Last year, on Wednesday 5 March, I visited my GP for a basic complaint which I presumed was caused by a wrong prescription for my glasses. He telephoned the Neurologist and then told me to pack an overnight bag and get off to hospital immediately. That was the start of the story.
Following a few scans and tests, an apologetic Doctor was sorry to tell me that I had a brain tumour. I was actually quite pleased because I had previously overheard the Neurologist tell my GP that it was probably an aneurism and so in my wisdom I had undertaken a misguided search on the internet which assured me that the aneurism would probably cause me to die quite soon without much advance warning.
After an operation to rewire my brain (and to take a sample of the tumour) I was declared to be the proud owner of a rare malignant pineal germinoma.
The month of May was spent having daily radiotherapy sessions. This caused a feeling of sickness and loss of appetite. Then my hair fell out. Once the radiotherapy was finished the somnolence started – a constant feeling of tiredness, lethargy, and a general attitude of “I can’t be bothered”, which bothered me.
My Consultant suggested that doing some easy exercise would help. My first run since March was a massive psychological lift at the end of June – fresh air, birds singing, sunshine, and freedom. I wasn’t ill at all, I wasn’t on my way out, I was just at the beginning of the healing process of getting better!
The conclusion of the story is that the radiotherapy is causing the tumour to shrink, the cancerous cells had not spread to my spine, and hopefully it will clear up without needing another operation.
I am going to run the Midnight Sun Marathon in Tromsø, Norway on the night of 20 / 21 June. The sun stays up all night long. My reason for choosing this run is that it represents the total opposite to how I felt after the radiotherapy when I couldn’t be bothered to do any exercise, let alone a marathon, and I certainly did not want to be awake much, let alone at midnight.
I am running for MacMillan Cancer Support ( www.macmillan.org.uk ) and Brain Tumour UK (www.braintumouruk.org.uk ). Both of these charities helped me to realise that this was not the end of my road, it was just a different road.
Every day is now a better day.
Donating through Justgiving is quick, easy and totally secure. It’s also the most efficient way to sponsor me: Macmillan Cancer Support gets your money faster and, if you’re a UK taxpayer, Justgiving makes sure 25% in Gift Aid, plus a 3% supplement, are added to your donation.
So please sponsor me now!
If you would like your donation to go only to Macmillan Cancer Trust please give through this page only. If you would like to split your donation between Macmillan and Brain Tumour UK please also visit my BTUK site (link below). Unfortunately there isn't a system to automatically split donations between the two charities so you have to donate separately through each page.
My Brain Tumour UK page is: www.justgiving.com/markfarrar_braintumouruk
