I will be completing 3 fitness challenges between August - October 2022 to raise money for Pancreatic Cancer Action. The fitness challenges are as follows:

• Cycling from Inverness to Preston across 6 days between August 16th - 21st 2022.

• The Double Brutal (Llanberis) on September 10th 2022.

• Ironman World Championship (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii) on October 6th 2022.

I will get back to the details of these challenges below but first I want to discuss why I will be raising money for Pancreatic Cancer Action. After over a year of unexplained pains in his abdomen, my brother Dan was unexpectedly diagnosed with Pancreatic Cancer on November 8th 2021, at the age of 28. Pancreatic Cancer has the lowest five-year survival rate of any of the 22 most common cancers at 7.3%. The average age of diagnosis is 72 so it is very rare for someone to be in Dan's situation.

Dan has been an inspiration throughout his fight in both the physical and mental challenges that he has faced. He's powered through over 6 months of chemotherapy sessions, being subjected to one of the most toxic chemotherapy drugs, Folfirinox. During this time he wanted to use his unique position as a platform to help others that may find themselves in a similar situation, so he created his fantastic blog: https://ebb-and-flow.blog/

The chemotherapy managed to shrink the tumour on his pancreas from 3.2cm to 2.1cm and he was put forward for surgery. Incredibly, after 13 hours of surgery they had managed to remove the whole of Dan's pancreas, his spleen and two-thirds of his large intestine, as well as rewiring parts of his vascular system to ensure that they had taken out as much of the cancer as possible.

The surgery was on July 15th 2022 so Dan is currently recovering and adjusting to life as a diabetic due to his body no longer producing any insulin. We're waiting for histology results on the tumour that will determine the best course of future treatment but it is most likely to be further chemotherapy to kill any microcancers and stop further tumours forming..

Throughout this journey, Pancreatic Cancer Action has been extremely helpful to Dan, with a special mention to the founder and CEO Ali Stunt who also had major surgery to remove a pancreatic tumour. She has consistently been in contact with Dan providing invaluable information, contacts and support and without her help, as  well as the wider help of the charity, Dan would have struggled so much more.

Pancreatic Cancer Action summarises its work as follows: "We are a national charity dedicated to saving lives by improving early diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and the quality of patient survival. With your help we fund vital research, create medical education programmes, produce national awareness campaigns and vital patient information. Together we can make a difference!"

Now, on to the fitness challenges...

Exercise is huge in the Godley family and Dan has always been very active, incredibly managing to run up to 20 miles a week in some weeks during chemotherapy. Thus, there is no better way to raise some money than to set myself some ridiculous fitness challenges. They are as follows:

• Cycling from Inverness to Preston across 6 days between August 16th - 21st 2022 - The length of the rides range from around 50 to 115 miles and I will be doing them with a few friends, staying in different hotels each night.

• The Double Brutal (Llanberis) on September 10th 2022 - A 4.8 mile swim, 224 mile bike and 52 mile run including an ascent and descent of Snowdon. I'm hoping for a time of under 30 hours but I've never done anything like it before so it could be under 30 hours, could be 40 or I could not finish at all, we'll see!

• Ironman World Championship (Kailua-Kona, Hawaii) on October 6th 2022 - A 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and 26 mile run in the sweltering heat and blustering winds of Hawaii. I qualified for this race at Ironman UK (Bolton) 2021 and it's a real bucket list race for me so I cannot wait to get out there for the big dance in October.

Any donations, big or small are hugely appreciated and thank you for reading the story!