Alexander Davenport-Jones

My father is a doctor who never gets ill and my mother is invincible as all mothers are. These two beliefs, stemming from when I was a child, were shattered when one day my mother told us that my father had a cancerous kidney and then separately, we discovered that our mother had breast cancer.

Our father has had keyhole surgery to remove his infected kidney and my mother has had her right breast removed. I am ever more grateful for all the time we spend together now. I will never forget two things in conjunction to their illnesses. The first when our mother telephoned me in a state of shock explaining that Daddy was in critical condition in hospital. Trying to forward this to the few people I called was almost impossible as the words refused to leave my throat as if they were scared to face the cold world outside. The second was seeing my mother in hospital following her operation and realising how she had downplayed everything so much. It hit home in a big way as she was the most drowsy I had ever seen her but more than that. She looked in pain and confused and explained how she had lost x amounts of blood. Over a period of time she had trickled out bit by bit the news to us of her cancer so as to not shock or worry any of the three of us. This made it very real and to me it just serves to heighten the bravery she has shown throughout…it would be very easy and understandable for one to seek support and sympathy.

They have both immerged fine thus far and long may it continue.

I received a phone call from Nick my younger brother inviting me to do something for charity in relation to our mother’s illness. Things were again put into perspective when I caught myself thinking how busy I was and how I wouldn’t have time to train upon Nick suggesting the London marathon. I can honestly say following my half marathon experience that I am glad the London Marathon had been oversubscribed. We decided to go for the Bath Half marathon.

Our mother is an astute judge if ever I saw one so I asked her which charity we could raise some money for. This is always difficult but I said I was thinking about a charity which perhaps was a slightly more specialist charity where any monies raised could have a slightly more tangible outcome. By this I mean that it wouldn’t get swallowed up by a huge almost faceless charity although I must say they are all worth while and all do tremendous work for their causes. She suggested The Haven as she felt there must be an awful lot of ladies who don’t have the support she had and ladies without the finances and structure that she had. Typically lovely of our mother to see things this way and my experience thus far of The Haven has been absolutely fantastic. In particular the support they have given to us for the charity night we held at The Seven Tuns. We were treated to a night of live music by Roy Carter from legendary 70s band ‘Heatwave’ during which he movingly donated a t-shirt from a world tour which raised £100. He lost his mother to cancer. I applaud all that they do and wish them every success in their efforts to battle this illness.

The race was both exhausting and moving. I am rather sceptical of all the do-gooders who participate in these events, the keen runners at the front warming up and the overly keen support shown by people with little better to do on a Sunday afternoon. Well my view has changed completely, except for the keen runners at the front warming up. I was encouraged by children, mothers, other charities and even fully grown men shouting my name… all round the circuit…truly memorable…no, more than that…humbling that they all took the trouble to come out and support – thank you to them…

I cannot say I enjoyed the race but both Nick and I finished the race in less than 1 Hr 45 mins and it will be a memory I will always have with me.

I hope we will make a small difference with what we will finally get to send in. I thank The Haven for their inspiring work and limitless energy towards a deadly illness suffered by many people. I wish them every success in their efforts and know that our mother is equally full of praise for a wonderful and dignified group of people.