Up until December 2011 I'd never heard of the word mesothelioma let alone known how to pronounce it.  I'll never forget it now.

When my dear dad was diagnosed with it at the age of 73 and we found out there wasn't, and still isn't, a cure we were all devastated to say the least.  It was just a matter of time and as it turned out there wasn't much of that neither.

My dad was an electrician from the age of 15 and worked with asbestos in boilers and probably buildings which contained it.  Whether he realised the dangers of it at that time I don't know.  

Initially, he'd gone to the doctors about his stomach and eventually found out he'd got stomach cancer.  That was bad enough.  It was during the tests for that he found out he had a tumour on his left lung. Then the mesothelioma diagnosis came about.

We were told he'd have two years, in the end it was only six months and he never had a day free of the pain in that time.  

He was extremely brave and never got upset or angry about it despite being such a good person in his life to not only his family but strangers as well.

I am running Edinburgh marathon to raise money to help all the other people who are now going through the same awful thing as what my dad and our family did.

My dad wasn't keen on me running but I think he will be proud of me using it to raise money to help other people in the same situation.  We'll never forget him.

 

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