Health Challenges and Triumphs

Hi, my name's Chris. I had an operation to repair a AAA, an abdominal aortic aneurysm in September 21, so it's May now, I guess nearly two years ago. And I also have prostate cancer and until recently I've been on implants and I had a session of radiotherapy for that in last year, actually the year before I was diagnosed with coronary heart disease, but didn't need a stent or a bypass, I'm just on medication. So I'm looking forward to, in the summer, it's not really the summer because I live in East Africa and in East Africa it's kind of winter at the moment, although it's a pretty balmy winter as East Africa goes, but one of my key calendar dates in the calendar for what is the UK summer is a tremendous event in Kenya, which is a marathon, or in my case, a half marathon, which goes across a conservancy, a game reserve, in other words. It's a very limited and exclusive event. There's only 1300 runners, compared to some of the global events that take place. take place. And one of my key goals is to run this again. I'm 65 years old so I've said that this is going to be my last marathon at Lewa because it takes quite a toll on your body. It's up and down Dale. The surface is very difficult because it's tracks and it's a bit sandy and lots of pebbles and boulders so it's a very uneven surface and it takes its strain on your ankles in particular but I did it last year when I was still on implants and only nine months after my surgery and so it's a key target of mine and something I'm really looking forward to doing and I'll be doing it again this year in 2023 and looking forward to it. I'm training hard for the moment I ran 13 kilometres this morning, but unfortunately I'm spending a month in Dar es Salaam, which is at sea level, and this run is at five and a half thousand feet above sea level, and that's on the 24th of June. So that's my big, what I'm looking forward to for the summer, although it's technically in the southern hemisphere, so not summer here, and I can't wait to do it. It's going to be my last but I'll keep running and I'll keep doing things, activities like that for as long as my health holds out and I'm very proud of the fact that I got through all of this stuff with the help of my excellent surgeons and oncologists, urologists, cardiologists and still able to live my life to the full.