Being diagnosed with terminal prostate cancer and being given only a few years to live has driven Kevin Webber to do things he never thought possible.
In an effort to make the most of his short time, the father-of-three has twice completed the Marathon des Sables – a six-day, 251-kilometre ultramarathon across the Sahara Desert – as well as the standard 26-mile race in Brighton and London.
Spending time with his family – wife Sarah, daughter Hayley, 19, and sons Ben, 17, and Ollie, 12 - has also become more valuable to him.
Most recently the 52-year-old has taken part in 15 marathons in 15 days, travelling the length and breadth of the country, helping to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK alongside Gillette Soccer Saturday presenter Jeff Stelling.
Three of these he ran – having been forced to take time away from the roaming tour March for Men due to a family emergency – while the rest he walked alongside dozens of other men up and down the country.
Speaking to the Epsom Guardian on day 15 last Friday (June 16) – a march from Durham County Cricket Club to Newcastle United Football Club’s St James’ Park – the Stoneleigh banker said it has been “powerful” to meet so many men taking part in the trek.
“It makes you realise how nice people are,” Kevin reflected.
“My kids are more likely to get cancer because it’s hereditary. My connection to the charity is obvious, but some people have no connection. There’s nothing more powerful than other people saving your kids’ lives.
“The kindness of the human spirit is there.”
Kevin first noticed something was wrong about two-and-a-half years ago when he would go to the bathroom several times a night.
When he went to the doctors “four or five weeks later”, he suspected it might have been prostate cancer because his father had it, but he had “always seen it as a curable disease”. So when a doctor told him he had “maybe two years” to live he was shocked, and Kevin and his wife burst into tears.
“For a while I thought, ‘What’s the point?’” he explained.
“But terminal illness does a few things to you.
“You can’t dream anymore. You might think, ‘In five years I will do this, I will do that'. You take time for granted. But you can’t do that anymore.”
Kevin admits that the disease can be debilitating as he experiences muscle and joint ache and nausea, and “feel(s) a bit rubbish most days”, but he insists he is having more fun now than he ever has.
His employers, RBS, allow him time off to deliver motivational presentations about his experiences to hundreds of people at a time, he has run marathon after marathon, and has a 350-mile ultramarathon through the Yukon valley in Canada pencilled in for next February.
“I try to make sure I always have something planned for each day,” he explained.
“I always try to plan something I want to do – or if I don’t want to do, I try to see the good in it.”
Kevin added: “I have done things I would never have thought I have done in my life.
“My life might be shorter, but how I choose to live it is up to me.”
Kevin advises men who regularly go to the bathroom several times a night – or who notice any changes in their bodies – to visit a doctor as soon as possible.
For more information on prostate cancer, visit prostatecanceruk.org/
To donate to Prostate Cancer UK, visit https://www.justgiving.com/campaigns/charity/prostatecancer/jeffsmarchformen
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