In November 2016 at the age of 41 my world was turned upside down when I heard the words “you have cancer” 

I was diagnosed with stage 3 throat cancer that had spread to the tongue and lymph nodes in my neck. I started treatment  shortly after my diagnosis, it was one of the most harrowing things I have endured to date. I was unable to eat for 6 months and lost the ability to speak for a period during treatment. 

During this time my wife heard about HCCN, a local charity that helped families like ours struggling with cancer. 

My wife contacted the team and the nurses came to visit within a few days, immediately they gave me advice about the medication I was taking,  talked about helping me recover both physically and mentally. They visited me regularly helping with prescriptions, looking at solutions for the continuing side effects I was facing. For a time during my recovery I was unable to get out of bed. Having the HCCN nurses available to visit was invaluable. Nothing we asked was ever to much for them, and they were always there to help.Their support has continued long passed my all clear 2 years ago and still does to this day. Without HCCN my cancer journey would have been much harder, and I am eternally grateful for their help and support.

I would like to raise as much money as I can for this amazing and incredibly worth while charity not just to say thank you but to ensure the invaluable work the HCCN Team can continue to help other cancer sufferers like myself.

So, I’m running 10k for this charity, it might not seem like a huge distance but it will be huge to me... my treatment has left me with chronic dry mouth, I cannot leave the house without a bottle of water in my hand as my mouth dries up within minutes. So running 10k with my condition will be a challenge but I’m determined to do it. (I’m hoping there will be lots of water stations and toilets on the route!)

Please help me to raise money so HCCN can help more cancer sufferers and their families.

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