I think I'm about to be diagnosed with cancer, and I'm fairly scared.

Mark this will sound a bit cheesy so apologies, I will be riding Relentless 24 solo next weekend. It starts on the 10th October which is 25 years to the day when I went under the knife to have part of my lung removed. I will ride hard but I will keep you in my thoughts and ride twice as hard as I can for you.

Keep fighting the good fight

DC

Hoops, that's some shitty photoshopping on that child's wellyboot – could've at least had ray-guns or something 😉

Mark, carry on doing what you're doing !

Mark and Meg,
Will be thinking of you both over the next few days.

FCx

Will be thinking of you both over the next few days.
ditto

hey mark, go steady mate, the lows will be real low, keep thinking of the highs on the other side.

there's plenty of survivors stories out there, this guy is a flickr contact of mine from the states (who happens to build amazing frames), he's documented his highs and lows over the last year: http://www.flickr.com/photos/fastboy/sets/72157607075926461/

Firstly, thanks to all of you for all your kind words of support. Things have started to get fraught over the last couple of weeks, but reading through your posts is always funny, comforting and, er, sometimes wierd…!

I received a call from my cardiothoracic consultant at 7pm on Saturday, asking me to travel to St Thomas' yesterday (Monday), with a view to having open heart surgery this coming Friday. Whilst I'm pretty sure that some folk would start to panic at this information, to be honest I just feel relief; the waiting and not knowing was becoming a real problem for me, and affecting my attitude towards being positive. At least now I can start do develop a strategy for dealing with the first part.

I went along yesterday (my bloody birthday too; jeez…) and met the fella that'll be performing the surgery. He seemed very pleasant, and spent a fair amount of time describing the procedure, pro's and con's, and the risks. Evidently there is a 5cm long mass in the right atrium of the heart, close to the bicuspid valve. The intention is to 'slice and dice' that part of the heart, patching it with bovine tissue, and sending the sample along for diagnosis. Then we should find out whether the mass is malignant or not, although I would think it's more than likely that it is judging by the rhetoric used by the doc, who says he does maybe two of these a year and that some GP's won't see this type of thing in their entire career.

More important than this are the figures he gave me for recovery. I'm not allowed to drive for 6 weeks, and will be off work for 3 months! And in that time I'm not allowed to press weights or front-crawl! What about the back-stroke? It sounds like my future career as a GB triathlete is over…

So there it is. Next time I update this, I will have the heart of a bull, the bowel movements of a pensioner and the surly disposition of a hornet. Spare a thought for the wonderful Megan, who will have to put up with my grumbling. Send her a post, she likes that kind of thing.

Thank you all for everything. If I haven't replied to pm's, forgive me. I will do at some point.

Mark

so what I'm hearing is after this you're going to be the Six Million Dollar man… bettah stay behind you on those hill climbs.

best of luck and much strength

cheers,

greg

just as P.S… about the same time you got diagnosed a mate of mine in the states got diagnosed with throat cancer and he is facing it like you.. head on and full blast..

I don't know where you guys get it but God Bless ya both… I'd be whimpering in a corner 24/7

All the best for Friday and a belated Happy Birthday!

When it comes down to it aren't women great, loving/supportive/thoughful…etc

Good luck Petesgaff. Heart of an ox eh? 🙂

Dude…

At risk of sounding completely cheesy – you have a level of resilience, inner strength and positivity that I find somewhat humbling and completely heartening all the same.

Go well and beat this – my thoughts are with you.

Best of luck on Friday, Mark. We'll all on here be thinking of you, and by Saturday you'll be into the next phase.

Best wishes too, Megan. You'll have even more grumbling to contend with than when "Man-flu" strikes!!

Ononeorange

Great news Mark, I will keep you in my thoughts on Friday.

Keep fighting the good fight. You will win this one I am sure of it

he does maybe two of these a year

remember I mentioned our 'little friend' earlier in the thread – his cancer was only seen in 5 cases a year seen in the UK, all of those in adults….. he's of his meds now and looking forward to continuing to bash his younger brothers around – if he can kick its ass, so can you!!

It sounds like my future career as a GB triathlete is over…

PMSL 😀 – Mrs MM used to work at teh cardio-thoracic centre in Liverpool, she has mentioned you may be a bit tender for a while but – so long as you're fit to take the wonderful Meg up the aisle at the end of the month, and have a few drinkies by way of celebration then I figure you can save triathlons for next year…… 😀

All the best for Friday
C&S

Mark – all the best for Friday. Keep fighting.

All the best Mark.

Good luck for Friday Mark, we will all be thinking of both you and Meg.

Best wishes….

Dave.

Good luck Mark….keep strong

Steve

flowers'n'chocs just for Meg

All the best for Friday to both of you, we will be thinking about you.

Dear Pete,

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LG_7IDZHHzM

I still think you should hold out for some tiger heart to fill in the gaps. Ok, the scar alone will be worth a few drinks, but legitimately having the heart of a tiger would be one of the coolest things on earth!

Seriously though, good luck. Hang in there and you'll be ok. Let us know how things get on eh?

Whst about the heart of a cheata (is that the correct spelling?)Anyway Mark all the best for friday and always keep in your mind all the people that are routing for you, you are in all our thoughts! Well done to Megan your a star xx

GOOD LUCK !

good luck mate – the weekend brings you a bit closer to being well again. Thinking of you both.

jim

The very best of luck, your attitude is reet gradely 😀

You will be the 1!!

will be thinking of you both on Friday.

havent posted yet dood, but been following this thread all the way.

best of luck mate 🙂

Mark, you and Meg are inspirational.

For what its worth, good luck and best of luck, but I think you already have what you really need, the bulls bollocks.

Once again, the bestest of thoughts coming to you & yours from the takisawa2 household old boy. Will be sparing you a thought or two on Friday & I'll get the little'uns to do you a nice pic for the goodest of luck.
PT

All the best

Good luck Mark you are an inspiration with your courage and honesty.

You WILL get better, keep up your great attitude it will see you through.

I hope you recover quickly.

James.

Good luck mate, looking forward to your next update. I feel some moooo jokes may be coming your way…….(i hope Jo Burt doesn't mind me linking this)

Good luck for Friday Mark. Me and Mrs Surfer wish you well.

really hope it goes well.

hope it all goes well.

i cant help thinking that "heart of an ox" changes quite nicely to strength of a bear and speed of the pu maBrave Pete!

Happy birthday Mark, glad to hear progress is being made and you are clearer on what you'll have to fight. Having a bovine heart sounds cool, make sure you use a good butchers tho, this place doesn't approve of McDonalds offcuts… I notice that you can't drive or swim, but no mention was made of cycling 😉

All the best for the 9th mark. Be strong meg.

What evrybody else has said, good luck and best wishes for both of you.

Best wishes Mark and Meg for Friday

Tank