Run or Die!

Hi everyone, Rachel here, how are you? It's been a crazy few days here...

On Monday Nick was due for her third dose of CHOP chemo but the neutrophils in her blood were still too low so that was postponed until Friday. She was still allowed to go to Exeter for intrathecal (spinal) chemo on Wednesday though. As is becoming our routine we stayed with friends Di & Jon the night before so as to make the whole thing more relaxed for us all (the dogs get to stay with their friend Elvis while we go to the hospital!). Anyway this gave Di and me the chance to sit down with a bottle of wine, eat lots of pancakes (thanks Jon) & create our Just Giving page...

We have both managed to secure places in The Great North Run in September and we are going to run this to raise money for the Lymphoma Association. This is the world's biggest half marathon with about 60,000 people taking part!! And The Lymphoma Association is the only charity in the UK dedicated to supporting people with lymphoma.

 As you know Nick is suffering from non-Hodgkins, high-grade, peripheral T-cell lymphoma but there are many different types and classifications of this disease. Non-Hodgkins is a general term for about 30 different types of lymphoma that differ from the Hodgkins type. Hodgkins is more treatable than non-Hodgkins with around 80% surviving for 5 years and many of these being cured. (With me so far?). 

The next classification is B-cell, (affecting B-lymphocytes), or T-cell, (affecting the T-lymphocytes). B-cell tends to have a better prognosis than T-cell. These are then categorised further as high-grade (aggressive) or low-grade (known as indolent!). Whilst 'aggressive' doesn't sound good it's actually better than the low-grade form as the rapidity with which the cancerous cells are dividing & multiplying means that the chemo drugs have a better chance of success. Every cloud and all that!! Beyond this the distinctions become more complicated and Nick's diagnosis has NOS (not otherwise specified) tagged onto the end because the minutiae doesn't seem easy to pinpoint or to matter very much in terms of treatment. As this is cancer of the lymphatic system the most commonly affected areas are the lymph nodes and often the disease is confined there but other areas can be affected. In Nick's case the lymph nodes are fine and it was the liver and some bones of the spine that were involved, which is often the case with the aggressive forms.

With so many variations, and the fact that every 28 minutes someone in the UK is diagnosed with lymphatic cancer, it seems that the Lymphoma Association is a good charity to support. So with this in mind, and a belly full of pancakes and Malbec, our fundraising journey began and our Just Giving page went live at about 11pm on Tuesday night. We set ourselves a modest target of £1000. The response was unbelievable and in under 24hrs we had reached, and surpassed, that target thanks to generous donations from far and wide. Nick, Di and I were totally overwhelmed by this! We're going to have to rethink that target! Today I spoke to the lovely Adele at The Lymphoma Association who was delighted of course, and has been so helpful. She said something about chasing pavements...

I've never come close to running 13 miles, in fact I've only ever run half that far so I've got some hard work to put in over the coming months but the thought of all of those kind donations will keep Di and me going for sure! (That and the funky lymphoma vests from Adele!) I've also just discovered that World Lymphoma Awareness Day is in the same week as the Great North Run so the timing couldn't be more perfect.

You'll see there is a 'button' on the blog now where you can donate to our fund if you would like to. It's at the top on the right, and any amount small or large will help make a massive difference. We will be setting ourselves a new target so it would be absolutely fantastic to reach this target with all of your help.

The main photo on our Just Giving page was taken at the end of October when the three of us ran the Exmoor Trail Events 10k on a glorious Autumn day. This was Nick's last run before her diagnosis. Just a month before her diagnosis in fact. She had run another 10k in September (The Breakfast run, wearing pyjamas to raise money for Hospicecare!), swum the Dart 10k, also in September and completed a sprint triathlon at Hever Castle in that same month too! Earlier in the summer she had done the Bideford triathlon, and a 4K swim/60k cycle event as well as many other long swim events. All with lymphoma. Remind me not to moan about having to run for a couple  of hours!!!

Thanks for your support!