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Kevin Webber to celebrate ‘cancerversary’ with charity run
When Kevin Webber heard about Sir Chris Hoy’s terminal cancer diagnosis at the weekend, he felt a familiar pang of sadness. Like the six-time Olympian cycling champion, he is also living on borrowed time with stage four prostate cancer.
Recalling the devastating terminal sentence he was handed aged 49, the father-of-three remembers: “It was just doom and gloom. I was told I could have two years, maybe three or four. My urologist actually said, ‘Don’t think 10 [years]’.”
Hoy, who is 48, revealed on Sunday that doctors had given him between two and four years to live after his prostate cancer spread to his shoulder, hip, pelvis, ribs and spine.
The Scot has two young children Callum and Chloe, 10 and seven, with his wife Sarra, who in an agonising double blow has incurable MS.
He later took to Instagram to say he was “feeling fit, strong and positive, and overwhelmed by all the love and support shown to my family and me”.
Kevin identifies with the Olympic gold medallist’s sentiments.
“It always upsets me when I hear of another man and their families being destroyed by this indiscriminate murderer of a disease,” Kevin tells the Express. “When I heard about Sir Chris, it made me so sad for a man and his family who already have their own struggles and who have given so much to the nation and inspired so many.”
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Kevin Webber finishing the Ultra-X Jordan 155-mile race in 2019 (Image: Kevin Webber)
But positivity in the face of adversity is something the two men share in common. And should Hoy be in need of comfort or inspiration on his lowest days, he could do worse than to listen to Kevin’s story, because on November 6, the 59-year-old will mark his 10 year “cancerversary”.
It’s an extraordinary milestone by any measure. But the senior banker, who is still working, not only continues to defy medical conventions by remaining alive but by living a full life of enjoyment and adventure.
Since his diagnosis, he has raised more than £1million for cancer charities by completing challenging, often gruelling, fundraising expeditions from ultramarathons to mountain climbs. He is the author of Dead Man Running: One Man’s Story Of Running To Stay Alive and in 2020, he was awarded a British Empire Medal in the Queen’s Birthday Honours for his services to people with cancer.
Kevin’s cavalier attitude towards his cancer, refusing to let it define or cower his carpe diem approach to living, is why he wants Sir Chris to hear his profound message of support and hope. “I love the positivity he has shown in this rubbish situation and if I were to dare give him any advice it would be to make sure what he does from now on gives him a sense of purpose and worth whilst never creating a new regret.”
Kevin intends to celebrate his extraordinary milestone with his most poignant fundraising challenge yet. On November 6, he will run and walk from his home in Epsom, Surrey, to the Royal Marsden Hospital and back 10 times in 24 hours. He will dedicate each lap of the 80-mile distance to a different department of the “amazing” hospital which has “kept me alive” over the last decade.
“The first lap is for the cleaners because I’ve been to the Royal Marsden 200 times and I’ve never been ill or picked up anything that affected my immune system,” smiles Kevin. “I wanted to say thank you to the cleaners because no one ever does.”
His next lap will be for the receptionists, and so on…
Kevin Webber’s fundraising run will raise funds for the Royal Marsden Cancer Charity (Image: Kevin Webber)
Kevin, who ran the equivalent of the 155-mile Marathon des Sables across the edge of the Sahara in southern Morocco during the pandemic by doing 2,600 laps of his back garden, came up with the idea six months ago.
He’ll run and walk the 80 miles mainly in the cold and dark. He has never surpassed 77 miles in one 24-hour period so it’s a huge challenge.
“When I ran 125 kilometres I wanted to run further but I couldn’t and I was quite ill afterwards,” he explains. “Now, I’m older and I’ll be trying to run further.”
He’ll end his final leg with his oncologist, Professor Chris Parker, by his side.
“I have so much faith in him and his ability, he’s always made the right choices for me,” says Kevin. “He’s calm and non-emotional, and he listens. He puts my mind at rest.”
Ten years ago, Professor Parker, then still a doctor, was the second person Kevin saw after receiving his devastating diagnosis.
“I saw him 30 minutes later. He told me I was too young for standard treatment so he wanted to try something that wasn’t the standard of care at the time,” says Kevin.
Dr Parker placed Kevin on a chemotherapy drug from a clinical trial with favourable but as-of-then-unpublished benefits.
It worked for one year. The cancer specialist then put Kevin on abiraterone, a hormone therapy offered to men with advanced prostate cancer which must be taken with steroids.
“Professor Parker joked that maybe the steroids would do me good,” chuckles Kevin. “That’s the drug that’s lasted. It should last for a year on average but I’m still here eight and a half years later.”
Chris Hoy with three of his seven Olympic medals at the GB homecoming parade in London 2008 (Image: PA WIRE)
Kevin’s strength is as astounding as it is inspiring. Yet he admits to struggling at the start of his cancer journey.
“The first few days I cried for myself thinking it was so unfair,” he admits. “And then I started crying because of my family and children. My youngest was only nine and I thought he’ll start senior school without a dad.”
Ollie, his youngest, is now 19. Kevin is also dad to Ben, 24, and Hayley, 26 and Kevin adopted his optimistic mindset for his children and wife Sarah.
“I learned to stop dreaming when I first got ill and I learned to think in short timescales,” he explains. “Now I only think in three or six month windows. I’m not thinking about what I’ll do in 2026. Of course, I want to see things but there’s today first.”
As each year passes, he’s ticked off milestones in his children’s lives he never once thought possible.
“I didn’t think I would see my daughter finish sixth form but I’ve seen her go to university and get a degree,” he says. “She’s now a teacher, she’s got a boyfriend, has bought a house – all things I never thought I would see. And she’s getting married next May.”
He attributes his continued longevity to the drugs he’s on, dissolving the testosterone that feeds prostate cancer with a stomach injection every three months.
“One day those drugs will stop working – I’m just lucky that they still work,” he admits.
But long-term runner Kevin is also a big believer in the healing power of running.
“When I was first diagnosed, I wanted to run a marathon while doing chemotherapy and was told by a doctor that I couldn’t and people ‘like me’ shouldn’t do that sort of thing. Things have changed in the last 10 years. Now he would probably encourage me to continue the exercise.”
Indeed, small medical studies have proven physical exercise can make chemotherapy more effective.
Kevin Webber and Professor Chris Parker outside the Oaks Cancer Centre – The Royal Marsden (Image: Kevin Webber)
Kevin also avoids alcohol, dairy, and eats copious amounts of fruit and vegetables. Each morning, he swallows a concoction of Chinese herbs which he likens to “drinking mud” and he has regular acupuncture sessions.
“I can’t tell you if it makes any difference or not but I’m still here and once you’ve outlived what people have said you would live then you don’t really want to stop doing anything that you’re doing,” he says.
His celebrity has grown over the years, which he admits can be difficult at times in his relationships with other cancer patients.
One year he gave an inspirational speech at the National Running Show in Birmingham. Afterwards, a man approached him saying he had driven down from Leeds to speak to Kevin to learn the secrets of his extended life.
“It was like I was some sort of guru. I said, ‘I don’t have any magic’. He was spending all his time reading and investigating things – which there is nothing wrong with – but it was at the expense of enjoying life. He died 18 months later and I was sad for him, not only because he had died but because I felt he had wasted his time chasing a unicorn that doesn’t exist.”
This is why Kevin believes Sir Chris Hoy has the right mental attitude to his cancer.
“It’s really important you do something that works for you and I don’t mean what cures you but makes you think you’re doing something,” he stresses.
He is approaching his milestone “cancerversary” with a mixture of emotions, both happy and sad.
“I have survivor’s guilt sometimes,” he admits. I knew one guy who was diagnosed at 44 and whose kids were younger than mine at the time. Whenever I’ve seen his wife since, I can’t help but think in my head if she wonders: How come you’re here? My partner’s not. So I definitely have survivor’s guilt but I also have a duty not to waste my life as I’m sure the people who are no longer here would give anything for an extra six months. If I waste time, that’s being disingenuous to them.”
With the time he has left, he wants to “influence people with any challenge they’re facing in their life”, not just health-related ones.
And once he has completed this challenge, he’ll be focused on his next one – The Ice Ultra, a five-day 230km arctic ultra marathon in the Swedish Lapland. Kevin will run in -40C temperatures for Prostate Cancer UK from February 18-20.
The third day will coincide with his 60th birthday, another milestone he never expected to reach. “One of my friends said, ‘Don’t you want a party?’ I said, ‘What do I want a party for? I want to be out in the freezing cold and pushing myself to be alive.’” You can’t argue with that.
• To donate to Kevin Webber’s Royal Marsden Cancer Charity run, visit https://www.justgiving.com/page/kevin-webber-ten-years
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