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Ok so this is the bit where Mik and I talk about the WHAT and the WHY!nThe WHAT is the London Marathon....2025nThe WHY is because without the research done by this charity 4 children would have lost their dad, Mik would have lost her husband, Franki and John their son and Damian his life.nOur story for all that don't know, last year Damian was doing a whole host of challenges trying to raise money for a veterans charity. The last challenge of the year for him was the walking marathon, the Shine Night Walk, for Cancer Research UK, which he was doing with Mik and one of their best friends Tanya.nIf you know Damian, he gets bored easily and because we had to walk around the course, he decided to dance round the 26 miles with a backpack wearing a tutu!! Fast forward two days post walk and he's complaining of a lump in his stomach and a pain. We thought it was some dodgy food on the way round and a pulled muscle. Two A&E visits later (both diagnosing a pulled muscle) until Damian noticed the blood from you know where! A GP visit and some further tests still not coming back with anything very specific until 2 days after Christmas Day Damian ends up in Hospital for 4 days with chronic stomach pain.nMore Doctors review his case and scans are done, they conclude that it's Colitis and book a Colonoscopy. 8 weeks later the colonoscopy shocked us all and that's the moment the world literally stopped for us both..."its Cancer", "we don't know at what stage, but the tumor is large!". nPanic in the Doctors now kicked in as it had been missed and Damian was fast tracked through the tests to line him up for surgery asap. Thanks to Mr Goode this operation came within weeks of the diagnosis. Also thanks to the technology and research that was done by this organisation Damian went under the knife of a 7 armed robot controlled by Mr Goode for 6.5 hours that successfully cut the tumor out before it could progress through the colon wall, he also removed all of the nodes around it and we now have had it confirmed Damian is CANCER FREE!!!!nNext up we have his insurance policy of 3 months of Chemo to navigate but thanks to the fast actions of Mr Goode, the technology and skills to do the operation the way they did, Damian is back on his feet and Cancer Free. nThis has been an absolute roller coaster for us as a family and we wanted to give back, but give back with a real physical test, that will demonstrate the amazing work done by Mr Goode and his team and this technology. A year to the week of the operation is the London Marathon 2025 and we decided this was the perfect challenge and Bowel Research UK the perfect charity to donate our fundraising too. Their investment in the past has given Damian a future!nDamian took 26 steps post op and we laughed that he did one step for every mile people where doing in the marathon of 2024, so for us this challenge is called "26 Steps to 26 Miles".nSome further details below on the charity and please look into them more, but also please make sure that if you have any of the following symptoms you get yourself checked:n1. Bleeding from your bottom (doesn't have to be loads)n2. Blood in your poo (doesn't have to be loads)n3. A change in how often you poo, or regularly having diarrhoea pr constipationn4. Losing weight but not sure why (Damian wasn't lol)n5. Feeling tired all the time and not sure why (We thought this was just because he is manic all the time....do not assume)n6. A pain or lump in your tummy (if your bleeding too its not a pulled muscle like Damian was told)nBowel Research UK is funding life-changing research into bowel cancer and other bowel diseases.nEvery year over 16,000 people die from bowel cancer in the UK and over a million suffer from bowel disease.nThis charity is the UK’s leading specialist bowel cancer and bowel disease research charity and their research is saving and improving lives....including saving Damian's!


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£1007.08
currently achieved of £5000 target