What makes you step into a boxing ring? Warren explains why…

“In 2014 my wife was diagnosed with a large brain tumour. As you can imagine this was a traumatic time for us as a family and having to tell two young children at the time was pretty horrendous. We pulled together and decided the best course of action was surgery, followed by radiotherapy and chemotherapy. To say it was a long hard journey is an understatement, Claire pulled through the surgery and treatment and made a full recovery, although the psychological impact remains to this day. Every year since surgery, Claire has regular MRI scans and every year we celebrate when the scans come back clear. However, sadly this year the scan did not come back clear, Claire now has two very small tumours, one at the front of the brain and one on the right-hand side. Luckily for Claire, these two tumours are small and not life threatening which means no treatment is required and she can live a normal life.

During the first COVID lockdown, Claire’s mum unfortunately was diagnosed with cancer of the blood. It was a terrible time as trying to get treatment during that period was hard and also the family could not be with her through this. Her mum went through Chemotherapy, lost a huge amount of weight and seeing her on zoom fading away and not being able to be there for her was unbearable for Claire. However, treatment went well and her mum’s condition has now gone into remission. She is gaining weight and starting to resemble who she was before. I would say that we have been lucky as a family so far!

And so cancer continued, late last year my Brother-in-Law, Chris was diagnosed with cancer of the throat and underwent treatment this year. Seeing him losing weight, losing the ability to speak and spending most of his time in hospital receiving blood transfusions was heart-breaking. Unfortunately, Chris’s journey did not end quite as well as my wife and my mother-in-law as we got the news that Chris lost is battle with cancer. Chris was in his mid-50’s and leaves behind a wife and two lovely daughters. I cannot imagine how they are feeling, but I know how I am feeling as Chris was not just my brother-in-law, he was my friend.

Why am I sharing my story with you? Well, I decided earlier in the year that I would take part in a charity boxing match to raise money for Cancer Research UK. I am currently in training and the fight is just weeks away (scary).

If you wish to donate, the link to my Just Giving page is: https://www.justgiving.com/Warren-Irving3

Many thanks to all that have already donated and to those that do donate. You are making a difference.

In the main I consider my journey as one of the lucky ones. Yes, my brother-in-law lost his life to cancer but my wife and her mum, survived and we can only be thankful. There are many more who have not been so fortunate and at least 1 in 4 of us will get some form of cancer in our lifetime, so the work that Cancer Research UK does is so crucial and incredible, that to raise as much money for them may mean the difference between surviving cancer or not for so many in the future”

Warren Irving – Chief Operating Officer, Active Care Group