"One man's fight to get fit, dwarfed by another man's fight against lung cancer"

Anyone who knows me will agree my fitness and general lifestyle isn't the healthiest. My realisation that I needed to do something to get myself fitter and healthier as I approach forty, for my family as well as for me, also had me thinking a lot about my brother in law, Jamie.

J doesn't get to "choose" to get fitter, or "choose" to be more healthy, he's fighting a battle so much bigger where choice has played no part.

J suffers with ALK+, a type of genetic mutation driven cancer, the cause of which is not known and currently there is no cure. The vast majority of sufferers have lung cancer, its how ALK+ manifests itself and what's worse, is it usually affects younger people.

J was diagnosed with stage IV ALK+ lung cancer in 2019, after having a seizure very unexpectedly at the age of 33. He's a young father to Robin and after the re-emergence of metastases to the brain, his outlook was terrifyingly bleak. 4 years on and he's smashing the odds. Doctors didn't believe he would make it past 2 years but here he is, still fighting, and he created the charity ALK+ International to help in the research of this very scary disease.

The fact that ALK+ is a type of lung cancer creates a massive misconception among most people, and I used to be one of them. That lung cancer is caused by smoking, therefore as horrific as it is, the sufferer must be in some part to blame as this was obviously a lifestyle choice? WRONG. This is a genetic mutation cancer, not caused by lifestyle choices and can quite literally, effect anybody at any age. THIS is what makes talking about ALK+ so important. We need to educate people on what it is and how it works and get the funding for proper research into how to fight it.

So, I'm trying to do my bit. I'm going on a little bike ride from London to Brighton, not the road race that everyone thinks of, but the off road, mountain biking route. It will be around 65ish miles and will likely take me about 7 hours. This will be hard, it will hurt and will be the most extreme thing I've ever done.

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, but most importantly, J's. And if I can be cheeky as to ask for a small donation, we, as a family, will be eternally grateful.

Thank you.