Andy McDermott, 29, from Birmingham, is taking on the L2P for the first time this year with the Geoff Thomas Foundation team. Geoff’s story inspired Andy while he was being treated for the blood cancer Hodgkin’s lymphoma and he decided to get involved.
Andy writes: “I’m a firefighter and in May 2007 I broke my wrist and hurt my back at work. It was a minor accident, but from then on I experienced really bad back pain that gave me sleepless nights for months on end, despite being on a cocktail of prescription drugs and morphine.
After seeing three different physios and having a number of biopsies and scans, I was finally diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma in February 2008. They began chemotherapy straight away. Chemo not only kills off the cancer cells but also healthy white blood cells as well, which weakened my immune system. This led to delays in my treatment, not that I minded too much - chemo does make you feel pretty bad.
In late September 2008 I had the great news that I was remission. I was advised by the brigade’s doc to just rest and enjoy Christmas but after spending months at home and fed-up of the chemo, I was desperate to get back to a routine.
I started back on light duties in January 2009 and went on a refresher course. I was back to full fire fighting duties by February. Throughout my treatment I had fantastic support from my family, my financee Becky and all of my work colleagues.
While I was having chemo I watched a programme called ‘Wheel Heroes’ about ex-England footballer Geoff Thomas cycling every stage of the 2007 Tour de France with other cancer survivors, two days after the professionals. It was an unbelievable achievement, which motivated and inspired me massively.
I thought that cycling would be a perfect challenge. I really wanted to get involved and to try to ‘give something back’. I’m still here - I feel that I have a debt to pay! I just want to help, whether that’s by raising money for charity or by helping to motivate people.
The hunger and passion Geoff has to complete these challenges is truly admirable. His goal of working with the blood cancer charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research to speed up the delivery of effective new treatments to patients with blood cancer is such an important one.
I began training in February this year with some great advice and guidance from Philip ‘Pip’ Bidgood, a fellow firefighter. He’s been a great friend and has helped me out massively. He also has a very strong cycling background and wrote me a training plan on a calendar for me to follow, which has proved invaluable. I have done five cycling sessions a week - four smallish rides and then a long ride at the end of the week, progressing up to six-hour rides.
So, back to the present day... I can’t wait to get started.”
You can sponsor Andy at www.justgiving.com/Andy-McDermott