

The award-winning fundraiser known to thousands as ‘Big Pink Dress’ said: ‘I am one hundred per cent going to do it even if someone has to push me round the course in a wheelchair’.

Checking for more cancer cells

The mega-fundraiser had surgery in May 2024 at the Freeman Hospital in Newcastle after experts found a mass behind his bowel.

He could still be facing further surgery and told the Sunderland Echo and Shields Gazette that he faces further tests in January.

Experts will check if he still has remnant cells of the original cancer. If he does, more chemotherapy could be on the way and he said: “I am hoping I won’t have to’.

Years of health setbacks

It would be yet another setback for Colin who has faced years of health setbacks including;

Being rushed to South Tyneside District Hospital in 2019 after suffering a problem with a valve in his heart and high blood pressure.

Having an operation for skin cancer in 2021. He had a mole removed on the back of his leg at the top of his thigh.

Facing surgery in May 2024 when doctors had to operate on his lymph nodes.

And now being told that he has Type 2 diabetes.

He runs in costumes weighing four stones

Despite it all, Colin has never stopped thinking of others and said: “I do feel fine now and I am trying to take it as easy as possible until 2025.”

Colin is a regular and familiar face in Sunderland where he supports the annual 10k race as well as many other local causes.

In his ten years of fundraising, he has raised more than £150,000 for charitable causes including Breast Cancer.

Colin, 55, became famous for his charity efforts which saw him wearing extravagant dresses - some weighing almost four stones - while competing in the likes of the London Marathon and Great North Run on numerous occasions.

Nancy Sinatra and the Kaiser Chiefs

By 2019, he had raised £104,000 and worn 56 different dresses while tackling some of the biggest races in the world.

He is a friend to the stars, gets Tweets from Nancy Sinatra, and once was asked for a selfie by Ricky Wilson of the Kaiser Chiefs.

He’s met Matt Baker, Phil Tufnell, Brendan Foster (his idol), Paula Radcliffe, the Archbishop of York, and Kevin Keegan.

Colin started his mega fundraising quest 10 years ago and is showing no signs of letting up despite his cancer battle.

‘Jo has done amazing work’

This time, he is raising funds and awareness of South Shields woman Jo Shaw Pyke, who works as a counsellor at South Tyneside’s Cancer Connections charity.

Jo has spoken out about her own diagnosis, which doctors have said is incurable.

Colin said: “Jo has done amazing work at Cancer Connections for 13 years helping people with consultations and she ended up getting cancer herself.

“It is a lot harder for me to fundraise now but I am 100 per doing this.”

How you can help

Jo has discovered a treatment called TIL therapy, which she says could prolong her life.

TIL therapy treatment trials are ongoing across Europe and the United States, but it is currently unavailable in the UK.

To find out more about Colin’s support for Jo, visit here.