Myself, Joe along with Gemma and Dom will be representing Gritstone Crossfit, taking part in this years Battle Cancer Competition on Saturday 4th August at The Victoria Warehouse in Manchester to help raise money for a chosen charity, Checkemlads.com . Who supported my sister and brother in law, Lucy and Karl throughout the 3 and half years of his illness.

Karl at the age of 31 was diagnosed with Germ Cell cancer in March 2015. Karl had numerous courses of chemotherapy along with an full RPLND operation. Throughout the 3 years of his illness, Karl relapsed 3 times and after the 3rd time in June 2017 he was told there was nothing but palliative care to be offered. Karl refused to give up and told us his fight wasn't over which is when Karl found a clinical trial at St Bartholomew Hospital in London. Thankfully, Karl was accepted onto the experiment where he was trialed with 2 different types of chemotherapy before having high dose chemotherapy over Christmas 2017.

On February 6th 2018, Karl and Lucy received the results of his latest scan which shown no active cancer cells in his body. Unfortunately, Karl's cancer came back with a vengeance and on June 6th they were told his cancer had relapsed for the 4th time and further treatment was not available to Karl. At the age of 34, was given weeks to live.

On 6th July, Karl and Lucy became Man and Wife, one of Karl's final wishes. Sadly, Karl peacefully fell asleep in his new wife's arms on 9th July surrounded by his family.

Throughout the darkest times, Karl continued to have his positive outlook on life even in his final weeks and helped everyone around him deal with the devastating news. His strength inspired not only those that knew him but those he has reached out to in support of their journeys. 

Karl always blogged his journey on instagram, which is where Philly, the founder of Checkemlads.com first came across Karl. Philly messaged Karl directly to talk about his diagnosis and treatment. Philly told Karl about the charity, who offer support and advice to men and are their families going through the illness. In the 3 and half years of Karl's illness, Karl and Philly formed a close bond, finding common interests in their love of boxing and their unique positive outlook on life. Karl, when well, took part in helping to raise awareness of testicular cancer joining the yearly a trek up Snowdonia in remembrance of those who have passed and speaking out on an awareness video. 

Joe and myself have chosen Checkemlads.com as our charity because after all the help and support they've shown Karl and Lucy they have never wanted anything in return such as fundraising or publicity, which is rare to find in a charity. Those who represent Checkemlads.com are all survivors of testicular cancer and volunteer to help those who are now dealing with the illness. Despite having their own lives to run, the volunteers understood the journey the Karl and Lucy were going through and offered a listening ear to Karl when he wanted to talk about his journey, gave him advice and encouragement at his lowest times and throughout Karl's final weeks provided support to not only Karl, but Lucy too.

My aim is to raise amount on money for this charity but most of all raise the awareness of testicular cancer and how important it is to... #CHECKEMLADS!