Three generations of the same family will be taking on the Great North Run next month to support a grandfather of ten who had to have a tumour "the size of a premature baby" removed from his leg after a rare cancer diagnosis.
John Young, 79, from Gilling West, near Richmond, was diagnosed with liposarcoma in 2016 after first noticing a lump in his leg in 2014, which he initially thought was a muscle.
The type of cancer he was diagnosed with is so rare that only an average of 454 cases of liposarcoma are diagnosed every year in England.
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.
Now, three generations of John's family will be taking on the Great North Run on September 8 in support of their loved one, and Sarcoma UK.
John's wife Sue Young, 74, is one of those taking part in the race, along 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.
"Throughout 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.”
Though he won’t be running this year, John still goes out for runs with Sue locally.
He 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.”
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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.”
The family hope to raise more than £1,500 for Sarcoma UK - with people encouraged to donate to the fundraiser here.
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