Our inspiring and amazing friend Kevin Webber will soon be in the desert ready for the Marathon Des Sable. The endurance runner, who continues to live every moment of life in the face of treatment for prostate cancer has been keeping us up-to-speed with his running, fundraising and his incredible attitude to living life to-the-full. Here's his latest update.
Dear All,
Well, baring some kind of disaster, I will be boarding a plane for the desert a week today, Friday 7th. I have all the kit, the food, my medication, medical sign offs from 3 doctors, been heat acclimatised plus the excitement of being able to do my only bucket list item again, I never thought that would be the case this time last year. Those of you who have seem me recently may have noticed a massive grin on my face for much of the time, those dark thoughts are not in town right now that’s for sure!
March was a good month for me I am pleased to say, I had a great reunion with my rugby mates at Sutton & Epsom RFC and they had an impromptu bucket collection for PCUK and raised £700. I was quite proud of myself as I gave up alcohol in February (41 days and counting!) and this is a real test for me. Have to say that I don’t miss it and love seeing my friends drink my quota on top of theirs!
My wife and I did some more bucket shaking thanks to Murray at The Shack pub in Twickenham, well looked after as ever and got over £1,000 which was the best ever. The England result was pretty special too (sorry Scotland), shame they messed up in Ireland but there is always next year!
After my blog last time someone came back with their mantra of “I am not here for a long time but I am here for a good time” and I just loved the sound of that, wasting time being sad is just a …..……..waste of time. Having a good time (never at the expense of others of course) is something we all should try to achieve every day. What could your “Good” look like today, how could you make it happen, how will you make those around you feel good too?
My last blood test was good but I now have to have an infusion of Zolandronic acid via a drip on a regular basis to fight the bone weakening that the drugs are causing. I hate drips, reminds me of chemo. The side effects are extreme bone pain and the inability to have any dental work as my jaw could not take any interference for 3 months after drip. That means that it has been delayed so that I could have work on a tooth that was generally ok but if it had started to hurt I would have had to endure the pain for 3 months. A trip to the dentist is only one notch below my love of drips and I spent over an hour in the chair, hopefully sorted though!
Those of you who have befriended me on facebook (please feel free to befriend me if you wish as I do post more there) will have seen that I managed a sneaky trip to Iceland. Great but expensive country, I did manage one run but can see that the terrain will be just as challenging as the Sahara when I go back to do my race there in September.
This week I presented at the Prostate Cancer UK Annual conference. What an inspirational day that was, full of hope. It was just so good to meet most of the people within the charity and feel their passion about both the overall aims of the charity and their part in it . Some were fund raisers doing what they can to increase the charity income but there were also highly skilled and sensitive specialist nurses, research scientists, awareness marketers amongst so many roles. It was also clear to me just what a relatively lean charity it is in terms of numbers so they are running double speed to help them continue punching above their weight and putting every penny raised to the best use.
On the subject of money, I have again exceeded my own nominal target of £10,000, thank you all so much. It’s a hard call but I am going to be bullish and double the target. I may not get there but it will help me focus on doing all I can and I still have 7 months before my “year” is up.
If you want to support my continuing efforts and this important charity please visit https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Kevin-Webber5
You may recall one of my challenges this year is to complete 15 back to back marathons with Geoff Stelling from Sky Sports in June. I put that out there in a few conferences that I have spoken to within RBS/NatWest. The response has been amazing with many signing up to complete a day with me, they have room for more though so whoever you work for, if you fancy being part of something special have a look at this link http://prostatecanceruk.org/jeffsmarch
What has yet again humbled me is a response from colleagues in London, most I don’t even know, who felt that they wanted to be a part of the marathons but could not logistically get to the routes so they have arranged their own event in London in May, there will be over 50 people doing that all raising more funds and awareness, just amazing, I will never be able to thank them enough for what it does for me, Alison M you have been amazing!
I mentioned last time that there is also a gig open to everyone that colleagues from work have set up for the evening on Wednesday 24th May near Bank/Moorgate in London. They are limited to 120 tickets by the pub and they have had a great response even though they only went on sale a couple of days ago. If you would like a ticket (or two) for this gig priced at £10 please email Mark Middleton, mark.middleton@rbs.co.uk sooner rather than later as it will sell out.
So the MDS/Marathon Des Sables, if you want to follow me each day as I race you can sign up and track me, if you manage to stay awake you can see me finish on a live web cam each day (I reward you with my best “Dad dancing” impression each day too). You can also send me emails which I love, anything is great, encouragement, jokes, abuse are all welcome as often as you like as the emails are given to the runners each evening and are a real boost.
I will send one final email next week explaining how you can make this happen but think it would be better not to mix that up with the rest of this update.
Each day I can send one short email that will of course go to my wife however she will forward to Shirlee in my office who has kindly agreed to send out each day to you. Please do not respond to her or send me emails to my usual addresses as I wont see them, if you want to email me send to me in the desert that I will outline in my next email. I hope that each day I will be able to share a bit of what it is like for me out there with you. Please be warned, that means that you will get an email every day from 10th April to 16th April so if you do not want this please email me by close of the day Tuesday 4th April as I will not be able to amend the data base afterwards, I wont be offended. Similarly, if you know someone who wants to be included then send me their email adress by the same deadline.
As ever, you have done well to get this far, thank you for reading. A short email next week I promise!
Remember, what are you doing today and this weekend to give you and those around you a good time?
Kev
