Tom's 158 mile walk for Dave's cancer treatment

All,

I am sure we can all agree that the past 15 months have been pretty terrible for everyone but no-one else I know has gone through what my great friends Dave, Vicky and family have.

In 2018, Dave’s sister Katharine was diagnosed with ovarian cancer and tragically died the same year leaving her husband Barry and 2 young children. 2020 started brilliantly for Dave and Vicky with the birth of their second daughter Riley in May. However, in September more bad news hit the Baxter family as Dave was diagnosed with stage 3 bowel cancer and immediately had his entire large intestine removed. Subsequent tests have also informed him that he has “Lynch Syndrome” which means there is an increased risk from many types of cancer particularly colon cancer and a 50/50 chance that this will affect in his children in later life.

 Dave was only able to complete half of his chemotherapy treatment due to the difficulty of going through the treatment without a large intestine and the effects of peripheral neuropathy. He then relied on fundraising for a private course of immunotherapy, which was recommended, and he has just completed. This was not available on the NHS.

Upon the news I felt like I really wanted to help Dave as much as I could and as many of you will know both Dave and I are keen football fans. The original idea was for me to walk from London to Nottingham for the Man Utd vs Liverpool game today but due to lockdown rules making this difficult with having places to stay I have delayed my attempt to begin on June 23rd and over a 10-day period I will walk from my house in South London to Dave and Vicky’s in Nottingham – a distance of 158 miles. I will finish on the final day walking the distance of a marathon (26 miles) just in time for a hopeful England Quarter final match on Friday 3rd July in the Euros.

I would love to raise as much as possible for Dave in case he needs another course of immunotherapy (the last course cost £16,000) which isn’t covered by the NHS for his cancer type / stage). The next step for Dave is a relatively new type of blood test called CT DNA test (at a cost of £1,400). This provides very early detection of any cancer that remains. We hope that this will come back negative, if so additional treatment will not be needed and any remaining money will be donated to a cancer research charity called “Never Too Young”. This charity has been chosen because it helps raise awareness in younger people to understand symptoms of cancer to aid early detection. This is something that Dave is very passionate about and already knows people who have been and had pre-cancerous polyps removed because of his situation. Indeed, Dave himself only got checked as early as he did due to what had happened to Katharine a few years previously.

Thank you very much for your time and generosity and here is to Dave and family. For those with a real eye for the medical detail Dave has put his full story to date below and I will send a few photos of the beautiful pavements adjoining busy roads along my way.

Tom

 

 "Hi all, this is my story.
 
I was diagnosed with bowel cancer in September 2020. Stage 3 colon cancer, obstructing descending colon tumor and small bowel loops dilation (T3,N2a,M0).

After a trip to A&E and emergency surgery in October to remove, open subtotal colectomy and ileo-rectal anastomosis. (Remove all my large bowel).

I have been through chemotherapy (mop up as they call it) FOLFOX. Unfortunately, due to not having any large intestine left this affected me quite badly and instead of making through the 6 months that is recommended I battled through the 3 month mark (6 sessions). I was then fortunate enough to have raised enough money to have immunotherapy treatment using Nivolumab (this is a check inhibitor drug). It is also still in the trial stages and unfortunately not available on the NHS yet (when at stage 3) Hence the cost of going private. It is highly recommended. 

I did look to try and sign up to a trial(research) for this drug POLEM which is where I found out about this drug and the brilliant Dr Tony Dhillon. After my surgery I have found out I have lynch syndrome which means I am much more likely to develop bowel cancer, it also means I have a 50/50 chance of passing this on to my daughters. This is why I want to try anything to help prevent my cancer coming back and I want to be around for as long as possible. The funds we raised paid for the treatment and hopefully have increased the chances of me being cancer free for as long as possible. 

After completing my immunotherapy and on my final consultation I have been informed there is now a new blood test that can be done CT DNA (circulating tumor DNA test), this will tell us if I am cancer free or not. Again this is not routine or available on the NHS, but this test is able to pick up traces of cancer up to 18 months before a normal CT scan which is the normal procedure. Either giving me piece of mind that all the hard work has paid off or giving us very early detection of anything else and making it easier to carry on the fight!

Details of the new blood test research can be found below -

https://news.cancerconnect.com/colon-cancer/ask-the-experts-about-circulating-tumor-dna-in-the-management-of-cancer?redir=1

I just want to thank everyone already for all the support and help I have had.

It means the world to me, Vicky and our girls that we have such a good team of family and friends behind us in this fight to say goodbye to cancer."