Cycling helped me fight cancer

As he cycled along the Champs-Elysées after 19 gruelling days in the saddle, Mike Grisenthwaite felt a surge of elation.

Cyclist Lance Armstrong has also beaten cancer Cyclist Lance Armstrong has also beaten cancer

Once given less than 10 years to live, here he was completing the final few yards of the 2,500-mile Tour de France. For Mike, 44, the ride this summer not only fulfilled an ambition to follow in the tracks of legends but it was also his declaration that he had beaten cancer.

Seven years ago, the former professional rugby player was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma – a cancer which attacks the immune system.

“I had swollen glands, but blamed it on an infection,” says Mike, who kept himself super fit after retiring from rugby by competing in triathlons, including the Lanzarote Ironman event, in which he swam 2.4 miles, cycled 112 miles and ran a marathon in a single day. “The swelling went down but I was left with a lump on my neck, like a nut under my skin.” 

When a second lump developed, he was referred to a specialist. “He said it looked like a lymphoma, which meant nothing to me,” recalls Mike. “He told me it was a form of cancer and I just walked out in a daze. I went into shock.

I was so fit and paid attention to what I ate so there was a feeling of ‘Why me?'

I was so fit and paid attention to what I ate so there was a feeling of ‘Why me?’”

The prognosis wasn’t good. Although the cancer was confined to his neck and tonsils and could be treated, it was certain to return later.

Mike threw himself into training for another triathlon. Then, in early 2005, another lump appeared on his neck. Scans showed a more aggressive form of the disease with tumours in his abdomen and groin.

“It sounds weird but I was kind of ready for it,” says Mike, who started taking chemotherapy drugs including rituximab, which had just been approved for lymphatic cancer but was already improving survival rates. The drugs worked dramatically and in July that year he was able to complete a single stage of the Tour de France. By now, he regarded exercise and cycling in particular as a way of fighting back against the cancer. “I completed one of the mountain stages, covering 107 miles,” says Mike. “It gave me a huge psychological boost.”

Mike then discovered that his older brother Dave was a match for a bone marrow transplant. Although risky, it meant a chance of wiping out the disease.

“Going ahead was the biggest decision of my life,” says Mike, from Stratford-on-Avon in Warwickshire. “It was the best chance of total remission so I had the operation in October 2005. It was a long process and I was pumped full of so many drugs that I felt like a lab rat.”

Within three weeks of the surgery he was back in training on a cycle machine, although he could barely turn the pedals. In June last year, he was fit enough to cycle 187 miles in 10 hours, in Sweden. “It was as well as I had ever ridden a bike,” he says.

Receiving the all clear two months later was a bitter-sweet time of his life, coinciding with the break-up of his marriage. Mike is now a single parent who has three sons – Olly, 18, Henry, seven, and Oscar, four. “After all the misery I had been through there was a sense of euphoria,” he says. “Cancer has changed my perceptions. It has made me go out and live my life.”

In July, Mike joined other cancer survivors including former England footballer Geoff Thomas to cycle the entire Tour de France route, riding just behind the actual event.

Mike says: “Exercise has always been my way of dealing with cancer and I’m sure it improves your outcome. The Tour was an amazing experience. This year the race started in London and I was up on stage in front of 125,000 people. I was determined to get to the end, although it was brutal and there were some days we finished in the dark. Riding into Paris at the end was very emotional.”

Mike has now founded his own charity, Cyclists Fighting Cancer, which provides bikes for children who have the disease.

“Life continues when you have cancer,” he says. “For me, that meant cycling. It helped me stay positive.”

Several studies have shown that exercise improves cancer survival rates. Jane Tomlinson, who lost her battle against breast cancer last month, said running marathons and cycling helped her cope with her illness. Seven years ago, she was given six months to live.

Lymphatic cancer is the fifth commonest form of cancer. It’s an umbrella term for more than 50 cancers which affect the immune system. The lymphatic system is part of the body’s defence against infection and lymphomas happen when white blood cells called lymphocytes become cancerous.

More than 10,000 cases are diagnosed in the UK each year and 4,500 people die. Lymphatic cancer is most common between the ages of 15 and 30 and 55 and 70 and, for reasons that are not clear, cases are on the rise.

Dr Graham Jackson, a senior lecturer in haematology at Newcastle upon Tyne Hospitals Trust, says: “In recent years, treatment of lymphatic cancer has improved and survival rates are much better.”

Lymphoma Association: www.lymphomas.org.uk

0808 808 5555; www.cyclistsfightingcancer.org.uk

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