This story and image originally appeared in the Daily Telegraph
ANDREW Bloxsom has a long road ahead.
After being diagnosed with chronic myelogenous leukaemia, a type of blood cancer, the usually fit 40-year-old father has had to shift gears.
The condition is incurable but thanks to recent medical advances there is treatment to manage the disease and increase life expectancy.
He is now trying to raise awareness and funds for the Leukaemia Foundation.
“I did everything a bloke wouldn’t normally do,” Mr Bloxsom said. “I went for a routine check-up and I got the blood test even though I was busy getting ready to go overseas.”
The blood tests returned a devastating result and he was rushed to hospital.
“I was feeling fine, that was the weird thing. But doctors said my body was starting to go into shutdown and if I had kept going, in a week or two who knows if I would have been alive.
“I would have been overseas at the time.”
Since his treatment began in May, Mr Bloxsom has grappled with fatigue, nausea and a “diminished mental capacity”.
But that hasn’t stopped him from gearing up for a fundraising cycle ride.
This weekend Mr Bloxsom will hit the road with friend Will Richards and ride to Canberra.
Mr Richards was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma last year and has a gruelling road to recovery as well.
For Mr Bloxsom, full recovery is not an option. “I don’t have a light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “It’s all about management.
“The main thing out of it for me is years.”
To contribute to the fundraising, head to Every Day Hero.
