Raising money for charity is not something I’ve done regularly at all, I often donate but have rarely raised. However this year I'm changing that to raise money for the Royal Marsden Hospital – an institution that has given my wife Bex, and my family a renewed lease of life.  The NHS at its finest!

With no symptoms at all, we were stunned when, whilst packing for an Italian summer holiday in 2018, a regular blood test flagged acute anaemia.  A week later, Bex was diagnosed with advanced metastatic bowel cancer and a week after that had had major surgery to remove half of her bowel. That whirlwind fortnight was just the start of our journey, even for my youngest child who remembers none of this but at 9 months was weaned off breastfeeding in 24 hours.

After six brutal months of debilitating chemo where my wife was largely bedridden, punctuated by hospital stays from the adverse reactions to the chemo, we had to fight hard to be considered for liver surgery. The chemo, had done its job elsewhere but had damaged Bex’s liver in the process and whilst we knew it was a critical step towards a cure, removing 1/3 of her liver carried enormous risks. Again we held our breath as a hugely talented surgeon got Bex through an operation – which once underway turned out to be an even riskier one than we’d anticipated.

I’m incredibly proud of Bex.  A diagnosis of Stage IV bowel cancer was not part of our plan and she has fought it head on, every step of the way.  She pushed for the highest dose of chemo possible despite how horrifically ill it made her and even appealed to the surgical team with a poignant letter asking them to take a chance and offer her the liver surgery, as she was the mother of three young children who needed her.  It’s been an incredibly tough, painful, emotional and exhausting couple of years and that totally understates the resilience, strength, fortitude and spirit Bex has shown fighting this disease. I’m phenomenally proud of her.

I don’t know what the next phase holds for us, but I do know if more cancer treatment is needed it will be at the Marsden. Bex’s journey is an ongoing one, a tireless, relentless and uncertain one, but one that because of the Marsden team has hope.

I’m phenomenally grateful to the fantastic team at the Royal Marsden who have supported us on our journey and through their efforts have given us hope that Bex will beat this disease. And although I’m past the point in my life where a career change into Oncology is realistic, I can raise money for the Marsden, their research and their tireless drive to beat cancer, and I aim to earn every penny donated.

Whilst my suffering will be a fraction of that my wife and others afflicted by cancer go through, I’m pretty confident that a 100km run (http://www.serpenttrailrace.com/100k) and any Iron distance race called the Full Brutal (https://www.brutalevents.co.uk/the-brutal-triathlon) requiring checks for hyperthermia (I’ll have to exit the water at every other lap to prove I don’t have hyperthermia) and going up and down Snowdon, is going to hurt, a lot, and for an extended period of time. Especially since I only recently picked my training shoes back up having hung them up when I left college some time ago!.

Any donation – however big or small – would be amazing both as motivation to complete the 100k on the 3rd July and Iron distance around Snowdonia on the 10th Sept but more importantly to help me give back to and pay forward to the incredible institution that has given my family so much.

A huge thank you to everyone who’s been on this journey with us, thank you for taking the time to read this and an even bigger thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who donates.

Chris