‘Walking helps my grief’
How one widow is walking miles every day to raise money to fight the disease that took her husband George
Laura and George Garnell were always pulling on their walking boots, hiking here there and everywhere to make the most of the great outdoors. Whether they were on holiday or at home in Liverpool, walking was always something they loved to do as a couple. Today, Laura still walks every single day, whatever the weather, and often for over ten miles at a time. However she now paces out those miles on her own, since George sadly passed away from prostate cancer in November last year. But this walk isn’t just a daily stroll any more as Laura’s walking has become both a way to tackle her grief and to raise money to help fund a future that’s cancer-free. Laura’s husband George was first diagnosed in 2014 after he and his brothers took tests for genetic prostate cancer following the death of his brother Eddie from the disease three years before.
“George took the news right on the chin and was so brave,” says Laura (65). While the recommended treatment was that George have radiation, sadly he couldn’t have this due to a complication called myelodysplastic syndrome, which affected his bone marrow and his ability to produce red blood cells and platelets. Instead, he was offered a course of hormone injections to reduce the tumour and this seemed to work for a while, until he gradually started to become
unwell again. “He seemed to be losing weight, was tired all the time and kept getting bouts of flu. We’d booked to go on holiday in May 2016 and while I said we’d cancel, he insisted we go but he wasn’t well. While we used to be keep-fit fanatics and do lots of walking and swimming, he just couldn’t do it.”
When they came back, George was referred to hospital for more tests which revealed things had got much worse.
“His prostate level had gone from 0.08 to 1,200 in the space of a few months which was dangerously high. The cancer had also spread to his lymph nodes and bones and it was then that they told us his condition was terminal. “I nearly collapsed as I couldn’t take it in. But George said, ‘OK, let’s get on with it’.”
While George was initially cared for at home with the help of Macmillan nurses, he eventually moved to the Marie Curie hospice where he spent his final weeks. “He always had the nurses and doctors in stitches because he was such a funny man. Right to the last, he was fighting and found humour in things.” On November 2, 2016, George sadly passed away. Laura, of course, was devastated but soon found a good way to help ease her pain was to get outside and walk. And it was while out on a walk one day that she remembered an article she’d read in the local newspaper about a singer who was raising money for North West Cancer Research, an independent research charity taking on the toughest forms of the disease to help people overcome cancer and maybe one day find a cure.
In the article, the charity had been looking for other people to do challenges to help fundraise for them and Laura had the brainwave that she could walk to raise funds. Now she goes out walking every day and for every ten miles she walks, she donates £1 to the charity and asks others to do the same. So far she’s done more than 800 miles and while she’s not tracking the total, she must have raised over £400 from her own money and that of her supporters. “I know it’s not a great deal of money at once but I’m going to do this for however long my health will allow, every single day so I hope by the end it could be quite a bit.”
Since starting the challenge, Laura has also been on a tour of the Cancer Research facilities to see where her money will be going, which she found inspirational. While she usually walks on her own, sometimes her 18-year-old granddaughter comes too, and they pass Liverpool’s two cathedrals where they light a candle for granddad George. “Walking has been so therapeutic for me and I know I’m doing good, too. “If someone had said to me in advance what I’d go through and how allengulfing the grief would be after George died, I’d have thought I’d never be able to get through it. But I’ve somehow found strength I didn’t know I had and walking has helped me immensely.
“I know George would be made up that I’m doing this. Walking was something we both enjoyed so much and he’d be pleased too, that I was carrying out his wishes by getting on with my life.”
‘ I’ve somehow found strength I didn’t know I had and walking has helped me immensely’