I’m not a runner I never have the thought of running makes
me want to cry, I have put on a bit of weight over the Christmas period as you do and Lycra is the devils work !!

But the 10k is always something I have wanted to achieve I
stand on the same corner cheering all my family and friends who run past me I love the atmosphere and the event.

This year is different I will be running the Lincoln 10k for
the Cavernoma Alliance UK for my amazing husband Ash.

Our lives changed on August Bank Holiday last year when Ash was diagnosed with a Brain Stem Cavenoma which had bled.

And you are probably thinking what I was all those months
ago what the hell is that!!

If you put it into NHS Direct this is the result

A cavernoma is a cluster of abnormal blood vessels, usually found
in the brain and spinal cord.

They're sometimes known as cavernous angiomas, cavernous hemangiomas, or cerebral cavernous malformation (CCM).

A typical cavernoma looks like a raspberry. It's filled with blood that
flows slowly through vessels that are like "caverns". A cavernoma
can vary in size from a few millimetres to several centimetres across.

So last August bank holiday Ash woke with a really bad headache, tingling in his arm and face and sickness and dizziness when he stood
up, he got worse as they day went on and a visit to A&E soon followed where he was put on a drip and given anti sickness drugs. 

He was sent home and by the Wednesday he still wasn’t any better, so we visited our local GP who gave Ash another load of medication and told him it was signs of stress and he should return in 7 days.

STRESS ash is the least most stressed person ever he is so laid back he is horizontal most of the time but hey he is the doctor right he
knows what he is talking about.

So by the Friday Ash had barely been out of bed he couldn’t stand
as he was so dizzy and the headaches were unbearable, so another visit to A&E, I was in my work stuff as planned to drop Ash back home after our visit.

We saw a lovely doctor who was so surprised Ash hadn’t been given
a CT Scan after his first visit, so we waited an hour and he had a CT scan we were told to wait an hour for results, an hour passed an no one came out. Then after 90 minutes the doctor took us into a side room and told us the devastating news that Ash had a mass on his brain they were unsure what it was and it was possibly a tumour.

Time stood still and I have trouble recollecting what happened in those next few hours, it was all a blur but we met Dr Solomon the Stroke Unit Doctor. He sent Ash straight down for an MRI scan, after that  Ash was admitted to hospital and he stayed on the Stroke Unit for 5 days, I didn’t leave his side.

Friends and family helped with Chloe and Izzy as by this point the girls were going back to school after the summer break, Im not sure how we coped over those few days, Ash is my rock and seeing him like this broke my heart but we had to stay positive

Due to the weekend and getting Ash’s scans looked at by Neurology at Queens Medical in Nottingham, Ash was finally diagnosed  with a Brain Stem Cavernoma that had a bled this was on the Monday morning, so a full 8 days after Ash first started with the symptoms, it was a big relief it wasn’t a tumour but still a diagnosis that would change our lives.

As Lincoln doesn’t have any kind of Neurology department Ash
was then referred to a Neurologist at Queens Medical  he was told to rest take it easy and let his body help him recover from his bleed this could take between 6-8 weeks and after that no one knew if his symptoms would completely go.

Over the past three months Ash’s symptoms have greatly
improved his sickness and dizziness have gone completely and so has his double vision, but he has constant headaches pain and pressure in his head and eyes and struggles with his grip and feeling in his hand and can’t do too much as gets frequent dead legs and walks with a limp.

He was due to carry out the half marathon and was fit and
healthy a keen cyclist, but since his bleed has been unable to do any of this.

We have recently visited the Neurologist who has advised us
Ash’s Cavernoma is inoperable, Ash will be monitored for the rest of his life due to the high risk of bleeding again but we can’t live our life in constant fear.

This is why with the help of my amazing friends, who I
completely hijacked into doing this with me, will be taking part in the Lincoln10K.

For my amazing husband Ash who has shown me that no matter
what happens we will always have each other and we can achieve anything together.  x

Thanks for reading our story