My Story
Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. This June I’m walking 10,000 steps a day throughout the month to help beat cancer sooner. Help me Walk All Over Cancer and fund life-saving research by sponsoring me. Donating through this page is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with Cancer Research UK. Mickey was my son's dad, my one-time partner, and a good friend. He was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in his throat in February 2016; unfortunately it was too far advanced to be treated though no-one could give us any idea of his life expectancy. Through various forms of medication he was fine for several months although his voice often became hoarse. Then his throat became painful and he started having difficulty swallowing - his food had to be pureed, all his drinks thickened, and he started losing weight, slowly at first then more rapidly as time went on. In mid October 2016 my son and I accompanied Mickey when he went over to Southern Ireland to live in the family home, as he had always expressed the wish to end his days 'back home' and he was too ill to travel alone. In mid November we went over to visit him and were shocked by how much weight he'd lost in just four weeks; by then he was having 24/7 care supplied by a small army of family, friends and carers. His voice had been reduced to a barely audible whisper and he was so weak he could hardly stand. Just ten days after our visit he was moved into a hospice and less than twenty fours hours later he passed peacefully away. It seems appropriate that this challenge takes place in June as it would have been Mickey's birthday on the 10th of the month. I have no set target in mind as yet, my aim is just to raise as much money as I can to help beat this disease, so all donations will be appreciated, no matter how small - after all, every little helps. Thank you. P.S. If anyone wants to follow my daily step count for this challenge then I'll be posting regular updates on my blog here https://tenthousandstepschallenge.wordpress.com/
