I put it down to an embarrassing case of trapped wind and got on with my life because – this is the difficult bit – it went away. In March last year I tentatively called an unconcerned locum GP when I had pain so acute I thought I might have appendicitis. Now, it’s abundantly clear what was going on, but at the time I was clueless. In fact, the warning signs were there in my running. It doesn’t make you immune to a life-threatening disease like cancer. It is a reminder that living a clean lifestyle and exercising to extremes does not make you immortal, even though it might feel like that at the time. Now I’ve been diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer and, unfortunately, have at best a 10 per cent chance of surviving as far into the future as five years. I didn’t want to burden the overstretched public health system. Long before the red-flag warning signs began to appear, I knew something was up, but I did nothing for months, worried that I was just being a hypochondriac. How did this happen to a young man with a monastic lifestyle? I write this from bed after my second round of chemotherapy, and just traversing the 12 steps to my sofa feels like running the Pennine Way all over again. I love them, and at the age of 36 should have thousands and thousands of miles ahead of me.īut bowel cancer has now completely humbled me. In 2021 I treated myself to a relaxing summer holiday, which for me meant running the first 160 miles of the Pennine Way in six days.Īs an ultra-marathoner I’m used to long distances.
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