A new challenge walking for Prostate Cancer research
It’s raining again, I’m wanting to get out and walk a bit. My target is 6000 steps a day and I’m going to increase that if my body allows it as the months move on. The plan is to walk 10 miles from Dungeness to Dymchurch along the beach front on the 1st of June with some friends. A bit less than last year’s 20 mile yomp along the coastline, I simply can’t do that again, last year I didn’t have osteoporosis and a rising PSA to deal with.The rain is my excuse today. There’s always an excuse, I’m too tired, hurting too much or just plain feeling I can’t be arsed. This unfortunately is the after effects of all the chemicals I’m dieting on every month to beat the cancer. Fatigue leaves me feeling drained and wasted but I’ve got to get up off the couch and go. It’s only a shower I’ve no real excuse unless I can find one.
The sun’s out now it’s a showery kind of day, the type where it changes from cold to warm and dry to wet in the blink of an eye. There are puddles and the sun is shining brightly off the water, making me squint, but feeling it’s promise of spring warmth but also I’m wearing too much and I’m on one of my many daily hot flushes that I get knocked about regards from the hormone treatment.This treatment puts me into some kind of chemically induced menopause. Sweating one minute shivering the next. I’ve had over two and a half years of this so I guess you could say I’m used to it and it’s just normal, but you never really do get used to it Normality now is so different to what it was a few years back.
So why am I doing this walk in June? The answer is because 12000 men die of Prostate Cancer every year that’s one dad brother friend or uncle of someone every 45 seconds and I want to do something no matter how small in comparison but something to make a difference. It has apparently just a touch over half the research budget that breast cancer has, so it’s down to guys like me to try and do something about it and help to raise funds and in particular awareness of this truly horrendous cancer. I’m lucky and I appreciate so much that there are treatments that allow people like me to live a reasonably normal extended life than those of a decade or so ago. I was given 2 to 5 years to live, I’m over half way there now and that is pretty frightening, but what can you do? I try to live a life that deflects my thoughts away from cancer but it’s getting tougher lately as my bloods are not good, my PSA is slowly rising a marker that the cancer is reawakening.
The thing also is I know there are so many people on this planet that are far worse off than me. Every night I write a few words in my gratitude journal and try to fall asleep with a peaceful mind. Gratitude is powerful, positivity is powerful and kindness is powerful. I use these three powers to help me get along with things and I know deep inside that they work. Fighting the mental side of this illness has certainly been a challenge so far, I know I have to keep my mind in the right place, not to let it get lost and wander down paths that are dark and scary but again I have to accept my mind has done that a few times and that’s the times when I need to just let go appreciate some silence and listen to my breathing. It has a wonderful effect when you just down and focus on the breaths going in and out. It resets the thoughts and the anxieties drift away for a while.
I sometimes get upset when I physically can’t help out around the house. It’s frustrating as well as embarrassing but I’ve learned to accept I have different limitations than I used to. That’s why walking 10 miles is so important for me personally. I need that challenge and that purpose to say fuck you to cancer for a while. I need to feel that I’m doing something worthwhile so joining a great group of friends to embark on a journey that will really push my body is going to give me that purpose to keep fighting and after this walk I’ll be looking forward to the one the following year.
The walk is going to raise funds for Prostate Cancer UK a fantastic charity that works tirelessly to raise funds into research to one day beat this cancer. Breakthroughs are being made and I’ve read recently that AI is being used to up the pace of research with very promising outcomes. The walk will help to raise awareness of prostate cancer and as the months approach to the walk, I’m hoping more and more men that hear our message will get themselves tested. It’s a simple blood test to measure the PSA level. I believe Everyman over 50 or everyman that has a history of prostate cancer in their family should start even earlier and ask for this test. If the doctor refuses you can buy them online.
Prostate cancer can be controlled easily if it’s caught early. The more men that understand the symptoms of prostate cancer the more men will be saved. If by doing this walk we can raise enough awareness to help 1 man from being diagnosed too late then it will be worthwhile. Unfortunately for me mine was diagnosed too late despite me having all the symptoms this is something I live with, not with hate but what if my bloods were tested 8 months earlier when I first presented with the symptoms, what if! I’ll never know if it would have made a difference but it might make a difference to someone reading this, who knows, the universe works in mysterious ways.
So I’ve set up a just giving page and already we are over £400 in the pot. If you wish to make a donation no matter how big or small please do it’s for an extremely worth whole cause and you never know it just might be your donation that funds a better treatment or dare I say it a cure.
Thank you so much for reading this
Woody ❤️
