Kate, Suzanne, Dani and Joanne are completing a 100km Essex cycle on 13th May 2023 in memory of Kate's Dad, David Bushell. 

My father, David, always had a passion for life. He was a fun, loving and energetic man with an easy smile and a hug that was well worth  travelling home for. He loved sport, nature, terrible jokes and above all his family and friends.

He was diagnosed with MDS, a form of blood cancer, in Autumn 2021. MDS stands for Myelodysplastic Syndromes, and it is a group of malignant blood disorders in which the bone marrow fails to produce healthy blood cells. Dad began to tire more easily during his tennis games around the summer of that year and knew something wasn't quite right. MDS symptoms are predominantly chronic tiredness and weakness due to the low levels of haemoglobin in the red blood cells, which carries oxygen to the body. The loss of energy he felt had a huge impact on his ability to enjoy life, restricting many of the pastimes he loved, and I think he was never really armed with the right level of understanding and support to adjust to this - until he spoke to a lovely lady at the MDS UK Patient Support Group. 

Dad's MDS progressed to AML (Leukaemia) which is rare and spreads quickly and aggressively, and he passed away on 8th August 2022, surrounded by his loved ones. Whilst there is no cure for MDS, thankfully its progression into leukaemia does not always occur. The failure of the bone marrow to produce mature healthy cells is a gradual process, and therefore MDS is not necessarily a terminal disease. MDS UK Patient Support Group is a charity that raises awareness, offers support and information to patients and families affected, and campaigns to make treatments available and to increase quality of life

• 13th May 2023
• Start and end at The Bull - Great Totham
• Route - please see photo, we'll be heading in a clockwise direction 

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