A recovering cancer patient wants people to put on running shoes and compete in the Bath Half Marathon to raise money for the Teenage Cancer Trust.

Jade Francis, 24, from Trowbridge, was diagnosed with leiomyosarcoma earlier this year and had two operations and radiotherapy.

Now in remission, she aims to run the 13.1-mile course on March 2, as part of the Path2Bath Teenage Cancer Trust Team to raise money towards the construction of the first specialist cancer unit for young people across the South West.

She said: “I received my treatment on an adult ward and, although the other patients were nice enough, I would have preferred to have been with people my own age, who had similar interests and could help each other.

“A teenage block could be turned into a more social thing, meeting people, rather than going just for treatment.”

Miss Francis, a property manager, will run with her father, John, and her youth worker, Vicky Britton.

The £2.5million unit is being built at Bristol Haematology and Oncology Centre, where Miss Francis had eight weeks of radiotherapy. The unit will allow young people, aged 16 to 24, from Bristol, Devon, Cornwall, Somerset, Wiltshire and Gloucestershire, to be treated with others their own age, in an environment suited to their needs.

Bridget Woodard, the trust’s fundraiser manager for the South West, said: “Every day in the UK, around seven young people are told they have cancer and over 200 are diagnosed across the South West every year.

“Teenage Cancer Trust relies on donations and we need to raise thousands more towards our Bristol unit.”

Registration costs £35 and a minimum sponsorship of £250 is required. To sign up, email katie. crossey@teenagecancertrust.org or call 07507 600286.