April 23rd

Wow . I am in terrible pain , supine ,absolutely immobile and could not be happier! Yesterday I completed the London Marathon. It was one of the most magical days of my life. I cant describe how amazing the event was and to the Great British public I salute you . Your support was astonishing and I was so proud to be part of an event that had 100s of thousands of people pushing in the same direction.We should be reminded what amazing people we can be sometimes  .

To my friends and family thank you, thank you ,thank you . I honestly couldnt have done it without you .As many of you know I have struggled with a number of injuries and even in the last week I was possibly going to pull out . I have not managed a run of more than 3 miles in last 6 weeks. Hardly the best preparation! I didnt shirk the training though and must thank my trainers Ollie and Tom. They inspired me to stay the distance and to remember that 'Pain is temporary while completing the marathon is there for ever.'

I doubt I will ever forget my consultation with Guys trained Dr Mike Bundy who is the England Rugby Team Physician . I saw him for a scan on my calf about a month ago . Broadly speaking it is summarised by 'the good news is that you cant do any more damage to the fascia so it wont worsen (much!), the bad news is that you can go ahead with the marathon but expect to be in excrutiating pain from 7 miles onwards' . In effect it was a nice way of saying stop moaning and 'Man Up' !

To Jules , my amazing 'missus' , thanks for putting up with me in these long weeks of training . Having you ,Kier, the kids and Mum and Dad there was very special .I love you all very much.  The party afterwards was a fabulous surprise .Not sure if my head or legs hurt more. I promise a holiday will be booked this week. !

To George . We all love you and keep on fighting. As the shirt says 'stay strong'

I am so grateful to all the donations made so far ( we are at £6800 today) but please can I beg you to point your friends this way . Id love to get the total up to 5 figures ! Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Tim

 

 

 

 

Thursday 23rd Feb 2012

Many of you will be amazed that I am asking you to sponsor me in my debut Marathon. I would have agreed with you only a few weeks ago that the thought of getting my body and I to run 2.6miles would have been something I couldnt achieve let alone 10 times that distance.

However a great friend of mine has been battling with his own challenge of Hodgkins Disease and suddenly my own reservations seem petty . He has shown such strength and courage that for me to do a marathon should be a walk in the park !

The trainers came out when I learnt this week that his first bout of treatment has not 100% worked so he is entering a second phase that has a degree of experimentation and the latest cutting edge technology . Having looked into the field I am amazed at the brilliant life saving work these experts do . When they are going to save one of my friends it makes me determined to help the funding of their research. Not just for George but for others who follow. 

It is now established that Hodgkin’s Disease is curable in 85-90 per cent of all cases. However, the remaining patients are not responsive to standard therapies and remain resistant to them. A huge amount of research still needs to be carried out on this population to establish why the standard treatments are ineffective and what might be the under lying causes of the resistance. This is a research priority for the Department of Haematology at King’s College London.

Professor Ghulam Mufti, Professor of Haemato-oncology, is Head of the Department of Haematology at King’s College London, the leading department of its kind in the UK. The Department of Haematology is the largest haematopoietic stem cell transplantation centre in the UK serving as the South East Regional Referral Centre for a population of approximately 3.6 million. With an extremely large patient referral base, the Department is in an optimal position to use the wealth of clinical and pathological material to carry out both clinical and translational research.

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So please help me contribute to this . Thanks .