rivers2cross

The gold medal theme continues in chapter 7 of The Record with Zac Purchase-Hill who won Olympic rowing gold at Beijing in 2008. There was a bowel cancer connection to this chapter as Zac’s wife Fliss lost her grandmother to bowel cancer. Zac and Fliss had very different first records – I will leave it up to the reader to decide who has the best one…

Zac and Fliss own a fitness studio in the centre of Marlow, so it was only a few minutes for me to drive there from my work unit just outside the town. Zac managed to cram a lot into his successful rowing career before retiring at the relatively young age of 26. The chapter in the book covers Zac’s journey to Olympic gold, which is a little different to many as he did not row for the prestigious Leander Club, but kept Marlow as his club.

The Record was written in memory of my mum who died of bowel cancer in August 2016. All profits are donated to Bowel Cancer UK, and over £870 has been raised to date. I am hoping to reach £1000 during 2020. Click here to see all the ways to order a copy of the book.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.