I am a bone cancer survivor and I will be taking part in the 2025 TCS London Marathon to raise money for Bone Cancer Research Trust! 🧡💙🧡💙🧡💙

It was a cold winters day on 10th February 2021, with steady snowfall coming down from the grey Scottish sky. As I helped my 3 year old son and 8 year old daughter build a snowman in the back garden, my mind would wander repeatedly to the impending afternoon appointment with my consultant, where I was due to receive the results from my recent biopsy. I was 33, had a beautiful wife, 2 amazing young kids, I was playing semi professional football, I was running marathons, I was as fit and healthy as I had ever been, surely this could not be cancer I thought to myself!

This day will forever be etched in my memory and as I lay on the hospital bed having had my stitches removed, my consultant pulled up beside me on his stool, looked me in the eye and delivered those crushing words. I was diagnosed with Chondrosarcoma of the pelvis. I remember looking to my wife, as the colour drained from her face, and we looked to each other for what to say or do next. The questions then start rolling through your head........ What is this? Who can help us? How do I tell my kids? Am I going to die? A truly awful experience and something that changes you as a person. As my psychologist later described it, my life was like a boat gliding along the water without any trouble, and was then suddenly sunk without cause! We sat in our car, in the hospital car park, cried in each others arms before thinking about how to tell our parents.

Fast forward 6 weeks, and with another case of COVID under my belt, I was in the Jubilee hospital in Glasgow facing up to a 10 hour operation to remove a section of my pelvis. To say I was petrified was an understatement and with COVID still a thing, I would spend the next 11 days alone in hospital, without visitors, trying to recover. I remember vividly the night before surgery where I sent my wife a video message and the key message was that I just had to get through the surgery. Whatever was to come next, whether mentally or physically, I knew I had it in me to fight, however the surgery was dangerous and being under for so long presented additional risks.

As I worked through recovery, goal setting was really important for me to ensure I felt like I was making progress. In the beginning it was very small goals that I had taken for granted my whole life. Sit up on my own, get out of bed myself, put my own socks on, walk without any support. However I also set some bigger goals and most importantly for me, I set myself a goal that would represent closing the circle from full health, through ill health and back to full health. And whilst I was now 10cm of pelvis short, my goal was to be able to run the London Marathon again but this time with a BCRT t-shirt on my back.

Throughout my journey, BCRT have been my support network and its where I turned for accurate information and guidance on my condition. A huge thanks must go to Jo, Vina and all the fellow patients on the Virtual Cuppa who supported me and my family through a difficult moment in our life, I genuinely do not know where I would be right now without them.

The funds I raise will go towards Andy's bones fund, a special fund of BCRT which focuses primarily on supporting research aimed at finding a cure for Chondrosarcoma. I went through treatment at the same time as Andy and I had the pleasure of getting know Andy and his wife Jacky through the virtual cuppa and in person BCRT events. Andy sadly passed away from Chondrosarcoma in April 2023 and I will run in his memory and in the hope my efforts get us a step closer to finding a cure so nobody else has to endure what Andy and his family had to.

I am determined to make 2025 the year that I turn this long term goal in to a reality and your support would be massively appreciated.

#TeamBones 🧡 💙

Every 10 minutes somewhere another child, teenager or adult is diagnosed with this brutal disease and they face a 5-year chance of survival at little over 50%. This drops even further if the disease is discovered late and has already progressed.

The Bone Cancer Research Trust is the only charity dedicated to this disease, it is a small but national charity based in Leeds, UK. They fund ground-breaking research, life-saving awareness initiatives and provide dedicated and trustworthy information and support to patients and all their loved ones... All without any government funding. They rely 100% on people like you supporting their work through donations.