The Mother of All Workouts - a 15 hour workout fundraising for St Peter's Hospice & Bowel Cancer UK

Tribute • 2 members • 2 charities

Story

On Tuesday 16th November 2021 Mark's life would change forever.

Enjoying a night out in Bath with his two oldest and dearest friends Mark suddenly started complaining of stomach pains. We joked that if I didn't see him for our usual 5:45am gym class then something was seriously wrong, little did we know...

Within a month Mark was diagnosed with Terminal Stage 4 Bowel Cancer and they only gave him 182 days to live. When we face the 15 hour workout on 22nd June Mark will be 949 days on from that fateful night - what a warrior he has been 💪🏻

Mark is a true outlier in terms of his approach to life and when faced with Cancer you can see that he has proven how he can overcome what would seem insurmountable odds.

Sadly Mark is nearing the end of his journey now and I want to do something special to shine a light on his amazing resilience and raise some money and awareness for the charities that have helped and supported him and his family.

He’s taken on this monumental challenge with amazing grit, determination and metronomic efficiency. One of the most stunning examples of this was when he opted to have “The Mother of All Surgeries”. This is known in medical circles as the most brutal and most invasive surgery known to modern medicine. (Have a read of the images, they are an excerpt from a book written by a 36 year old bowel cancer patient who has sadly passed away).

Mark is reading it at the moment and this section provides a small insight into the 15 hour CRS & HIPEC operation he had on 23rd June 2023)

In honour of all that Mark has been through (and especially this operation) we are going to complete a 15 hour workout at Kokoro Fitness, matching the time Mark was literally fighting for his life on the operating table.

Some words from our amazing gym (Kokoro Fitness) that became a huge part of Mark's life before his diagnosis:

This will be a 15 hour workout to show support and solidarity to one of our most inspirational members Mark Butcher, who has terminal stage 4 Bowel Cancer. We will be raising funds for St Peter’s Hospice and Bowel Cancer UK. We want to facilitate and support and help as much as possible as Mark obviously means an awful lot to us 💙 A small group of us are planning to do the full 15 hours with others dropping in and out along the way and providing much needed support and encouragement. The aim will be to finish at 7pm with a hero workout “The Butch”. We’re hoping Mark can make it along at the end and his Daughter (Millie) is also keen to complete “The Butch” along with some friends. If there’s ever a time to show what our community and family is all about, it’s now 💙

In terms of the charities he is already receiving great palliative care support from St Peter’s Hospice and wants to use this as an opportunity to raise awareness of the great work they do and raise awareness of Bowel Cancer UK and try and drag some sort of positive out of the most negative/challenging/sad situations.

St Peter’s Hospice have provided us with some meaningful data about how this money raised can help them help others:

£3,000.00 = 60 therapy sessions for bereaved children and families

£4,154.00 = 100 calls to our 24 hour advice line by patients or family members needing advice

£5,017.50 = 150 hours of patient care in a patient’s home

£6,065.08 = 28 overnight stays by a nurse to relieve family members

We are intending a 75% (St Peter's Hospice) / 25% (Bowel Cancer UK) split with the charities so please try to spread donations accordingly, but of course if one of the charities is particularly close to your heart then that is fine as well ❤️

Please give generously and help us make a real difference 🙏🏻