What am I doing?

On 14th July I'm going to attempt to drag my body around 140.6 miles of swimming, cycling and running as I complete Ironam UK up in Bolton.

To break this down, it involves:

• 2.4 miles swimming - The furthest I'd swum before this was 0.9 miles, once, at the Bristol Tri in 2016. I came last by over 18 minutes and was given a free swimming lesson for being so bad! To say I'm a sinker is an understatement...
• 112 miles cycling - The furthest I'd ridden in one day before was 105 miles. That took over 10 hours (about 2 hours too slow for IMUK).
• 26.2 miles running (a full marathon) - I completed the Stockholm marathon back in 2016. I don't think my knees have fully forgiven me but this should be my 'strongest' element.

All I have to do is put all of those together, back to back, in one day. Oh, and IMUK have changed the cycle course this year to make it about 50% hillier than previous years.

Why am I doing it?

As many of you will know, back in 2013, my mum was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer called Pseudomyxoma Peritonei (or PMP if, like me, you have no idea how to pronounce it!). In order to support her and the charity that helped her during her diagnosis and treatment, I have decided (against my better judgement) to complete Ironman UK up in Bolton.

I am competing to raise money for Pseudomyxoma Survivor, a little known, global, non-profit organisation run by patients and caregivers of this extremely rare cancer, which is entirely dependent on voluntary donations.

Mum was diagnosed and treated for this disease in 2013/14 and so far CT scans have shown the disease has not returned (5 years clear!). Other sufferers are not so lucky. Pseudomyxoma Survivor aims to provide a worldwide support community for sufferers offering practical and emotional support to them and their caregivers. They run a support group on Facebook, a one-to-one buddy system for sufferers, and by funding small grants to help patients with the impact of treatment.

Although I'm generally pretty active, this is a much bigger challenge than anything I have face before and is the culmination of a year's worth of planning and training.


Some info from PMP Survivor:

“Pseudomyxoma Survivor is a non-profit organization, run by patients and caregivers. We have a thriving support community supporting anyone whose life has been touched by pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP) as well as appendix cancer and other peritoneal surface malignancies. We’re completely dependent on voluntary donations. Our patron is Sean Hepburn Ferrer. Sean’s mother, Audrey Hepburn, passed away shortly after being diagnosed with PMP.”