Stuart Cock - Brain Tumour Fundraiser

Stuart Cock is a cancer survivor and running in memory of a friend for the Lewis Moody Brain Tumour Charity and this is his story...

1. Name : Stuart Cock

2. Age :  44

3. Have you ever run a half marathon before? Are you regular runner or is this a first challenge for you?

First half marathon since 2006. I used to be a regular runner but Cancer treatment and its after effects have made it quite difficult in the last 2 years

4. How is your training going?

Now, very well. Because of the effects of my cancer, surgery and chemo my levels of fitness were very poor at the end of last year. During 2018 I tried to get back into running and back to fitness but, the chemo damaged some nerves in my legs which caused me to suffer terrible cramps in my calves and stopped me doing certain types of exercise. Added to the debilitating effects of the treatment this left me in a poor state of fitness. Since around October 2018 I have been building up my running and now it is really paying off and I am finally feeling some real improvements in speed and distance. I've run 3 half marathon distances now and although I find them brutally hard and can't run the whole way yet, I can at least get around the distance with a combination of run/walks.

5. Why are you running? (if you are raising money for a charity please mention them here)

This is a bit of a long story: My good friend Steve George died of a Brain Tumour in November 2016 after being diagnosed with a grade 4 glioblastoma in April 2015. Just prior to his death I decided to start to raise money for the Lewis Moody Foundation as they had helped Steve and his family throughout his illness and treatment. In October 2016 we knew that Steve didn't have long left and wanted to raise as much money as possible for the charity.

One single challenge seemed insufficient so, I decided to take on 42 challenges in in my 42nd year as I turned 42 in Nov 2016 skydiving, running, dancing in a tutu, milking a cow, among other crazy things.. The centre piece of those challenges was to be the Bath Half in March 2017 as this is the Lewis Moody Foundation's "home event" and I trained very hard towards that aim. A group of Steve's friends decided to run the 2017 Bath half at the same time in Steve's honour and also because Lewis Moody himself runs the Bath Half and we felt that this would be an amazing thing to do for Steve.

During my training though Nov, Dec 2016 and into Jan 2017 I felt that my fitness was getting worse not better despite the training I was doing and my general health was declining. After seeing my doctor about this and various invasive investigations, they found the reason for the decline in my fitness and health. I had Bowel Cancer........ I had to pull out of the 2017 event, which given the reason for me taking part was devastating for me.

I had surgery to remove half of my large intestine followed by 6 months of aggressive intravenous Chemotherapy finishing in Dec 2017. This obviously took a huge toll on my body but, come Feb 2018 I felt that I needed to try to run the Bath Half in March 2018. I physically wasn't ready, had no fitness and suffered some nerve damage from the chemo that caused my legs to cramp and spasm very badly when I ran. However, I decided that I needed to do it for Steve!!

Tragically, the event was sold out at that point but, the lovely people at the Lewis Moody Foundation managed to persuade the Bath Half organizers to give me a place given my background story. I was so happy that I would finally get to do the Bath Half in my friend Steve's memory but, sadly the 2018 event was snowed off. On the day of the race I took on a half marathon distance in the snowy streets around my home just to say that I had done it. Predictably, after around 5kms the chemo damage caused my calf muscles to cramp and spasm and so running became impossible, not to be defeated, I walked the rest of the way! I still really want/need to take part in the Bath Half and finish this event so I can finally get to run in memory of me friend Steve in 2019, proudly wearing the Lewis Moody foundation shirt.

6. How much do you hope to raise for charity?

This time around I can't promise to raise any money as I am raising money for Bowel Cancer UK this year. But, in 2017 and 2018 I personally raised £1746 towards the event. Some of my friends took on some of the 42 challenges I set myself but could not do due to illness and raised a further £5k.

7. Link to your charity fundraising page:  https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/stuart-cock3