Malcom Ward-Ashton running seven half-marathons in seven days, including one in Ipswich, in honour of his cancer-surviving son

The father of a testicular cancer survivor is to run seven half-marathons in seven days to raise money and awareness of the disease.

Malcolm Ward-Ashton will be running seven half-marathons in seven days, with the Larking Gowen Ipswich Half-Marathon on September 22 being one of the challenges. He will be raising funds for the Raleigh Testicular Foundation.

Fittingly, the challenge starts on Monday, September 16, the same day as his son Callum, who overcame testicular cancer, celebrates his 30th birthday.

Malcolm said: “Our son moved to the US and he rang my partner to say he had a groin strain and had now noticed a swelling to his testicle.

“We were not worried as he was young, extremely fit and we did not have a history of cancer. We advised him to get a doctor’s appointment to get everything checked out.

“Three days later after a scan he was told it was testicular cancer. After the operation, we learned it was very aggressive and had spread to his liver.

“We were lucky as the fact he is so fit playing football and long-distance running meant he was able to receive a very gruelling chemotherapy plan five hours a day, five days a week for nearly five months.

“So far from home, his support was a charity called Raleigh Testicular Cancer Foundation. The foundation offers support to those living far away from their families

“We are eternally grateful to the foundation for all the time and support they have given our son and especially, sitting with him through his treatments.

“During his treatment, several young men, one of which aged only 23, lost their fights so we consider ourselves the luckiest people when Callum went into remission and celebrated his first anniversary just last week.

“Before this, we knew so little about cancer and especially this cancer, we did not realise how prominent testicular can be in young men and due to lack of information, embarrassment, and misunderstanding, this type of cancer is often not diagnosed quickly and is likely to spread.

“I never want this to happen to another young person, I am doing this event to raise monies for the charity but more importantly to remove the stigma of cancers like this.

“I want to make people aware of the importance of knowing your own body, recognizing changes, and having confidence in getting any worries checked out early.

The first of his seven runs will be at Northgate High School, Ipswich on Monday, September 16.

Malcolm plans to run the school track and the Oddball charity is also supporting to lead specialist sessions to all the students throughout the day to help give them knowledge of regular checks, what to do if they have any symptoms and to give them the confidence to seek help.

“I know if this happened to our son it can happen to anyone and if caught quickly it can be easily treated,” added Malcolm.

To support Malcolm on his fund-raising mission click HERE

Entries are still open for the Larking Gowen Ipswich Half-Marathon