Ian’s finding strength to scale the heights (From Bradford Telegraph and Argus)

Ian’s finding strength to scale the heights

8:53am Tuesday 22nd December 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

Fifteen years ago, Ian Meek was diagnosed with a brain tumour.

The father-of-three counts himself as one of the lucky ones, because he survived, and next year he will take on the challenge of his life to raise funds for research in the hope it will help other brain tumour sufferers.

Ian is currently in training for his mission to conquer the highest peaks in Scotland, England and Wales. He and his 60-plus supporters are planning to scale Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike and Snowdon – hiking a distance of 24 to 27 miles – in 24 hours.

Such a feat would challenge even the toughest athlete, but Ian admits he isn’t a fitness fanatic. He cycled to work while living in Bristol, before his work as a brewing operative brought him to Yorkshire, but says his interest in exercise increased following his diagnosis.

Ian had a seizure in 1994. Subsequent investigations revealed he was suffering from a brain tumour which, up until this year, was benign. “I think I am one of the lucky ones, my wife wouldn’t agree, but it has turned cancerous this year,” says Ian.

Part of the tumour has been removed and Ian is undergoing radiotherapy and chemotherapy – all while training for his challenge on June 19 next year.

Last year he decided to do the Dales Three Peaks on a day off. He did the Bristol marathon for Brain Tumour UK and he also ran for Willow, a charity which provides special days out for young adults with serious illnesses.

Chatting with Carol Robertson, fundraiser and development manager with Bradford brain tumour charity, Andrea’s Gift, at a support group meeting, prompted Ian to raise funds for the charity set up six years ago in memory of 42-year-old Bradford mum-of-two Andrea Key. Andrea died from an aggressive brain tumour in May, 2002.

“When you are diagnosed with an illness, it gives you a kick up the backside and you think, ‘I have got to do something here. There is something extra I can do to help people’, so that is my attitude. I try and help some people who are worse off than I am,” says Carol.

Knowing Ian had already conquered the Dales three peaks, Carol asked whether he was interested in taking on the three National peaks. “Sally, my wife, said she would do it, and I said I knew a few people who may fancy it, and it spiralled from there,” he says.

Word spread and more than 60, including a pal from Italy, signed up for the challenge appropriately named ‘Meek’s 3 Peaks’.

Starting on Scotland’s Ben Nevis, Britain’s highest mountain, Ian estimates it will take 13½ hours to conquer their first and subsequent climbs up Scafell Pike in Cumbria and Snowdon in Wales.

“It’s something I thought, when I was told I had cancer this year, that I wouldn’t be able to do again. You don’t know how well you are going to be,” says Ian, who started training at the beginning of September.

Ian’s wife Sally and two of his three children, Keisha, 17, and 13-year-old Samuel, will be participating in the challenge, along with his friend’s son, Luke. Ian’s 16-year-old daughter, Hannah, has already participated in a fun run at the Nottingham half marathon.

Ian hopes to raise between £25,000 and £50,000 towards the new brain tumour research lab that Andrea’s Gift is developing at the internationally-renowned Leeds Institute of Molecular Medicine.

“I don’t want people in the future to be in the position me and my family are in. There are all these different cancers and you just want to get rid of them all,” says Ian.

He says as well as raising money for the lab, he hopes to raise awareness about brain tumours, which are often perceived to be a ‘forgotten cancer’.

Ian says funds are urgently needed to enable a cure to be found. Currently, 4,500 people are diagnosed annually with a primary brain tumour in the UK.

The development of the lab will be a significant achievement for Andrea’s Gift, understood to be the only charity in Yorkshire focusing on fund raising for brain tumour research.

To date, Andrea’s Gift has raised a staggering £900,000. Next year it is anticipated to reach £1 million.

As well as taking part in the Three Peaks challenge, Ian hopes to do the Leeds Abbey dash and is planning other fundraising events, such as quiz and horse-racing nights, to help boost funds.

“I hadn’t done anything for charity before, apart from putting a £1 in every box you see, but now I’ve got the chance to get other people involved as well. It will be a challenge – and a slightly bigger challenge for me,” says Ian.

- For more information about Ian’s fundraising venture, visit meeksthreepeaks.co.uk