They say that a cancer diagnosis can change your life and on Friday 8th June 2018 that was certainly true for me when I was given a diagnosis of tonsillar cancer.

The weeks that followed became a whirlwind of appointments and tests before my treatment finally began. I was perhaps fortunate that it did not involve surgery, but the 7 cycles of chemo and 35 cycles of radiotherapy were successful so that, just a few months later, I was given the “all clear” and the cancer had been destroyed.

“ALL CLEAR”........ those two little words hold some powerful emotions and mean so much to so many people, yet I might have never heard them without the innovative research that had been done on the disease in the years or even decades before my diagnosis, research that was partly funded from charitable donations. But the final day of my treatment was only the start of what would be a long and at times difficult journey. Every Head and Neck patient will be aware of the side effects and indeed late effects that continue for many months or even years after treatment has finished and, in some cases, they can even be permanent. Just some of those side effects include constant pain and fatigue, difficulties with speaking, eating, and breathing and, in some cases, the psychological effects following radical surgery.

What was such an important comfort to me was the level of help and support I received from the doctors, nurses and all the specialists at Guys Cancer. Nothing was ever too much trouble for them and It’s clear to see that they don’t just care FOR their patients, they also care ABOUT them too. When my weekly visits to the Cancer Centre stopped, I was introduced to the Community Head and Neck Team. This team of highly specialised nurses, dieticians, speech and language therapists and physiotherapists answered my questions and concerns skilfully, and compassionately for the next few years. Even now, I attend occasional support groups where patients meet to discuss their progress, share ideas, and give advice to each other, all under the watchful eyes of a couple of specialists.

This kind of support is essential to help patients tackle long term side effects. However, with the increasing number of cancer diagnoses in the UK each year continued investment is vital to ease the strain on such a valuable resource.

The impact on my life since that diagnosis more than five years ago has been quite profound. I was left weak, prone to infection and in a lot of pain towards the end of my treatment and even a walk to the end of the garden left me exhausted. It became nearly impossible to eat resulting in me being tube fed for many months and it was almost a year before my strength started to return.

With the help of the team at Guys Cancer, encouragement from my wife, my friends and my family, and a lot of hard work in the gym my fitness continued to improve so I decided to retire from work, concentrate on living a happy and healthy life and look to do something worthwhile with my time.

I was proud to be invited to act as an ambassador for the Charity and I now spend much of my time raising awareness and funds for Guys Cancer. I like to think of this as not just giving something back to the team that helped me but also giving something forward to those patients who will be diagnosed in the future. I have organised and taken part in several events and challenges ranging from the ordinary to the absolutely ridiculous including beach cleaning and baking, to walking, and cycling, white water rafting to hang gliding, abseiling to wing walking, and many more!

I owe my ability to do these challenges to the investment and innovation into Head and Neck Cancer and the skill of all the clinicians and specialist teams at Guys Cancer. With their help I won my battle. With your help, more investment and further research, we can all enhance the lives of many more people to help them fight and win their battles too.

Boards Bikes and Boots is designed to bring us all together. It doesn't matter if you want to take part in the events (although we would love it if you do) or if you prefer to take it easy, enjoy the surroundings and soak up the atmosphere. What matters is that we are here in a common cause and that cause is to support the incredible research that is carried out by the amazing teams at Guy's Cancer.

Thank you for reading this page and I hope to see you on 7th July for a day of fun, education, healthy activity, food, drink, entertainment and relaxation.