Kavia Business Development Manager Iain Hill took time out of his working day on Wednesday 26th June to join friend Dan Exelby on his 4th day of 7 riding through 25 counties to celebrate 25 years since Dan was given the all clear from Leukaemia. As this article is written Dan has raised over £12,000 from 354 donations towards the Charity Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research. Please visit the donation page if you want to contribute. Also Dan’s website for http://www.25years25counties.co.uk
The 25 county route is 560 miles long requiring Dan and his colleagues to average 80 miles a day. The route begins and ends at Dan’s parents house in Gloucestershire. Iain joined the guys on day 4 as they passed through Nottinghamshire into Leicestershire, riding 25 miles with them to the lunch stop before riding back home. It was a great ride with a nice tailwind and mostly flat or downhill, a stark contrast from the day before in the Peak District.
Good luck for the rest of the ride and thank you for raising so much money for a good cause.
What is Leukaemia & Lymphoma?
Leukaemia is a blood cancer. It affects the white blood cells, which are an important part of our immune system that fights infection.
People with Leukaemia produce abnormal white blood cells. These abnormal cells accumulate in the bone marrow and prevent the production of other important blood cells. Most of the problems associated with Leukaemia are caused by the lack of normal cells in the blood, rather than the Leukaemia cells themselves.
Lymphoma means a cancer of the lymphatic system. There are 2 main types of lymphoma
- Hodgkin lymphoma
- Non Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL)
Hodgkin lymphoma was named after the doctor who first recognised it. It used to be called Hodgkin’s disease. The cells of Hodgkin lymphoma have a particular appearance under the microscope. Lymphoma cells that do not look this way are non Hodgkin lymphoma.
If you have lymphoma, some of your white blood cells (lymphocytes) divide abnormally. They do not have any resting time like normal cells and start to divide continuously, so too many are produced. And they do not naturally die off as they usually do.
The big problem is that these cells start to divide before they are fully mature. So they can’t fight infection as normal white blood cells do. All the abnormal lymphocytes start to collect in the lymph nodes or other places such as the bone marrow or spleen. They can then grow into tumours and begin to cause problems within the lymphatic system or the organ in which they are growing.
