Hi Guys! hope your all well, and thanks for visiting my Just giving page.

My name is Matthew Hadden and I have incurable cancer.

This page has been set up due to my Mum and Sis putting me to shame and getting really fit to do the Great North Run, I felt i just had to join them! I am so excited because we are all running for the amazing Maggie's, a charity which has centers based around the country, 21 to be precise! But more specifically we are doing it for the Newcastle center, as this one is very close to our heart. Let me explain.

For me, my family and friends,  Maggie's Newcastle has helped us from the very beginning, from my mum going to see  them when I was in for my first biopsy, to the almost daily visits while I had radiotherapy, and everything in between, I mean, we even had my 25th birthday party there, complete with pizza and cake, which when your living on hospital food, was AMAZING!!!

Maggie's staff are literally like a human and mental A&E, been able to help calm me and my family down even on some of the most life changing and difficult days we have ever had to endure, I know my pain but I can only imagine what it is like for my family to have to watch, not been able to do anything.

Maggie's Staff are all highly trained, with the volunteers also having personal experience with cancer, meaning everyone can relate in some small way to what your going through. I have spent days there in the quiet rooms sleeping and been relaxed while having chemo, and I have also been there and had some of the most difficult discussions with my Dr's about treatment options.

They have saved my mental state when it comes to filling in benefit forms, showing me how to do it and helping me send it off. This service is invaluable. They also have psychology sessions on offer not to mention the daily activity's available to everyone, as well as survivor-ship programs for nearly all cancers. I cant sing their praises enough, they truly saved our lives through out these past 2 years and will continue to do so in the years to come. The staff are incredible and the building is a beautiful and relaxed space. check out their website here:
https://www.maggiescentres.org/our-centres/maggies-newcastle/


Please help me hit my target, and if we could go even higher and hit the
£2,400 mark it means we would be able to keep the center open for a full day! how amazing would that be?

No matter how big or little your donation, I cant thank you enough. It is the positive drive of everyone who talks to me and goes to Maggie's and who has had to endure this horrific illness that gives me strength and positive energy moving forward. I want to challenge myself every day, and to be able to do this challenge with my family and friends for such an amazing cause, it a real dream come true. so thank you, from the very bottom of my heart.

now please read my story of how I came to love, need and cherish this amazing charity!

On Friday the 13th (i know right?!) 2015 I was unfortunatly diagnosed with Osteosarcoma of the left fibula. This was just after I started my dream job in London. It could not have been more of a shock. it was after a few months of pain in my leg that I thought was just a niggle that would go away, it did not and after an x-ray I was rushed home and then to the NCCC at the freeman hospital to start full staging and then Chemotherapy.

from Feb 15th 2015 to Feb 19th 2016 I was in hospital nearly permanently for Chemotherapy, and then Immunotherapy to hopefully cure this cancer. What I did not know at the beginning was, this would also include the amputation of my left leg, above the knee. I found this out after the initial diagnosis, so had to go through 3 months of Chemo knowing that this operation would happen. That was pretty tough, not going to lie.

Anyway! after a year of chemo and immunotherapy, and the operation to take my leg, I was done! I learned to walk again with my prosthetic, and started to volunteer for a number of charities and generally get my life back together and go to the gym, until July 2016.

during a standard check up, a shadow was found on an X-ray, leading to a follow up MRI and in July I was diagnosed with, and for me, my own personal nightmare, Lung Secondaries. I had 6 Tumors in my lungs. This was a nightmare I have had since a kid, lung cancer. I knew it was a possibility as Osteosarcoma usually goes to the lungs if it spreads, but after a year of chemo, and a massive operation, I was supposed to beat it?

In September, I had another huge operation, this time to cut my chest open and remove all those nasty little tumors and then I would be on my way, the operation was a resounding success! the surgeons did a stellar job, and it was back to recovery, then back to the gym, back to my volunteering and getting my life back together, now with a new sexy scar. my fitness was a huge deal to me before I got diagnosed, and I was not going to let cancer get in the way of me been as fit as possible, with or with out my leg!

In january of 2017, I had built up the strength and courage to re apply for my dream job, this time in a location a little closer to home, I put my application in, and went to my Drs at the Freeman to give me one last scan over just to make sure that any aches and pains were because of the gym and general life and not the dreaded cancer. My application was successful, and i was invited in for Interview, even with my cancer back ground and amputation. But the MRI was to give bad news once again, this time, even worse.

It was found out that my pelvis, and lungs (again!!) both had tumors in them. This proposed a bigger problem that I had not faced before. with the cancer been in 2 locations, one been my lungs, it was a systemic issue. after a long discussion and explanation from my Drs, I was having to change my treatment, from Curative to Palliative, meaning, the cancer is now classed as incurable. I had radiotherapy on my pelvis, which, while I was going through this treatment, my sternum, which had been cut open for my lung operation back in September last year, had decided to not stop healing and became a huge tumor, which presented its self very quickly, and required emergency radiotherapy, at a very high dose. tumor site number 3.

I am now 2 weeks out of these bouts of radiotherapy, my lung tumors are still there, and my pelvis and sternum have had heavy doses of radio to keep them under control and reduce the pain they cause, and boy did the sternum cause me some pain! moving forward it is recommended I start ticking things off my bucket list, and enjoy life to its fullest! as options for treatment are running out. 

With Love and Thanks

Matthew Hadden

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