Jason Bell
Jason's Triathlon Page
Fundraising for Charis Cancer Care
Story
The last week of Semester 1 was a fairly good one, Wednesday 14th especially. I passed two tests with flying colours that day, then I won £15 on a scratch card and managed to win a seven fold Football accumulator. Typical Holylands life (without all the winning) really.
It was only on Friday when I arrived home after work that I realised that my exceptional luck was the universe giving me a free one, as I was to find out that on the same day, Wednesday 14th December 2016, that Granny had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
"It's in the early stages" mummy said, "They think we've caught it early enough".
This didn't bother me at first; obviously I felt like a scumbag for bragging about my gambling success, when mummy had been sitting on this bombshell, but it didn't bother me in that I knew, and still do, that Granny will pull through. My response mirrored my thoughts, "She'll be ok", and she will.
It was exactly 12 days later, at the main bar in Sense (a Nightclub here in Cookstown) that it sunk in that Granny was sick. After very questionable amounts of alcohol, i broke down at the bar totally out of the blue. It had been playing on my mind every day but on Boxing Night tears flowed.
Thankfully I was surrounded by some great friends, and my best friend who dropped what he was doing and jumped the bar to see if I was ok. To them I say Thank you for your continued support, it means the world.
After several scans and tests the Doctors were happy to say that the tumour has not spread to anywhere else in Granny's body, and that it was not attached to the bone. Unfortunately though, Chemotherapy is still the only treatment and, at the time of writing, will begin this Tuesday, the 31st of January.
For a while now a friend and I have toyed with the idea of doing a triathlon, inspired by our friend Noel Tierney who, quite insanely, did an IronMan Triathlon as his first triathlon on four months notice.
It is only recently that we have decided to bring this idea to life and so, along with Noel and a team from our gym, Fit-2-Function, Thomas and I have registered for the Joey Hannon Memorial Triathlon in Limerick on the 23rd of April.
My fitness has never been great, especially with living down in Belfast, but at the start of this year it was worst it's ever been. On the 6th January I weighed in at 147kg (23 Stone 2 pounds), I couldn't jog 10 meters without losing my breath and I hadn't swam or cycled in years.
As a launchpad for our training, Thomas and I signed up for the 30 Day Challenge at F2F. At the midway point I had lost 6.8kg (1 Stone and 1 pound) and already my fitness has improved significantly. Though I think I speak for both Thomas and myself when I say that we still have a long way to go, but with a great team behind us we'll pull through; just like Granny will.
*Update*
After much deliberation, Thomas and myself have decided that we will change Triathlons. Now we're still doing one, but instead of waiting till April 23rd and travelling all the way down to Limerick; we've entered into a Triathlon in Newtownabbey in Antrim, which is being held on the 9th April. We're progressing quicker with our training than we first anticipated; so why put it off any longer?
It also means that anyone who wishes can come down and support us along the way, which would be greatly appreciated!
It was only on Friday when I arrived home after work that I realised that my exceptional luck was the universe giving me a free one, as I was to find out that on the same day, Wednesday 14th December 2016, that Granny had been diagnosed with Breast Cancer.
"It's in the early stages" mummy said, "They think we've caught it early enough".
This didn't bother me at first; obviously I felt like a scumbag for bragging about my gambling success, when mummy had been sitting on this bombshell, but it didn't bother me in that I knew, and still do, that Granny will pull through. My response mirrored my thoughts, "She'll be ok", and she will.
It was exactly 12 days later, at the main bar in Sense (a Nightclub here in Cookstown) that it sunk in that Granny was sick. After very questionable amounts of alcohol, i broke down at the bar totally out of the blue. It had been playing on my mind every day but on Boxing Night tears flowed.
Thankfully I was surrounded by some great friends, and my best friend who dropped what he was doing and jumped the bar to see if I was ok. To them I say Thank you for your continued support, it means the world.
After several scans and tests the Doctors were happy to say that the tumour has not spread to anywhere else in Granny's body, and that it was not attached to the bone. Unfortunately though, Chemotherapy is still the only treatment and, at the time of writing, will begin this Tuesday, the 31st of January.
For a while now a friend and I have toyed with the idea of doing a triathlon, inspired by our friend Noel Tierney who, quite insanely, did an IronMan Triathlon as his first triathlon on four months notice.
It is only recently that we have decided to bring this idea to life and so, along with Noel and a team from our gym, Fit-2-Function, Thomas and I have registered for the Joey Hannon Memorial Triathlon in Limerick on the 23rd of April.
My fitness has never been great, especially with living down in Belfast, but at the start of this year it was worst it's ever been. On the 6th January I weighed in at 147kg (23 Stone 2 pounds), I couldn't jog 10 meters without losing my breath and I hadn't swam or cycled in years.
As a launchpad for our training, Thomas and I signed up for the 30 Day Challenge at F2F. At the midway point I had lost 6.8kg (1 Stone and 1 pound) and already my fitness has improved significantly. Though I think I speak for both Thomas and myself when I say that we still have a long way to go, but with a great team behind us we'll pull through; just like Granny will.
*Update*
After much deliberation, Thomas and myself have decided that we will change Triathlons. Now we're still doing one, but instead of waiting till April 23rd and travelling all the way down to Limerick; we've entered into a Triathlon in Newtownabbey in Antrim, which is being held on the 9th April. We're progressing quicker with our training than we first anticipated; so why put it off any longer?
It also means that anyone who wishes can come down and support us along the way, which would be greatly appreciated!