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MARK: A WIDOWER’S STORY

How I Found MOVE….

This is hard to write as I think back to my wife Maria, how she was affected by metastatic breast cancer and ultimately passed away in 2016. But then I remember that it led me to take up triathlon to help with my mental health, which in turn gave me a goal to keep me alive and moving forward. It also ultimately took me to the supportive community that is MOVE Against Cancer.

From the dark days of 2016 fast forward to the start of 2025 and my third go at the Erdinger 5k Your Way challenge, which is a load of fun and was my real introduction to MOVE Against Cancer charity. This coincided with Lucy Gossage’s return to the Spine Race and her claiming it back for herself.

I went along to see the start of the Spine Race and met a few people from the charity. We had a chat and I learnt a little more about MOVE. When I heard Lucy’s own mantra that “choosing to suffer is a privilege” it resonated with me because I’d used a “no pain will ever be as bad as Maria’s“ mantra when I was doing my first Ironman.

Chatting to and meeting 5k Your Way ambassadors that day was a turning point – that’s when I decided to raise funds for MOVE on the back of the two 70.3 races I’d entered in May, just a week apart! During the first few weeks after announcing what I was doing somehow I’d managed to raise over £1000. I also completed the last two Erdinger 5k challenges dressed as a “dinosaur rider” at two serious training camps in Fuerteventura and Lanzarote…!

I went to my first 5k Your Way meetup in March at Wilmslow and met some great ambassadors there. It was my first ever parkrun too as I always work on Saturdays but thought it important to swap my days off and go to one. I didn’t know what to expect but as a widower you get used to going to things alone and meeting new people. Everyone was so welcoming, so friendly and so supportive. It really allowed me to see the difference that MOVE makes to the lives of people affected by cancer, as well as those living with and after cancer. I have now been to two more 5k Your Way meetups since then, including the incredible and moving memorial at Macclesfield for Stephen Whittingham. That’s when I saw what a community this charity has created. I think that was when I knew I was doing the right thing raising money for MOVE and I knew there was no way I was going to not complete my challenge.

Anytime I felt like I couldn’t do the training I thought of all the amazing people moving against cancer and against any odds.

In May I attended MOVE’s Shropshire Way Your Way fundraising hike and wow what an incredible “mega” day, meeting more amazing people and hearing their stories. It was a very different cancer experience to the one I had lived through with Maria – one filled with hope, of people living fully after a cancer diagnosis and amazing people saying that cancer will not stop them!

That resilience is what I carried with me on my two 70.3 triathlons. When things got bad I thought of everyone doing the Shropshire Way – the people who’d travelled miles to be part of it and the determination they’d shown.I knew I was never going to stop because of a little discomfort…

I hope that I can help more in the future by maybe becoming a 5k Your Way ambassador but also attending as many of the parkruns as possible. I managed to raise over £1800 for MOVE which totally blows my mind, knowing that is a fantastic amount for this small but mighty charity and that it will make such a difference to so many people.