I'm running the London Marathon for Prostate Cancer UK. Prostate
cancer affects 1 in 8 men in the UK. That's one dad, partner, brother, son, grandad, uncle or mate. I'm raising money to help fund lifesaving research and support for men and their families affected by prostate cancer.

In my case prostate cancer stole my gorgeous and incredibly brave brother-in-law away from not only me but also his husband (my brother),his dad and sister, his nieces and nephews and all of his friends. We are all left with a huge David shaped whole in our hearts!

David's story - 

Just over a year ago my gorgeous brother-in-law David, who I was extremely close to, got the heart-breaking news that he had Stage 4 Prostate Cancer. My brother Adam's (David's Husband) world came crashing down around him. 

Adam and David had moved to France in October 2019. They had sold their business here in the UK so that they could buy a Chateau in France, with the hope of doing it up and turning into a Bed and Breakfast. Sadly, COVID hit before they had even got the chance to get started. Their plans went on stand still during 2020 and most of 2021. Things stated to look better, and they even stated filming and appeared on A New Life in the Sun. 

However, towards the end of 2021 things started to change. David started struggling to pass urine. Then he quickly lost the ability to get an erection, which was soon followed by difficulty to pass stools. Getting David's diagnoses took far too long! Mainly due to patient backlogs because of COVID but also due to David getting ill with COVID himself. Language barriers in France didn't help the situation much either. When we finally got his diagnoses in April 2022 it was much worse than we feared. Not only was it Stage 4 Prostate Cancer but it had also moved into his testicles, his bowel and worst of all his bones. His pelvic bone was riddled with cancer. 

We were told that his form of cancer was very aggressive. The prognosis wasn't good. He was told without treatment he may have 2 years left but with treatment possibly 6 years. 

He soon started his first round of chemo. It didn't touch the sides. The cancer just kept on growing and the chemo just made David horrendously ill. After 3 months of this round of chemo the scan results showed not only no improvement but that the cancer had actually spread to his ribs, collarbone and spine. 

It was then decided late September 2022 that they would try David on a hormone therapy. Heartbreakingly, this didn't do much to stop the cancer in its tracks either. Another sort of chemo was suggested which he stated in December 2022. He only managed 2 sessions of this chemo. 

In January 2023 David took a nosedive. He could no longer walk due to the pain in his bones. He went into Hospital as they thought they could possibly operate on David's spine to improve his mobility. Sadly, this wasn't to be. David started to rapidly decline. We as a family had a difficult decision to make. Do we continue with treatment in France? Or do we try to get David back home to England to be around all his loved ones? 

We all knew he needed to be back home with us in the UK. The problem was David had become bed bound. We could only get him back home and into a hospital in the UK by getting him repatriated by ambulance. This was going to cost approx. 5k to get a road ambulance and 2 paramedics out to David and then safely drive him back to England and admitted into hospital. This was money we just didn’t have. I decided we had no choice but to try and crowdfund to get David home. I was nervous, this wasn’t something I had ever done before but there was no time to lose. To all our amazement it was met with resound