LIVE FOR TODAY
Running with terminal cancer by Kevin Webber
Last week was a real low after a summit of a high. You may recall, I finished my gruelling 250km race across Jordan feeling amazing, but disaster struck 48 hours later as I was about to head home.
Clearly I must have picked up a bug somewhere as I was uncontrollably ill, non stop, and there was no way I could fly home. I was rushed to hospital as not only was there a virulent bug in me but with the temperature at 35ºc, I’d become dehydrated.
It was a sobering feeling being in a foreign hospital, thousands of miles from home, separated from family and friends, not knowing what was wrong, with doctors who spoke little English.
Plus I needed to try to sort out my insurance to cover the hospital cost and fly me home at a later date, not knowing when I’d be allowed to.
It brought back memories of chemo with tubes in my arm, feeling rubbish and fearing the worst. I also was unable to take my cancer drugs (and still can’t) so the fear the beast was having a party inside me came into my head.
But immediately I had a visit from the hotel’s owners (the bug did not come from them, by the way), who translated with doctors, phoned my insurance company, as I was in and out of consciousness, and made sure I was looked after.
Hotel management came twice a day for the four days I was there. When I asked why they were being so kind, they said: “You are in Jordan, you have no family here so we are your family.”
As I recovered in their hotel later, for free, it made me feel so humble.
I am better now and back home running again but I hope my story inspires you to think about how you could help random people. I know I will.
Until next week
I was so ill I could not take my drugs... I feared the beast was having a party in me