Emotional rollercoaster year for marathon man Kenny
rRoyal Navy officer Kenny Dalglish, of Petersfield, who, within 12 months, was diagnosed with testicular cancer, found out his wife, Laura, was pregnant with their first child, underwent successful treatment for the cancer and saw Jemima born. Now, almost two years after first hearing the traumatic news of his illness, Kenny (31) has signed up for the endurance Marathon des Sables, across the Moroccan Sahara, to raise funds for the Orchid cancer charity.
IT WAS an emotional rollercoaster of a year for Royal Navy officer Kenny Dalglish, of Petersfield, who, within 12 months, was diagnosed with testicular cancer, found out his wife, Laura, was pregnant with their first child, underwent successful treatment for the cancer and saw Jemima born.
Now, almost two years after first hearing the traumatic news of his illness, Kenny (31) has signed up for the endurance Marathon des Sables, across the Moroccan Sahara, to raise funds for the Orchid cancer charity.
“I signed up for the Marathon des Sables the day I went back to work as a target for getting back to fitness and in a spirit of living for the moment - the event has been an ambition of mine for many years but my illness spurred me on, and gave me a compelling cause that I can make a real difference to,” he said.
Kenny, of Woodbury Avenue, who was a lieutenant aboard HMS Lancaster and currently based at the Maritime Warfare School at HMS Collingwood, Fareham, has previously completed the London Marathon and the UK Ironman, raising £2,000 for other charities.
The Marathon des Sables is altogether more challenging, being a five-day trek in which competitors are required to be self-sufficient over six days of stages, varying between 18 and more than 50 miles, totalling 150 miles, carrying their own supplies.
To train, he has spent the autumn and winter runniing in the Hangars with an increasingly heavy rucksack but he will have a chance to acclaimatise to the African heat when his job takes him to a deployment in Bahrain immediately before the marathon takes places in April.
Having been successfully treated for his cancer at the Royal County Hospital, Winchester, Kenny is now a passionate advocate for cancer awareness and he has set a target for himself of raising £10,000 for Orchid.
This charity exists to save men’s lives from testicular, prostate and penile cancers through a range of support services, pioneering research and promoting awareness.
Testicular cancer is sometimes called “young men’s cancer” because it generally affects men between the ages of 15 and 45. Two thousand new cases are diagnosed each year in the UK.
If left untreated, if can spread to all parts of the body, but if caught early, cure rates are more than 90 per cent.
Added Kenny:” I feel passionately about spreadiing the message of testicular cancer: modern treatments are amazingly successful, but only if the disease is caught early.
“I was very lucky, and the key thing is that guys check themselves regularly, and are not shy about seeing the doctor if there’s anything at all that worries them.”
To sponsor Kenny or find out more about the challenge, his website is www.saharakenny.com. Based at St Bartholomew’s Hospital, London, Orchid can be contacted on 020 3465 5766.
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Thursday 23 May 2013
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