Not a Straight Line

Progress, setbacks and finding my way back…

The Numbers

The chart above shows my running over the past year – progress, regression, and then progress again.

It’s something I’m quite pleased with, and certainly not where I expected to be six months after my diagnosis in September 2025.

A few key moments stand out:

1: August 11 to August 17, 2025: Weekly distance 60.37km (37.5miles)
This was my last full week of running back in my old life, as I had my seizure on August 18 2025.

2: September 8 to September 21 2025: Weekly distance 0km
The couple of weeks around my brain surgery (10 September). Running wasn’t exactly top of the agenda.

3: December 15 to December 21 2025: Weekly distance 0km
This is probably the only week I have really suffered since I was diagnosed, and it came a couple of weeks after the completion of my six weeks of daily radiotherapy and chemotherapy. All of a sudden I was floored with fatigue and also a loss of appetite, and for a brief time everything was a struggle.

4: April 13 to April 19 2026: Weekly distance 53.31km (33.1miles)
Since early February I’ve gradually built things back up, and this week I was almost back to pre-seizure mileage.

I’ve also slowly increased intensity levels. I even managed to keep up with Scrambled Legg’s own speed queen, Jenn Woodrow (aka “J-Wo) for one 400metre rep on Monday! (I am ignoring the fact she is deep into marathon training and did the entirety of Monday’s session much faster than me aside from the one rep at the end!).

Back Out There

It hasn’t been easy.

Running in the winter is hard enough as it is, let alone on the back of brain surgery and months of chemotherapy, but I know that every time I lace up my trainers it feels like a small win. A bit of a pushback against the cancer.

The longer I can stay fit active and healthy the better. Plus my friends mean the world to me, and seeing them at Paddock Wood or Scrambled Leggs is wonderful, and means just as much as the miles I cover.

The Medical Side

Back in real life I am having high dose vitamin C infusions twice a week. There is evidence that it can sensitize the cancerous cells and make chemotherapy more effective (Source 1, Source 2). I’ve paid for this privately, as it isn’t offered on the NHS, but I felt it was worth it. These infusions will run through until around the middle of May.

At the end of this month (April) I will start my penultimate round of chemotherapy (round five), with my final round following at the end of May. However they may decide to extend the chemotherapy by six months, to take me up to the end of 2026.

I will also be having another MRI scan at the start of May.

Looking Ahead

And once again, thank you to everyone who has supported me, the messages, the check-ins, the kind words. It genuinely means more than I can properly explain.

I feel incredibly lucky not to be going through this alone.

And in the meantime, I’ll just keep putting one foot in front of the other.