Running is a way I can give myself the best chance at longevity. The best chance to live my life longer. To be around to experience as much as possible.
There’s a high chance I don’t get to experience a lot of my life, see future children grow up, be old man participating in sports, aging, growing old with another person - that all gets taken away from me. You can say that it’s unfair but I try to think of it as it’s happened, what I do with the remaining time that I have left.
Running gives me that freedom from everything I’m going through. It lets me separate it and act normal.
As I have walking and balance issues now, it stops me from doing some of the sports I used, I can’t do them, which frustrates me and upsets me. It really limits what I can and can’t do. I had to learn all the skills again - that involves running and walking - that was a big challenge. At the start, I could barely walk, for ten minutes and I was tired.
When I was discharged from the hospital I set myself a target of walking at my friends wedding unattended. I wanted to prove it to myself, even if it was a tall task for me, I wanted to prove to others that I could do it. It felt huge for me to be able to do that in a short space of time from being discharged. From there I spent the next few months learning how to walk and increased it gradually until I felt it was at a good point. I felt more confident in myself and my abilities.
Without any training I started my challenges, a 5k run seemed like nothing in the grand scheme of things, I could do that distance in my sleep, but back then I couldn’t even walk for 10 minutes without being tired.
Running doesn’t require many pieces of equipment to get involved. It’s open to people of all abilities and is fairly inexpensive. I felt like I wouldn’t be judged by participating. It was not until afterwards, that I started taking the sport more seriously I started expanding my collection.
I didn’t want sympathy, I didn’t want sorrow from other people, I wanted to do it for me. Create something meaningful that people could refer to and Running with Cancer was born. I want people to look at this resource and be proud of it. Help other people in need and let them believe there is someone like them out there.
“Try not to become a person of success, but rather try to become a person of value.” Albert Einstein.
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