Cancer survivor Tom Baines to run London Marathon (From York Press)

Cancer survivor Tom Baines to run London Marathon

1:20pm Monday 8th March 2010 in

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A CANCER survivor aims to overcome extreme tiredness to run the London Marathon with his girlfriend, dressed in a pink tutu.

British Library employee Tom Baines, of Acomb, York, was diagnosed with thyroid cancer when he was 22 in January 2008. He underwent a five-hour operation to remove his thyroid gland, all the lymph nodes in his neck and two more cancerous cysts.

He was left with 30 staples in his neck and an eight-inch scar. He also had to undergo five days of radiation treatment.

He must now take thyroxin tablets for the rest of his life to replace the hormones that would normally be produced by the thyroid gland – and must cope with severe bouts of tiredness.

Now 25, he is determined not to let the condition beat him and he and his girlfriend, Emma Phillips, 24, aim to raise £4,000 for Cancer Research UK when they take on the 26-mile plus challenge next month.

He said: “There are times when I feel pretty exhausted and running a marathon is possibly not the best idea I’ve ever had, but it’s for a good cause.

“Emma ran the York Race For Life last year and after that she said: ‘I want to do more next time. I’m going to do a marathon’, so I said, ‘why don’t I do it with you?’.

“From my point of view, we’ve gone through all this together, so this is another 26 miles we can do side by side. We are going to cross the finishing line together.”

Mr Baines, who works as an IT professional at the British Library, in Thorp Arch, said: “Emma’s been fantastic. I would not have coped without her and my family.

“You don’t really know how to take it when it happens to you, and having people at my side to listen and go through it all with me has really helped me.”

To sponsor the couple, who have been together for seven years, visit their online fundraising page at justgiving.com/emma-and-tom