Between Christmas and New Year’s 2017 I went for a “routine” colonoscopy having first started seeing a gastroenterologist about an anomaly in my liver function test. The colonoscopy showed a tumour in my rectum. By 10th Jan 2018 I was diagnosed with Stage IV bowel cancel with secondary metastasis in my liver, 3 lymph nodes and potential further secondaries in my lungs. I have always been a numbers person and the latest numbers I can find tell me the 5 year survival rate for Stage IV bowel cancer is 11%. I intend to be in that 11%.

As the full story of my condition emerged I was told that if the treatment worked the best I could hope for was 18 months to 2 years. I very nearly made it 2 years post diagnosis. Being the geek I am I worked out based on the potential outcomes and likelihoods of diagnosis I should have died on May 12 2019. I didn’t, instead I watched Newcastle play with my then boss (Alan Burns). Newcastle won that day, away from home, in London, on the last day of the season. So miracles really do happen! I haven’t given up the fight yet!

In the run up to the diagnosis I have to say 2017 was the best year of my life. My daughter Emilia entered our lives on 22 Dec 2016 and I can honestly say she has been the most amazing gift, every day spent with her since she arrived has been incredible. I started a new job, which I love, working for a great company, with great people. I have the most amazing wife I could ever have asked for and a truly awesome bunch of friends. I was blessed and I knew it.

I continue to feel I am blessed in the way the great people from my company Photobox have continued to support me. I will be really proud to “run” (or waddle or walk) as part of team Photobox. I used to consider myself reasonably fit and would want to do a 10k somewhere around 55 mins (definitely less than an hour).Due to the cancer spread in my lungs (my CT scan apparently looks like a blizzard), I can’t really sustain running / breathlessness for more than a minute, 2 mins max. So I hope to be able to run / walk the course in about one and a half hours, which I’ll consider a huge achievement.

As ever, I am proud to support Cancer Research. I have already had my life extended by a breakthrough in treatment onto something that didn’t exist when I was diagnosed. I hope these breakthroughs continue for me, and if not for me so some other family can at some point be spared the absolute devastation that a cancer diagnosis brings.

Thanks!    
Dan