At the beginning of 2018 Karl Horsman a fitter from the Bradford MEICA team was involved in a bad road traffic accident which resulted in him having a collapsed disk in his spine. As a result of the ongoing pain he experienced the doctors arranged for an MRI scan to assess the damage and discovered on the results of the scan that Karl had advanced Thyroid and Lynph node cancer. Over the following 4 weeks karl was hurried into biopsy and blood test to assess the severity of his cancer which turned out to be worse than first thought. Surgery and the removal of the cancerous Thyroid and Lynph nodes was deemed the only option. 3 weeks later Karl went under the knife and underwent major surgery where in the bottom of his face was peeled back to access the cancers. Karl was in hospital for a good while and experienced a number of complications and issues but was home within 2 weeks. As with any major surgery rehabilitation has not been easy both physically and mentally, this twinned with where Karl lives gave him limited options for support. Open and frankly (and Karl won't mind me saying) there is a high toll to be payed for those closest to a cancer sufferer and as mental and physical wellbeing deteriorates home life can become a high pressure environment with emotions on edge for the whole family unit. Karl began visiting Keighley & Airedale cancer support group who are made up of people who have either had cancer, have cancer or have been affected by cancer and are supported by McMillan. Karl's progress and rehabilitation with speech, movement and more importantly his mental wellbeing and coping strategies are thanks to his amazing and supportive wife Sally, son Liam who is only 9 but has been strong throughout all of this and for a big part Keighley & Airedale cancer support group who are still on a day to day basis helping Karl. This week has seen Karl start his radio iodine treatment to kill the last of the cancer cells and this involves (for those who don't know) starving the body of iodine then been given a series of assessment injections then fed a highly radioactive pill and placed in quarantine (proper quarantine in a lead lined room with no physical contact for the first 2 - 5 days) then two weeks where he is not allowed near his son or wife and has to self quarantine. This process is extremely difficult for Karl as the treatment brings on waves of extreme sickness. The results this week so far have been fantastic with his cell count being 150 down to 50 on day 2 and 12 today which is great news but he is still not in the clear.

The support and help from Keighley & Airedale cancer support has been pivotal in the rehabilitation of my friend and our colleague and rely soul on donations - hence this page. I would like to raise £500.00 and currently i am at £305.00 thanks to the kind donations of Yorkshire water colleagues. If you can please donate to this worthy cause