Hi, my name is Steven and I am the brother of Nikki Philp, who is currently suffering stage 4 Cancer. I have committed to running 40 miles on Saturday 5th December 2026 with just an 8 week trsining plan... I would like to raise as much money as possible to give back to my brother who has battled cancer like an absolute trooper for the last year. To see just how hard its been, please take a few mins and read his story below.

Diagnosis

Round about March/April 2025 I realised I had a swollen gland on left side of my throat and had pain in the area which I recognised as early signs of tonsillitis which I’ve suffered bad with before including nearly dying with in 2008 and again in 2013.

Doctor prescribed antibiotics 3 times in the following weeks which didn’t take the swelling down or all the pain away so it started looking more into it and pushing my GP on it who didn’t seem interested/worried and anything serious was a tiny chance due to my age overall health and fact I didn’t smoke etc. As I looked into it I realised I had more symptoms of either Hodgkins or Non Hongkins

Lymphoma including fatigue and outrageous sweating. Once I explained this to the GP he agreed to send me for scans and blood tests to put me at ease.

By this time it was now late June and I received an appointment for a scan in ENT ward, I went on an amazing family holiday at start of July and the day after I got home was my appointment, at this appointment I had a camera down my throat and immediately knew it wasn’t great as I was then told they were gonna squeeze me in for a biopsy there and then.

I had my biopsy and furtuer MRI and CT scans and returned to the ENT clinic 3 weeks later for the results which was I tested positive for cancer on left hand side of my throat where the swollen gland was. They also suspected it in the centre and right hand side of my throat but I’d have to have more scans and a further biopsy to check this. Cancer I have was viral and caused by the HPV virus which if I was younger I would’ve been vaccinated for and also lays dormant in the vast majority of people who have it. The good news is was that this is a highly treatable cancer with an 80-90% success rate. This diagnosis didn’t rock me as I was already convinced I had it due to my research and symptoms. I took being treated by radiotherapy and chemotherapy as a win as with surgery there is a chance I wouldn’t be able to talk again.

On to the follow up scans and biopsy, these confirmed that the cancer was present in the centre and right hand side of my throat also. I was told this would make the treatment harder as the radiotherapy will be more intense but didn’t change the change of success. This was now start of September and I was told my treatment would start on 6th August for 6 weeks. At this time I was in ridiculous amounts of pain, popping 8 tramadol a day as well as Diclodenac and had to be signed off work.

Treatment 1

Treatment began as planned on 6th October 25, treatment was to be 5 sessions of radiotherapy a week for 6 weeks and Chemotherapy on Day 1 of week 1 and Day 2 of week 5.

Week 1 passed fairly event free, other than a bad dose of the hiccups the day after Chemo caused by the post chemo steroids. This thankfully only lasted a day and a half until I was prescribed another drug to counter this side effect. I would soon find out that the amount of drugs you have to take to counter other drugs that is way more than you have to take to fight the cancer.

Week 2 things started to go downhill, first the taste in my mouth was horrible which made eating horrible and pain started to get more intense daily, meaning by week 3 I ended up in hospital in excruciating pain that painkillers weren’t getting near as well as having high levels of infection in my blood and malnurished and dehydrated. This was to be my first of 2 hospital stays and lasted 8 days.

The last couple of weeks of treatment were brutal, I barely had the energy to get out my bed daily and needed my mum to drive me to hospital every day for my radiotherapy.

A week after treatment was finished I ended up back in hospital again for another week, this time mainly for high levels of infection and a temperature which was through the roof. Hardest thing about this stay was missing my son’s birthday.

Got home on 28th November to start my rebuilding. Starting point was on 60mg of morphine twice a day and Gabapentin 3 times a day for the pain, I had to carry a spit bowl around with me as I was constantly bringing phlegm up caused by the secretions in my mouth and throat caused by the radiotherapy. I was unable to swallow anything, even water and had no taste in my mouth.

Scan results to check the success of the treatment was in early February and results 3 weeks later.

I rocked up to that appointment thinking worst cast scenario there might be a small bit of cancer left and I’d have to have more radiotherapy and chemotherapy. I was so worried about that as I knew how much that treatment took out of me in good health and I was still nowhere near that.

Turned up to meet my consultant and it turned out the worst case scenario I’d worried about wasn’t actually worst case scenario as although my original cancer was cleared it has now spread to my lungs meaning I am now classed as stage 4 incurable cancer which without successful treatments has an average expectancy of 18 months.

Treatment 2

This absolutely blew my mind but as always I tried to focus on the set set of treatments which was to be a monthly dose of immunotherapy for 24 months.

I started this on the 26th March,

First 2 doses went fine and in between the 2nd and 3rd I had a bad reaction of excruciating pain down the right hand side of my body, was seen as my body fighting back against the immunotherapy, I then received further scans which showed the immunotherapy wasn’t making any positive changes to the cancer so I was told to stop this and the next step would be chemotherapy.

Treatment 3

Chemotherapy started in July and was to be 6 cycles every 3 weeks running until October. I would have 2 cycles and then be scanned to check if the drugs are reducing the tumours.

First 2 cycles went fairly event free and then came the scan and the results.

Thankfully the results were positive, the first positive result I’ve had in over a year of this journey so far. The cancer is responding to the drugs the way they hoped and I was given the go ahead to continue with the next 2 cycles.

These also went fairly event free although the fatigue after every cycles hits harder and lasts longer but I’d take that for the positive results and knowing it’s just a few months to get through.

Thankfully again the scan after cycle 4 has continued in the same way as the last one so I am free to continue on with the final 2 cycles.

Update

Where I am now is 5 cycles of the 6 down and counting down the days to the final cycle and a break from treatment for a few months before they look to get me on a clinical trial.

Been a year in treatment now and although I have come along way since the end of my initial treatment last November I am still unable to eat a full meal, have no tolerance for spice so that’s 80% of my old diet out the window if I ever do get back to eating again. I still barely produce any saliva so I will always been seen with a bottle of water and a gel to rub on my tongue to try and keep the dry mouth away so I can talk. On the talking there’s certain words and letters I struggle to say so get even more annoyed that usual if I keep having to repeat myself. Finally still on the feeding tube for when I need a quick calorie boost and for tablet form medication but I am hoping to get the feeding tube removed after my next check up with the dietician in November.