Here is a testimony from Tony Cavill who has fought the battle with testicular cancer, watched his late-wife suffer terribly with breast cancer and see his children lose their mother at an early age.
I thank you in advance for taking the time to read his personal testimony:
From pain to victory by making a difference to our lives and the lives of others.
I thank you in advance for taking the time to read his personal testimony:
From pain to victory by making a difference to our lives and the lives of others.
Our family has suffered great loss recently and through it I have somehow found inner strength and passion to not only cope with personal tragedy but channel the loss into something productive. I would like to share my story with you. The loss of my beautiful late-wife Nicki in 2009 has motivated me to achieve more than I could dream of and has motivated the desire to make a difference in the lives of others suffering like we did.
Nicki was diagnosed with Cancer for the third time in June 2008. The cancer ended up in her brain and In July 2009 she lost her battle and we were all left devastated. Through her illness both Nicki and I believed that somehow God would heal her just as he had when I was cured from my fight with testicular cancer in 1996. Unfortunately this was not so. Nicki was carrying the cancer gene, and as if that wasn’t enough, there is also a 50% chance our children are carrying the Cancer gene as well.
12 months earlier after encouragement from Nicki I took up mountain bike riding. I was unfit and overweight and needed to get into shape. My brother-in-law Damian Richmond; a solo mountain bike champion, loaned me a DVD of a 24hr solo mountain bike championship race. I watched the rider push himself so hard he ended up in hospital! After watching the DVD I said to Nicky “You know what Darl, I wouldn’t mind having a crack at that. Her reply was “You should, you would be really good at it.”
So began my goal and my journey. I decided to attempt the first 24 hour solo race at 40 years old in the 40+ class and although Nicky was diagnosed with breast cancer, she continued to encourage and support me believing that she would be there for the race, completely well and part of the crew.
I continued to train and I lost weight. To date I have lost approximately 30kg.
Nicki died one week before a race. I made my mind up not to quit on the goal to race a 24hr at age 40. I was already entered in a race. On the day I struggled with grief and the choice to sit at home and cry all day or get my bike out of the shed and race. I decided to race with a big sign on my back saying ‘In honour of my beautiful wife Nicky 13/5/63 to 19/7/09. I did not place well, but under the circumstances I probably won the minute I took my bike out of the shed. I ended up with 3rd for the series, a trophy and a couple months left to train for the 24hr race. Nicky would have been so proud.
The day came for the 24hr solo which challenged me emotionally. Doing this race without Nicky was going to be tough. I wore my honour jersey again and with the support of my loving family, friends and God, I ended up 4th place qualifying me to enter the world championships for 24hr solo in Canberra, October 2010!
I can’t begin to tell you how this made me feel amongst all the grieving but you can imagine what it meant to me and my family at such a time. This is the first time ever the championships have been held in Australia. I have am training hard for this event as I don’t want to go there just to wear my tyres out! It was put on my heart to help with the fight against cancer and honour a great lady by raising support for others. I would encourage you to join me in any way you can as I do what I can to make a difference. Your prayers encouragement and support are most appreciated. Thank you for your support! Kind regards and God bless Tony Cavill
Tony has chosen the Lance Armstrong Foundation as a commendable organisation to represent his efforts to offer support and change the future for current and future Cancer suffers. He has become a grassroots fundraiser for Livestrong who do an amazing job worldwide in raising awareness, research and support. His is joining others to in an effort that could mean the difference between our children fighting a losing battle with cancer or winning over the disease. He is also is mindful that increased public awareness would result in far less unnecessary deaths.
“Too many people are uniformed resulting in Cancer being unchecked until it is too late. You don’t know if they will find a cure for cancer tomorrow. They have cured some and people need to be aware how important this is.”
- Anthony Cavill
How you can help
If you had a loved one who fought cancer and you can raise $500 or more in honour of them, I would like to honour them in this race by wearing their names on my jersey. To show your support you can make a donation by following the link to my fundraising page at www.livestrong.org
All profits go directly to Livestrong. You can donate directly to LAF by following my link on the Livestrong website.
If anyone can sponsor Tony in the race also he would be most grateful. Personal costs to Tony are for Accommodation, fuel, entry, Pit tent, Food, Bike parts, expenses etc.
You can email Tony: cavills1 (AT) bigpond (DOT) Com
You can email Tony: cavills1 (AT) bigpond (DOT) Com
