FRIENDS and family of Chloë Drury are rallying together to make sure the popular Purley teen is never forgotten.
The whole of Chloë's school year at St Philomena's in Carshalton are talking part in a sponsored walk on Tuesday to raise money for the Royal Marsden Hospital, which looked after Chloë during her battle with cancer.
One of Chloë's closest friends, Sarah Savage, who is planning to train as a nurse in her memory, said: "The Royal Marsden were amazing and did so much to help her and her family."
Sarah is also organising a team of Chloë's friends, as well as Debbie and Simon Binner, Chloë's mother and stepfather, and sister Hannah to enter the Race for Life on June 23 to raise money for Cancer Research.
She said: "I think a lot of people did not know how ill Chloë was and now that she's gone, they want to do everything they can to help.
"When something like this happens to someone close to you, you want to take every opportunity to make sure change can happen.
"We really want change in Chloë's name. She wanted these restrictions lifted – they are so unfair and make no sense. It's really important to us but also to all the other people who will be affected by this in the future."
Chloë's mother, Debbie Binner, said she had been delighted by the number of people who had approached her in and around Purley where she lives, asking her about Chloë's campaign and how they might help.
"It's great that the campaign is raising this kind of awareness and it's very touching to see Chloë's friends raise money for cancer charities," she said.
"The restrictions which prevented Chloë accessing the clinical trials that might have saved her are so complicated, it's often hard to say how people can help."
"The most important thing we can do is put a human face to the campaign to persuade politicians, drug companies and health officials to change the rules."
A group of Chloë's friends – George Shaw, 20, Michael Eglon, 20 and Remy Claustres, 19 – will be running the Tough Mudder – a gruelling 12-mile obstacle course that includes underwater challenges, electric shocks and rings of fire.
The trio are putting themselves through the ordeal on June 8 in Hampshire to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support.
George said: "We know Chloë was so courageous and had to go through so much pain.
"We wanted to do something really tough, to put ourselves through this kind of pain is not really a lot to give back.
"It's hard to explain how much impact Chloë had on our lives – everyone has been affected.
"It makes you realise that cancer is not just a statistic, even rare cancers like Chloë's. It really can hurt the people you love.
"Cancer does happen, people do die from it and people should do as much as possible to help with causes that might help."
