Why 970 miles? Well that's how many men die of Prostate Cancer in the UK every month!
I ran over 1500 miles every year from 2011-2016 but now find any form of running unimaginably tough. I'm struggling to run more than 5k at a time and can't run more than 3 times per week because of the fatigue caused by my treatment (see more below). The challenge I have set may not seem much to my running friends but to me it feels a bit like climbing Everest. I also intend to include races at all distances up to and including half marathon as part of the 970 miles challenge.
The stats for prostate cancer are horrendous:-
1 in 8 men will suffer it (1 in 4 black men)
1 man dies from it every 45 minutes in the UK
129 men are diagnosed every day
It's now the third biggest cancer killer in the UK having overtaken breast cancer
One third of men (like myself) are diagnosed when it's spread beyond the prostate and is then incurable
There is no screening programme to stop this silent killer
It is not an old man's disease. I know of men in their 40's who have been diagnosed
Please help me to raise funds so that fewer men will have to go through what I and my family have and please read my story below:-
In May 2017 I went from training for the Comrades ultra marathon to being diagnosed with incurable prostate cancer within 36 hours!
The groin strain that was giving me grief turned out to be stress fractures of the pelvis caused by running on bones weakened by cancer.
I had had no symptoms at all which meant my cancer was detected too late to be cured. If I wasn't a runner I probably still wouldn't know I had this horrible disease to this day!
To say that it has changed my life and that of my Family would be a massive understatement. In fact it feels like my old pre diagnosis life ended and I now lead a completely different one where every aspect of life is so incredibly tough.
The oncologist told me that, once the fractures mended, I could resume running but that it would be much harder and a lot slower as the treatment removes testosterone from your body and men need that for all aspects of male performance. He wasn't wrong! On longer runs I'm 20% slower and working 20% harder but at least I'm still out there doing something I think I still love.
Prior to diagnosis I had run a time (sub 3 hours 45 minutes for an over 60) that gave me a guaranteed good for age entry into the London marathon and I had to think long and hard about whether I was capable of taking on the challenge. I took on and finished London in May 2018 and raised a lot of money for Prostate Cancer UK. I am however determined to do more to help save men hence targeting running 970 miles 4 men in 2019.
