Paul Graham had no symptoms. None. He had a PSA blood test anyway, along with the other men on his team, and it came back positive.
The colleague was Kieran Clark, of Prestwick, who spent his working life in air traffic control engineering at NATS. He died in November from prostate cancer, aged 38. While he was still alive, the men of his NATS Outstations team were tested with PSA, the Prostate-Specific Antigen blood test. Graham, from Paisley, was the one whose result was positive. His prostate was removed in surgery and, according to the Lancashire Evening Post, has now had the all clear. An earlier report said he was still waiting to learn whether he needed radiotherapy. “Paul feels that Kieran was able to save his life through his death,” a spokesperson for the group said.
One thousand miles, south to north
Now two of Clark’s colleagues are riding for him. Rob Thick of Prestwick and Hadley Gibson of Carlisle left Land’s End on July 1. Their destination is Sumburgh Airport in the Shetland Isles, 1,000 miles away, with the finish set for July 10. The route is not random. Land’s End air navigation beacon is the country’s most southerly, the pair said, and Sumburgh’s is the most northerly. For an engineer who spent years working on such sites, that is a fitting line to draw.
The days are mapped out. Overnight stops are Okehampton, Bristol, Shrewsbury and Preston for the first four, then Carlisle, Livingston and Braemar. Their own home regions come up between July 5 and July 7. Bonar Bridge follows on July 8. On July 9 they ride to John O’Groats, cross Orkney to Kirkwall and take a ferry to Shetland. They reach Lerwick on July 10 and cycle the last stretch to the airport.
The money
The money goes to three charities, Prostate Cancer UK, Macmillan Cancer Support and Cancer Research UK, and the target is £20,000. By Friday, July 3, they had passed £7,700. A day later Shetland News put the total at more than £8,000.
“Cancer affects almost all of us in some way, whether through friends, family or colleagues,” Thick said. On the fundraising page the group wrote: “Kieran was someone many of us worked alongside, shared good times with and his loss has been deeply felt by a huge number of people.” And: “Every mile we ride will be in memory of Kieran and in support of everyone affected by similar circumstances.”
Sources
- Work pals embark on 1000-mile cycle challenge to honour Prestwick colleague Kieran (Daily Record)
- Fundraisers aim to cycle length of UK to Sumburgh in memory of colleague (Shetland News)
- Teammates embark on 1000-mile cycle challenge to honour colleague Kieran (Lancashire Evening Post)
