“... overcome testicular cancer”
Jon Wright, 34, from Hertford
IT DID SEEM like the most ludicrous thing to do when you’ve been diagnosed with testicular cancer, twice, to get on a bike saddle and knacker ‘them’ completely by riding 8300 miles through 16 countries over six months. But I wanted to do something that said “f*@k you” to the cancer, and cycling around the world was it. After having surgery to remove one testicle an annual check-up revealed cancer cells in the remaining one, so I had to undergo radiotherapy.
Having cancer for a second time changed me. I decided to fight back. I was sitting in my oncologist’s office one day looking at a map of the world on the wall. I saw the Tropic of Cancer line and I decided to quit my job and, with my brother Dom, ride around the world and raise money for men’s cancer charities. I started training on the same bike I’d done my paper-round on when I was 13, an old Ridgeback.
We got sponsored and thankfully had new Ridgeback Voyage and Panorama touring bikes for the trip. We managed to clock up around 70 miles a day, starting from my old workplace, Barclays in the City of London, and riding through Europe, Asia, India, Vietnam, China and central America. We rode 8300 miles, doing talks along the way, raising awareness and money for four cancer charities. It was the adventure of a lifetime – with anxious moments in Libya and Mexico – meeting the most amazing, humbling people.
That journey helped me rebuild my life and put my priorities in perspective. Today I’m a father, thanks to the help of the Oxford Fertility Clinic, and cycling has kept me fit and given me the strength and motivation to put cancer in its place.