Welcome back - Just a quick thank you to everyone that has sponsored me so far, over £350 raised in 6 weeks, great to see. Also, like to say thanks to everyone for their encouragement over the last few weeks as well. Everyone has been so nice and it does make a difference to me, may not show it but it is much appreciated.Scott Nickson, if you every read this - I have taken your advice and bought some new running gear, just because you bullied me into it. I will not be changing the orange hat though, no chance!
Six weeks down and everything is still going really well, 42 runs in total so far and it seems to be getting easier. It is definitely part of my routine now and I don't even think anything of having to go for a run after work and at the weekends. I have calmed down a bit with the running this week as I have to maintain my fitness for the full year, I would be devastated if I had to miss even a day with injury. I am now in full training for my LeJog tour in June, so I am replacing the miles in my running shoes for time on my bike. Even though I am doing fewer miles running, I have still run 21.8 miles this week which takes my total to 161.3 miles for the year - (average 3.75 miles a day). On the bike I have covered 76.7 miles for the week, totalling 331.6 miles so far. As I will be cycling 1000 miles in ten days in the summer, I will need to take my cycling to another level to complete this epic task - I am loving it though.
I have to say I am definitely the fittest I have ever been and my fitness is improving week on week. On 25th October 2014 I ran my first Parkrun in the time of 23:12, really struggled with this having to stop twice throughout the run, for myself I wasn't happy with this at all. 15 weeks later I have achieved another PB with the time of 19:56 finishing 3rd out of 150. This is 3 minutes and 16 seconds faster than my first attempt. I had set 20 minutes as my yearly target for the Parkrun but I have beaten this 6 weeks into the year. I am genuinely surprised at how fast I am running and how good I am feeling about it all. I know it is only a case of beating times, but when you are setting targets and reaching them it is a great feeling. This Sunday I took to the bike with Steven Willetts - member of 'The Wheel Deal' team. We cycled 34 miles in the freezing fog, visibility was shocking, literally only being able to see 100 yards ahead of us. We climbed 2000ft through Pleasington, Blackburn and Langho which was a great test, but this will only be a third of most of our rides come June - so we will have to start increasing the miles but it is a good start. Steven, please wear more than just shorts and fingerless gloves next week, especially when the temperature is 2oC.
After the ride I went for my daily run, I set off feeling fresh. I ran 5km in a time of 18:59, which is another PB for myself. I had set 19:00 as a marker for the year but even after cycling 34 miles I managed to beat my previous record by 11 seconds and achieve another milestone. I am going to have a good think and set some goals that are going to be hard to achieve, this way I can keep pushing myself hard throughout the year. 6 weeks ago I never knew I would be beating the ones I had already set. I have to say thanks to Pete Battersby as he has been telling me for weeks now to settle down with the running and to have my rest days of running just a mile on certain days - It has definitely benefited me this week. Kudos Pete, Kudos.
So to carry on my story from a few weeks ago - As it was a good few years ago I have had to resort to my mums diary to get exact details and to put things in order. I have to say it was quite a tough read, not reading what I personally went through, just some of the notes my mum had made around the time. So it was the 17th May 2006 in which I found out I had cancer, a few notes from my mum read - 'must stay strong for Karl', 'still trying to get my head in gear' and 'Sky box being fitted'. Least I know she had her priorities right. I said last time I would never truly know how my parents felt, but I'm starting to find out now as I go through. Anyhow, 5 days later I was taken into the YOU (Young Oncology Unit) which was based within The Christie hospital in Manchester. I was under Professor Eden who I met with my parents, what a guy he was. Definitely the most intelligent man I will ever meet. In the meeting he spoke about going through some more tests that week to find out the extent of the cancer and if it had spread throughout the body. Think this was the most nerve-wracking time for me, not knowing what was going to happen and how seriously ill I was. Realistically it was a case of yes everything will be ok, or the other end of the spectrum in which it may not have been caught in time - Which wasn't really worth thinking about, at 17 years of age though it's not what you think you'll be going through.
In the space of a few days I had countless number of tests, it was ridiculous.
- Blood tests - To see what my white/red blood cell count was at.
- X-ray - Used to find out the stage of the cancer and how far it has spread.
- CT scan - 3D scan of the body, in my case upper body/chest. Can break it up into different sections once again to determine to stage of the cancer.
- echocardiogram - uses sound waves to create a picture of the heart. Was used to test the strength of my heart before treatment.
- LFT (Liver Function Test) - Same principal to test the strength of it and to see of the cancer has spread to this area.
- Bone marrow test - Bone marrow contains cells that help produce blood cells, red blood cells, and platelets. Your white blood cells help fight infection, your red blood cells carry oxygen and nutrients, and your platelets enable the blood to clot. Marrow has both solid and liquid parts. If the solid portion of the bone is sampled, this is called a biopsy. The procedure was undertaken to check the spread of disease and hoping it wasn't found it this area. This was the one I was dreading, it involves putting a needle into the bone of the pelvic area and extracting the marrow which is in the centre on the bone. The needles can range between 1-3 inch. When I was having my procedure done I was given gas and air and I don't remember any of it. Beforehand I remember getting changed into my little gown and then getting into the foetal position on the bed. The nurse was brilliant beforehand, joking with me and having a good laugh. She mentioned before the gas and air that she would make sure she get me to tell her that I loved her. I thought she was just messing about, she wasn't. As I came to afterwards, my mum explained what went on. I told the nurse I loved her on several occasions, supposedly, I will never know - Just unfortunate she was married, otherwise I had pulled. The doctor at first actually struggled to get the needle in, asking my mum to help the nurse out with holding me steady. Must have been an ordeal, but I only have good memories of this due to the nurse that looked after me before and after the procedure.
On a lighter note - Jordan and Steven, the team t-shirts have arrived for The Christie Leg of the LeJog tour. It shall be a proud day to have you wearing those shirts and helping me support a top charity, bring it on. Steven is training hard, he is out running and doing a lot of cycling at the moment. Jordan has recently returned from a hamstring injury and will be back to full fitness before we know it. He has been weight training and back running now.
Thanks for reading.
As always - Feel free to sponsor me if you like :)https://www.justgiving.com/end2endKH/
If you wish to comment or ask questions about anything, please go ahead - If it makes a difference to one person that's good enough for me.
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