Sunday Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Running with terminal cancer
I’M finally home from the Arctic. It’s great being with my family and enjoying creature comforts like my comfy bed rather than a tent in the snow.
Usually after a big race like the 6633 Arctic Ultra challenge you need a mental and physical rest. But with just 14 days before I go to the
Sahara for the Marathon des Sables – six desert marathons in six days – there is too much to do.
I was in Canada when my father Rodney died from cancer. Its therapeutic now to go through his belongings. Everything we find shows how caring, fair and meticulous he was. We’ve learned more about his early life than he ever told us.
On a personal level, I lost a big chunk of a tooth eating frozen chocolate in the Arctic!
My dentist is concerned about my jaw as I am on bone-strengthening drugs so I get a very temporary filling.
Next, Russian roulette at the hospital – a monthly test to see if my prostate cancer has grown. It has stayed semidormant, but it’s still a rollercoaster of emotions.
It’s clear from the faces of others in the Royal Marsden waiting room that – understandably – the experience is difficult to take. It drives me on to do all I can to raise awareness and funds for Prostate Cancer UK. I’d love to help put cancer doctors and nurses out of a job one day!
Training for the Moroccan desert involves daily 90min Bikram hot yoga sessions in a 40°C room. Slightly sweatier than the Arctic.
I also need a doctor’s certificate to allow me to do the race. Without it the thousands of pounds and a year of training could all be for nothing.
After four days of tests and sleepless nights it is finally signed off. I can start to panic... and pack!
Faces of others drive me on. I’d love to help put cancer doctors and nurses out of work