“I rode the Western Front in my own battle against a lifethreatening brain tumour”
Kevin Fisher, 43, a builder from Sunbury-on-Thames, rode the Western Front to raise money for a brain cancer charity
“‘Whatever they say in that room, everything is going to be alright,’ I told my wife Kate on the eve of my appointment at St George’s Hospital in London in August 2019. Little did I know that would become my mantra.
In the year leading up to that moment, disorientation and problems with my vision led to GP visits, then MRI scans, then the discovery of a brain tumour. After surgery, a Grade 3 Anaplastic Oligodendroglioma (nicknamed an Oligo) was my diagnosis. I then endured six weeks of radiotherapy and 18 months of chemotherapy. Living with my Oligo is an ongoing journey, in three-month cycles between scans, managing the uncertainties of a brain tumour.
After retiring from rugby, I took up cycling, and I’ve been using it to give myself challenges for a sense of purpose and to prove to myself that I can still achieve my goals, but also to show others what can be achieved when faced with adversity.
In between chemotherapy cycles I ‘Everested’ (climbing the height of Everest, 8,848m) Box Hill in Surrey, pedalling over 366km in 24 hours, to raise funds for The Lewis Moody Foundation (a brain cancer charity set up by the former England rugby player) and The Brain Tumour
Charity. After my chemo ended, I completed the ‘Club des cinglés de Mont Ventoux’ three-ascent challenge of Ventoux in under eight hours. I also rode 1,000km to a clinic in Germany to help me fund innovative treatment which I’m still receiving. Now, with an incurable condition, I’m in the ‘watch and wait’ phase. So, in October 2023 I joined a charity ride along the length of the First World War trench lines from Switzerland to Belgium.
I piggybacked the group doing the Lewis Moody Foundation Western Way challenge and rode a Pearson Summon the Blood gravel bike, but part of the route involved steep climbs and descents through the forest that were almost MTB territory. I got a flat and snapped a valve on the replacement tyre, only to find out later that others in the challenge had managed to avoid that section!
I completed the 1,000km ride in four days, which was a record. Seeing the countless memorials and cemeteries from the many battles was overwhelming.” Rob Kemp