Fundraising 2022
Adam’s Aims for 2022.
I want to use the fundraising to help me achieve 3 aims.
Personal Fitness
My doctors have told me there will be arduous treatment ahead. The fitter and stronger I am, the better I will be able to withstand that treatment. I believe my best option for this is cycling. I, therefore, need to stay on my bike as much as possible and will be tracking my mileage for the full year rather than focusing on a single event.
Open up a Conversation Around Cancer
Cancer is a complex subject often accompanied by fear. But every person’s cancer is different. Some cancers are completely curable, and some don’t even need treatment but other cancers can mean a rapid decline and end of life just weeks after the initial diagnosis. And in the middle, between these polar opposite prognoses is the position I find myself. I was given a life prognosis of 10 years. Faced with this ‘useable’ amount of time I wonder, hope and believe that there can be something positive about being faced with one’s own mortality. It is often heard that people who have faced death find a new, deeper meaning in their life and I hope this might be true in my position. But the truth is I don’t know. I’m trying my best. I might be just kidding myself and it could all come tumbling down. Who knows?? . I do however think there is a socially accepted logic that you can’t tell a terminally diagnosed patient to ‘pull their finger out and make the most of their life.’ Perhaps there should be.
Raise Awareness of Multiple Myeloma (MM) among Osteopaths, Physiotherapists and Chiropractors.
MM affects the bones. This means that the initial symptoms are Musculoskeletal. For this reason, patients often present to an osteopath, physiotherapist or chiropractor and opportunities for early diagnosis are missed. And even more worryingly MM is the most common type of cancer to present at A&E due to bone fractures or kidney problems caused due to the body trying to expel the bone minerals. If an MM patient presents in this way it often means their disease has progressed much further down the track before treatment can be started and therefore they have a significantly worse prognosis. I want to try and raise the awareness of Multiple Myeloma within the physical health care professions to reduce the unnecessary delays in getting the correct diagnosis.