Grandfather of ten John Young had a tumour “the size of a small premature baby” removed from his leg – now three generations of his family are taking part in the Great North Run to raise awareness of the rare cancer he had.
Wife Sue Young (pictured with John), aged 74, from Gilling West, near Richmond in Yorkshire, is one of those taking part in the race on 8 September. Her husband, John, 79, was diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2016. There are an average of 454 cases of liposarcoma diagnosed every year in England.
In 2014, John first noticed a lump on his leg, which he initially thought was just a muscle. After visiting a GP, it was diagnosed the following year as a lipoma.
John had been running in 2015 when his step-daughter Natalie, who is a doctor, noticed the lump on his leg had grown. John had an MRI scan, which confirmed his sarcoma. He was referred to The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle and a tumour which weighed just under 4lbs was removed by surgeons in February 2016.
Following the surgery and radiotherapy, John is now active and in remission. It was the second time he had survived cancer – he had prostate cancer in 2008.
A keen runner, he has completed the Great North Run 12 times – twice after his surgery – and has raised funds and awareness for the national bone and soft tissue cancer charity, Sarcoma UK. Though he won’t be running this year, he still goes out for runs with Sue locally.
An additional reason for supporting Sarcoma UK is that a friend of the family, GP Julie Barker from Ulverston, Cumbria, died of sarcoma in 2020. Like John, she had a lump on her leg but there were too many complications for her to have surgery. Sue said: ‘Julie was a lovely person, and she was terminally ill during Covid, which meant we couldn’t visit her or even go to her funeral.’
Sue will be taking part in the race with her daughter (John’s step-daughter) Dr Vivienne Heaton, 48, and grand-daughter Lily Heaton, 21.
Sue said: ‘I’m not a natural athlete and my main aim is to finish before they start sweeping the roads! I travelled the cancer journey with John from investigations through to surgery and radiotherapy, and now follow-up appointments. The Sarcoma Team at The Freeman Hospital in Newcastle have been amazing, as were the oncology and radiotherapy team at James Cook University Hospital, Middlesbrough. Over the course of this journey, I have been aware of how life-changing sarcoma can be. We are very grateful that John’s leg was saved. But, as grandparents, we are also sadly aware of the number of young people sarcoma affects.
‘Not many of the general public know what sarcoma is, so anything which can be done, like running in the Great North Run and publicising it, must be good. I want people to become much more knowledgeable about signs and symptoms of sarcoma and the best way to do this is through a national organisation like Sarcoma UK.’
John said: ‘I am very proud of my family for taking part in the Great North Run and fundraising for Sarcoma UK and I’ll be there on the day supporting them. After I had been diagnosed, we would see young people in the clinic, which was so sad. I have ten grandchildren and would have been devastated if any of them had the same disease.’
Chief Executive of Sarcoma UK, Richard Davidson, said: ‘How wonderful to see three generations of the same family taking part in the Great North Run for Sarcoma UK – and, of course, John has long been a stalwart supporter of our charity. The money the family raise will directly advance Sarcoma UK’s work to fund groundbreaking research, provide support to those affected by sarcoma and advocate for better sarcoma treatment options.’
The family hope to raise more than £1,500 for Sarcoma UK. To donate to Sue, go to https://www.justgiving.com/page/the-tortoise-and-the-hares
