I'm taking on Run the Month: Marathon Edition!

Phil Ellis' run the month challenge

Raised

£1,355

Distance

31.2 mi

On 8th August this year I was diagnosed with prostate cancer which came as quite a shock as stuff like this just "doesn’t happen to me". 55 years of being relatively lucky certainly seemed to have come to an end that day. The next few weeks were a blur of facts & figures, appointments, information overload and emotional ups and downs.

The cancer was graded as having a moderate risk of fast growth which meant that some kind of intervention was definitely required. Due to my relatively young age for this condition and a decent level of health, radical prostatectomy (chop it out) was the professional recommendation, and my preferred option personally.

This all stemmed from a regular ageing-bloke health checkup where a blood test showed my PSA level was slightly high at 4.9. I had absolutely none of the commonly experienced symptoms of prostate cancer which indicated it may have been caught early (that’s what I kept telling myself anyway 🤞🏼). As well the elevated PSA, the consultants other main concern was family history, and it was this niggle in his mind, and his diligence, that drove me down what appears to have been the right path. He did say that with this grading, if undetected now, that in 18-24 months we would likely have been having a very different conversation. Scary stuff…

The 3.5 hour operation was performed on 12th November (just 6 weeks ago now) and after a couple of pretty tough weeks both physically and mentally, I really started to recover in leaps and bounds.

Progress has been amazing but being one who is always active and doing something or another, it has been difficult to rest like I really needed to be doing. Of course I was a very good boy though (ish) and followed doctors orders to the letter (ish). It will take a while longer to get back to whatever is to be my new normal, but I do continue to improve daily.

On December 23rd, I received my histology report which showed I was free of cancer. The best Christmas present ever I guess!? 🔔🎉🥳🍾

There are several factors I put the success of my particular experience down to, a major one being the superb medical service received at every stage at Bolton General and Christies in Didsbury, but by far the most important is to make sure you catch this thing early so go get cheked out!

Much of the process, procedures and treatments the healthcare organisations perform is driven by research done by charitable organisations. If these organisations didn’t exist then the treatment I was lucky enough to receive in 2024 would have been much more intrusive, had a lower success rate, and taken many more months to recover from.

Of course I personally won’t be needing these amazing people again because my prostate is now in the bin somewhere (I actually donated it for medical research) but I feel I need to do something that may make the treatment path even better for men who will embark on their own journey with prostate cancer in the future.

It is for this reason I have chosen to fundraise for Prostate Cancer UK under their ‘Run the Month: Marathon Edition’ challenge. This will involve covering 26.2 miles throughout January with the hope of gaining vital sponsorship to help save lives from this disease which affects 1 in 8 men in the UK.

As I will only be 7 weeks post-op when I start this, I don’t know how shaking my insides around will affect me, but for every KM I cannot run, I will double that distance walking. (by the way, I hate running so dont be expecting a Kevin Sinfield kind of performance!).

Thanks to everyone who has been there for me during this last six months, and thanks to those who donate to this cause.

In hindsight, I think August the 8th 2024 was likely one of the luckiest days in my life...

See y’all soon.

ps. As you can see I have been very open with this, and if you have been, or know of anyone that is recently diagnosed with prostate cancer, I would be more than happy to discuss my journey with you/them. I didn’t know much about this at all at the outset and having someone with recent experience who could have answered the early questions would have been a great help 💚