Tom’s London Marathon 2024

I’m going to attempt to run the London Marathon 😲 Cancer takes far too much from far too many. It took my incredible Dad at the age of just 46. Dad was a hugely active man, an interest of his was running, it started as a hobby and led to him running several marathons. He then decided he wanted to be more active in the running community and joined a local running group. After a few months of training, he noticed he wasn’t improving his times and wasn’t feeling his normal active self. A few weeks down the line us kids were told that Dad was seeing a specialist as he wasn’t feeling quite right and had noticed blood when going to the toilet & although at this stage our worse fears are in the back of our minds – we also thought and were told this could be one of many things. On October 10th, 2013 Dad and Mum set off to the hospital for a routine procedure and we all went to work or school as normal. Little did we know that it would be the last ‘normal day of our lives’. At the young age of 42 Dad was diagnosed with progressive bowel cancer, which we later found out had spread to his liver. Over the next 4 years, we watched our Dad battling to stay alive. 3 major surgeries, 2 intensive care admissions, middle-of-the-night rushes to the hospital with sepsis (a form of blood poisoning), 2 radiography blasts, over 48 sessions of chemotherapy with some of the worst side effects imaginable and much more. In early 2017 we learnt that Dad’s battle was coming to a head and the treatment had stopped being effective - the decision to stop treatment was made and as hard as it was, we all supported him. On August the 26th 2017, surrounded by his family, at the age of 46, he died leaving behind a loving wife, my brother, my sister and me. There’s no better way to honour his memory than to raise vital funds for the Bowelbabe Fund for CRUK. 💜