Motivation

I've been thinking about running a marathon for some time now - at least 10 years if the truth be told. You know, one of those bucket list sort of things. So why now?

Earlier this week my wife and I were channel surfing, and we flicked onto a tv documentary about the Great Ormond Street Hospital (GOSH) for sick kids. As extremely fortunate parents of 4 healthy young kids, we're particularly susceptible to blubbing when we see children who are suffering. We managed to hold it together when viewing a segment of the documentary on some parents discussing treatment options for their child. But we had to change channels when their beautiful young daughter was being hooked up to chemo.

The nephew of one of my co-workers (and friend) at Itomic was recently born with cancer. Yes, born with it. The type of cancer he has is called Neuroblastoma, which is a malignant tumour that develops from nerve tissue. It is an aggressive disease and is the leading cause of cancer deaths in children under 5. He's only a few months old, and he's also being treated by the fabulous people at GOSH. His name is Boris - just like the current Mayor of London.

Boris is my motivation. He's a tiny little baby with huge challenges. He's innocent. For him, hospitals and suffering are normal. He hardly knows any other reality. I'm running for Boris, because whatever pain he's been going through, and has yet to go through, will be so many times more than mine.