Gary's story: parkruns and London marathon after a diagnosis 

"Back in late 2017, I was a healthy 34-year-old, training in the gym and doing all the normal things a man my age would do. I started to get a twinge of pain in my shoulder, so I decided to take a rest and allow it time to heal. Instead of healing, that pain started to spread a little further down my arm and into my ribs, eventually moving down to my spine and hips. I decided to take a trip to the GP who put it down to sciatica and gave me a list of stretches to do.

"My work offered physio sessions through occupational health and it was there I mentioned that if I bent over I would involuntarily urinate. He immediately stopped what he was doing and advised me to go to A&E. He suspected something was pressing on my nerves causing the signal to urinate."

Gary visited A&E a couple of times in pain but was sent away. His mum advised him to request a blood test with his GP. From there, he was sent for a CT scan for further investigation.

"That’s when I was told I had cancer in my liver, lungs, pancreas and most of my skeleton. This shattered my world. My then wife and I had not long been married. We had moved into a lovely home, so this was a massive blow to how we saw our future.

"I was assigned to the Macmillan unit at my local hospital and told I had about 3-6 months left to live. I was in so much pain at this point. I was barely mobile, I would use crutches to move around. I was practically bedbound, and only left the house to go to hospital.

“After 12 cycles of aggressive chemotherapy, my cancer had reduced by about 70%. I started to get my mobility back and life was feeling relatively normal. I’d returned to work and was back doing most things I had done before. I had become so adamant that a positive mental attitude would enable me not to be limited by my cancer.

"In 2024, a regular CT scan found the cancer in my liver was growing so I was put back on aggressive chemo to try and shrink it, which thankfully it did. This left me feeling very unfit and this is when I decided I needed to improve my cardio so I tried my hand at running.

"I discovered parkrun at this point and was attending my two local parkruns, Kings Lynn or Sandringham. I loved the event and the welcoming atmosphere.

"Macmillan became very important to me from the very start of my diagnosis. There was someone to talk to, I was given financial information and signposted to a counsellor, as initially I was struggling with the thought of leaving my wife behind and how she would cope.

"They also supported me with a charitable donation of an electric armchair. This helped a lot over the period when I was immobile and struggling to be comfortable at home. I have seen Macmillan support countless other people in so many ways, so I decided I needed to do something to give back and my newfound love of running sparked my London Marathon idea.