In September 2012, my dad was admitted to hospital suffering from what he thought was gall stones. During the routine examination, a tumour was discovered on his pancreas which turned out to be cancerous. Happy that the cancer had been caught early, he was booked in for a major operation to remove the tumour. They expected the recovery time from the operation to be around 6 months.

Cancer Research work with many cancer patients to try and better understand the symptoms and progression of cancer in the hope that they can develop screening tests to catch more cancer strains in the early stages and therefore prevent more deaths. They approached my dad and asked him if he would be willing to have some scans done and blood samples analysed as part of their research programme. He was happy to agree. All the scanning equipment, etc. that they use and associated running costs is all funded by donations to Cancer Research.

This story does not have a happy ending. The scans were used by the surgeons at the hospital to perform the operation. As soon as the surgeons saw the scans (pre-op), they realised that something was wrong. Exploratory surgery confirmed that the cancer had already spread to my dad’s liver and it was already too late to do anything about the cancer.

Without the scan funded by Cancer Research, my dad would most likely have undergone this lengthy operation and would not have fully recovered from it before he died. As it was, he was instead able to enjoy the majority of his last couple of months spending time with family and doing the things he wanted to do.

My dad died on 30 December 2012, only 3 months after he was diagnosed with cancer. He was only 62 years old. He had an active lifestyle, healthy diet, did not smoke, did not drink alcohol to excess (I never saw him drunk), and was not overweight. There was never anything to suggest that he would be the victim of cancer. He died just 2 weeks after his dad (my granddad) died of old age at 94 years old, and is survived by his 90 year old mother.

I have decided to raise money for cancer research in his memory in the hope that one day research WILL beat cancer. Without our help, this research would not be possible.

So, this year I will be taking part in a number of running events including:

Clumber Park Trailblazer (10k) on 18th May.

Nottingham Victoria Embankment Race for Life (5k) on 9th June.

Clumber Park Race For Life (10k) on 22nd June.

Sherwood Pines 10k on 21st July.

The Bupa Great North Run (half marathon) on 15th September.

The Ikano Robin Hood Half Marathon on 29th September.

Please help me to raise money for Cancer Research in memory of my dad.

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