A cancer survivor from Southport wants his fellow Sandgrounders to join the virtual Race For Life from Home event to raise vital funds for a cancer charity
Dad of two Ant Bigley, a 46-year-old testicular cancer survivor, is living proof of why research into the fatal disease is so important.
In 2008, while working as a police detention officer, he noticed a swelling in his testicle and developed symptoms of overwhelming tiredness. One day the pain got so bad that he was rushed from work to hospital in a squad car and was diagnosed with testicular cancer weeks later.
Ant said “The sudden realisation hit me like a truck that I was about to enter the biggest fight of my life – a fight for my life.”
Ant was booked in for urgent surgery to remove the testicle at Liverpool’s Broadgreen Hospital, followed by an intensive six-week course of chemotherapy at the city’s Clatterbridge Centre.
He added: “Within weeks, I went from a relatively healthy young man to a shell of my former self. The chemotherapy took its toll on my body and at one point, due to complications, I was very near to leaving my family forever.”
Thanks to the generosity of people across the North West, Race for Life participants last year raised over £2 million to support vital research to develop gentler and more effective treatments for cancer – a disease that will affect one-in-two people in the UK at some stage in their lives.
People can visit raceforlife.org and sign up free for ideas on how they can create their own Race for Life at Home challenge or call 0300 123 0770. The organisers urge participants to share their challenges on social media using the hashtag #RaceForLifeAtHome