I am a lucky guy. Sure, I've got in incurable cancer but being diagnosed with cancer is only the 4^th most significant thing that’s happened in my life. The top 3 are marrying my beautiful wife and the birth of our two fabulous children. Each of those 3 things I would happily pay for with my life so actually I’m in credit and things are going well.

Buoyed on by the success of our 4 Boys 4 Myeloma Coast 2 Coast ride last year, this year I’ve targeted myself to ride 1,200 miles in the year, 100 miles/month. It won’t be easy, I’m on continuous low dose chemotherapy. I get fatigued and feel the cold. I’ve lost the last 3 months to successive bugs and chest infections, an unfortunate feature of immune suppression, so the bulk of the riding will have to be done in summer. But, everyone around me, my doctors, my friends and my wife all advise exercise is a good thing and they’ve been spot on with all their other advice so I can’t see any reason to doubt this.

Along the way I have other goals. I want to open the conversation around cancer and particularly to address the fear that lurks in these conversations. Cancer is scary, especially when it’s close to home but I want to frame that fear within a model of accepting a personal challenge. Take the example preparing for a life changing job interview. There are 4 candidates for 1 job. Preparing can be a scary experience. The odds are you won’t succeed. But, if you approach the challenge with fear rather than relish things are more likely to go wrong quickly. 

Cancer is a challenge. I will probably lose the battle in the end, but I accept the odds with my eyes open. I want to accept the challenge with as much vigour as I can muster. Not because I’m special. I am not. I am just a bloke with cancer, lucky to be financially secure and have a lot of emotional support. I want to accept the challenge because I'm lucky to be able to do so and I’m selfish enough to see it as my best way forward. I believe that me doing the best for me will help me do the best for the people around me for as long as possible. That is the most important thing.

Please dig deep and support this challenge if you can. Or, if you feel you want to support in other ways please don’t hesitate to get in touch.