This March I am challenging myself to walk 11,000 steps a day, every day for Prostate Cancer UK, and on top of that i’m fundraising to try and raise £500 for the charity.
Now to most people 11,000 steps doesn’t sound like a lot, but to me it’s going to be a massive undertaking. As you may or may not know my health seriously deteriorated during the covid lockdown in part due to a heart condition, and I am still waiting for an operation to correct that. At the moment if I go out or even walking around the house I generally have to use either a walking stick or my crutches, and that is going to have to change.
I do walk unaided on a treadmill at home for exercise, but no where near that level of steps day in day out, and of course I have handrails to hold onto should I need them. And often I have to take rest days, sometimes more than one due to pain in my feet and legs and soreness in my knees and hips, most of this is down to carrying a significant amount of additional weight, which is of course part of my motivation for doing this, but again, to do this everyday in March without fail is going to be one of the hardest things I have ever done.
So why Prostate Cancer UK, why not the British Heart Foundation, well prostate cancer is a silent killer which often goes undetected in men until it is far too late. And as such treatment options are often limited. My Granddad on my fathers side was sadly taken from us by late diagnosis prostate / bowel cancer, which was only diagnosed a few days before he died, for most of his last few month he just thought he had piles (and of course was to proud to see a doctor).
If I can raise just £100 (already done) then that will provide 1,000 men with printed literature about prostate cancer and encourage them to get tested.
£400 would pay for an MRI so that a man can get a diagnosis without the need for an invasive biopsy.
And £500 could pay for the analysis of 50 mens blood samples to identify their genetic risk factors for prostate cancer.
All of the above can save lives and keep families together longer. Allowing fathers to grow up with their children and hopefully even their grand-children, and that has got to be with a bit of pain.
So if you have read this and want to help, then please follow the link below to my Just Giving page and help motivate me to March the Month in 2024 for Prostate Cancer UK.
