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Cancer victim leaves hospital bed to cycle 1,000 miles for charity
Evening Standard18.08.08
A cancer victim left his hospital bed hours after emergency treatment because he was determined to start a gruelling 1,000-mile fundraising trip.
Les Niewiara, 48, who suffers from pancreatic cancer, had been planning for six months to lead a team of cyclists to Poland. But on the day he was due to set off to raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK, he was taken to hospital with a haemorrhage.
Doctors at Hammersmith Hospital gave him two emergency blood transfusions - and hours later he was back on his bike to start the race. Mr Niewiara is today recovering from the trip after arriving back in England. He completed the epic journey while taking morphine to numb the pain, and raised £30,000.
The project manager from Harrow said: "I wanted to highlight that even though you have bad days, you have good days, too, and you have to make use of them by doing something positive. Of the 7,000 people diagnosed at the same time as me, only 200 are left. I am very proud I achieved the ride - as a survivor I had to do something.
"There are not enough of us survivors around to make a big noise about these problems."
