Team HSBC and beyond,
Our colleague & friend Kate Wright has been enduring an incredibly tough challenge alongside her husband Jon as he bravely fights bowel cancer. Despite their ongoing battle with this appalling disease they have generously chosen to support the Bobby Moore Fund for Cancer Research UK.
In support of Jon and Kate's choice of charity, I will run the 100km Maclehose trail race in Hong Kong on Nov 18th. It’s a cross country race through some tricky hills. The combined ascent + descent of the terrain = 1/2 of Everest, which we are aiming to complete in 16+hrs. This should place us in the top 20 out of the 4800 runners and 1200 teams competing if we hit our target. Its good to dream :)
The chance to support our team-mates and their families in times of adversity is critical so please take this opportunity to help out. I will promise to bust myself.
Kate’s thoughts follow below. Thanks very much for your help.
Tony
“On the 25th May 2011 at approximately 9.30am I can tell you that time stood still. Completely still.
I was sat next to my husband listening to a man I'd never met before telling him that he had bowel cancer which had spread to his liver. He told him that he was inoperable and his condition incurable. If chemotherapy didn't work he had 6-9mths to live and if it did maybe 1 to 2 years at best. Right there and then our world imploded. Three days later we would be celebrating our son’s 2nd birthday as if everything was normal. I'm still not sure how that happened. Jon is 41.
Five months on and things are very different. He's astounded his oncologist and responded brilliantly to treatment. The tumours in Jon's liver have shrunk significantly and having seen his scans at the halfway point of his course of chemotherapy, his surgeons have decided that surgery with curative intent is now possible and will take place in the New Year.
One of the most significant problems with bowel cancer is that it spreads very quickly. Bowel cancer cells break away from the original tumour and start growing in other body tissues. Blood from the bowel goes directly to the liver so that's the most common place for the cancer to spread. It can happily be making itself at home without any symptoms from the original tumour presenting themselves to its host.
The Bobby Moore Fund raises money to fund pioneering research into new ways to beat bowel cancer. The FOXFIRE trial is one such project which as you can see from the link has already produced some fantastic results. Had Jon not responded to chemo, treatment like this might have been his only option, which is amazing considering the trial is only 18 months old. Please sponsor Tony for as much or as little as you can spare.
No one should have to feel time stand still.”
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/health/8733645/Miracle-technique-cures-grandfather-of-cancer.html
