Hi, my name is Dominic Bacon, and I’m a Stage 4 Terminal Gastric Cancer patient.

I am raising money to help support the wonderful work that Fair Havens Hospice, and Little Havens Hospice provide to terminally ill patients, and their families.

For the last 3.5 years I’ve been battling cancer. Multiple rounds of intense FLOT chemotherapy which my body did not agree with, it’s left me with a lot of damaging effects for the rest of my life. More operations that I’ve lost count of anymore, including a total gastrectomy (full stomach removal).

On the 3rd June 2025 (on my son’s 5th birthday) we sadly found out I was now terminal, and the cancer has spread to multiple organs. Unfortunately it’s in a lot more organs than it’s not, and with it being cell based, they said a lot of the cells will be so microscopic that they won’t show up on any scans.

After a few complications along the way, I ended up in Fair Havens Hospice a couple times, where they looked after me, and my little family. When other hospitals let me down, and refused treatment, the lovely palliative team at Fair Havens managed to get me into hospital for an emergency operation to put a stent in my liver! If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t actually be here now!

I recently ended up back in Fair Havens Hospice after a bad reaction to my palliative chemotherapy where they looked after me, and my little family again for a few weeks. Little Havens were so quick to jump in, and are now helping to support my son, and my wife through this difficult time, which is truly amazing!

All the lovely staff at Fair Havens from the doctors/consultants, nurses, chefs, therapists, cleaners, and the volunteers truly looked after me, and my family, and helped me get my strength back to be able to come home. It’s all the little things they done, that made the biggest difference, and for that, I will always be truly grateful.

My running journey started during my time in Fair Havens. I started going out to catch the sunrises (appreciating the little things we sometimes take for granted), and doing so, one morning, I just started running. Baring in mind I haven’t run since schoool! Mentally it was a game changer for me. From barely being able to walk down the corridor, to pushing myself out running. I absolutely love the mental challenge, I love pushing myself to my limit, and seeing what I am truly capable of.

My time frame unfortunately isn’t very long at all, but I am damn sure going to make the most of it. I want to show people that although I am terminal, it doesn’t mean you give up, and it doesn’t mean it’s the end of the road!

I want my son to see that I never gave up, and to be someone he will always be proud of.

The love, and care me, and my little family received from Fare Havens, and Little Havens has been truly amazing, and I cannot thank them enough!

Therefore, I am going to be running as much as I can to help raise money, and awareness of the wonderful work they both provide to help the Hospice’s to continue to be able to deliver the care to many more families that need it.

It’s the only thing I feel like I can do to help give back!

I am going to enter as many 5km, and 10km races as possible, and hopefully maybe go on to do a half marathon!

(disclaimer - I have never actually ran a 5km or 10km event before, so this will be my first!)

I will be documenting my new running journey on my Instagram page @MyFinalMiles, covering everything from my running, fundraising, my workouts/rehab sessions, recovery, nutrition, and life in general as a terminal gastric cancer patient.

The money raised will be split between Fare Havens, and Little Havens. After being a patient in there on two separate occasions, and still being an ongoing patient of theirs, I was able to recognise what is needed, and where I would like the money to go to help the different sections to be able to offer even better care overall!

There has been lots of people asking me if they can help support myself, and my family at the same time, whether that’ll be to help fund my running events, new running gear especially as we’re coming into the winter months to help with my neuropathy from the chemotherapy, or to spend some quality time together as a family.

If you have somewhere specific you would like the donation to go to, please leave a comment with your donation on where you would like it to go please or feel free to give me a message.

I want to be able to run as many events as possible, and raise as much money as possible to make a big difference!

Thank you for taking the time to read my story, and I hope you follow along for the run!

Let’s all help make the biggest impact to these Hospices!

Love Dom.