TWO women are hoping to raise £2,000 for research into pancreatic cancer with a 20-mile walk.

Natasha Pattison, 35, who lives off London Road, Chipping Norton, was inspired to start fundraising after losing her friend Nicole Cooke to the disease last year.

She said: “We started working together in 1999 and we became really close.

“We went for the same sort of jobs and studied for exams together.

“It was a terrible shock last year when she went on holiday and had heart burn, and then from that they discovered this tumour.”

Although doctors originally said the tumour was inoperable, Ms Cooke found a surgeon at the Royal Marsden Hospital in London willing to operate last June.

However, she died on July 27, a month after the operation, aged 53.

Mrs Pattison said: “In Chipping Norton they do a walk every year for breast cancer and I thought I would like to do a 20 mile walk, but for pancreatic cancer.”

She enlisted the help of friend and neighbour Helen Hayes, 47, and the pair decided to devise their own route for a trek on Saturday, May 23.

They will start the walk in Chipping Norton and head to Warwickshire.

The pair have already been pledged £330 for the Pancreatic Cancer Research Fund.

Mrs Pattison said: “The problem with this sort of cancer is it’s not usually diagnosed until it’s far too late, so it’s not something that is terribly preventable. This will raise money for research.”

The pair are now walking about 24 miles a week, including one long 14-mile walk at the weekend and two five-mile walks during the week, to prepare for the fundraising event.

Mrs Pattison said: “The first long one I did, I thought I would be able to do 20 miles easily, but then when we did 14 miles this weekend it was really hard, and I’m aching quite a lot.”

She said they were currently covering 14 miles in about three-and-a-half hours and hoped to complete the full distance in five-and-a-half hours.

Although the pair are not seeking other people to take part, Mrs Pattison said if anyone was keen to join them and help with their fundraising, they should e-mail her at tasha.pattison@btinternet.com To sponsor the walkers, see justgiving.com/thechippygirls fbardsley@oxfordmailco.uk