A father from Lincolnshire who lived with brain cancer for six years and defied all doctor expectations to survive, now plans to perform another miracle as he prepares to run the London Marathon.
Ian Davison, 48, from Market Deeping, was diagnosed with cancer in 2006, and after 15 years of treatment and consistently defying the odds of survival, he is now looking to conquer yet another incredible feat.
He will be running the London Marathon on October 3 to raise money for the event’s official charity of the year, Macmillan Cancer Support. You can donate to his fundraiser here.
Ian’s cancer diagnosis came just after his daughter Amelia was born, and it was followed by six years of surgery, treatment and hospital appointments as the cancer was removed.
Just as it looked as though he was on the right path, it returned in his lung, lymph nodes and small intestines before spreading to his brain.
“At that point I was basically told to get my house in order, that I wouldn’t be here by Christmas” he said. “That was a real low point, but I got my head into gear.
“I just thought there are people who are in a worse position than me. I’m still here, I’m going to fight. It was challenging. I was an emotional rollercoaster but I managed to stay positive.”
Ian continued to run five or six miles each week even through cancer treatment and constant surgeries, proving his steel and determination to tackle one of life’s biggest challenges.
He was asked if he would like to test a new immunotherapy drug as part of the treatment, which he accepted, and it turned out to be the “remarkable” decision that saved his life.
He continues: “At that point my prognosis was just to hope for the best, so I thought what have I got to lose. I had my last dose in August 2011. I noticed bumps that had appeared on my body, in my chest, leg and back disappeared.
“The doctors said my response to the drug was remarkable.”
To put into perspective just how incredible Ian’s survival was, patients with melanoma in the brain like him have a median survival rate of just four months, and 10-20% of people survive a year. Ian is totally cured.
Ian will have his final follow-up appointment this October, some 15 years after his first cancer diagnosis, and to mark the occasion he has decided that the London Marathon is the ideal milestone to signal the end of a gruelling ordeal.
He paid thanks to the charity he will be running in aid of, saying: “Macmillan provided me with some great help and advice, during the toughest period of my illness. The Macmillan nurse was amazing. She went through all the fundamentals, but one of the biggest things she did was tell us about critical illness insurance.
“It meant we could pay off our mortgage which made a huge difference. That money at the time was amazing, because when you’re ill the last thing you need is money troubles.
“They also helped us with explaining cancer to our daughter Amelia. Being told you have cancer really is like being hit by a cannonball. That’s why I want to run the marathon for Macmillan, to help other people.”
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A 38-year-old man from a North Lincolnshire village charged with murder will face an eight-day trial later this year.
Emergency services were called at 4.23am on Saturday, July 2 to reports that a man was seriously injured on South Parade in central Doncaster.
The 28-year-old victim was taken to hospital but was sadly pronounced dead a short time later.
A post-mortem examination found that he died of injuries to his head, chest and abdomen.
Formal identification of the victim is yet to take place, South Yorkshire Police said earlier this week.
Steven Ling, 38, of Park Drain, Westwoodside in North Lincolnshire, has been charged with murder and was remanded in custody to appear at Doncaster Magistrates Court on Monday, July 4.
Ling later appeared at Sheffield Crown Court on Tuesday, July 5 for a plea and trial preparation hearing.
No pleas were entered during the hearing, but an eight-day trial was set for November 28, 2022. Ling has now been remanded into custody until the next hearing.
The Lincolnite went on a ride-along with a Lincolnshire Police officer from the force’s Roads Policing Unit (RPU), which aims to disrupt criminals’ use of the roads and reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents.
The team will support the county response including local policing, neighbourhood policing and criminal investigation too.
Operations first began in Grantham in January this year and started in Louth earlier this week with a sergeant and nine PCs based in both locations.
The Lincolnite went out on a ride-along with PC Rich Precious from Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
PC Rich Precious has been a police officer for 22 years after joining the force in 2000 and he recently rejoined the Roads Policing Unit, working out of Louth.
PC Precious, who also previously worked as a family liaison officer for road deaths for 16 years, took The Lincolnite out in his police car to the A1 up to Colsteworth and then back to Grantham. He described that particular area as “one of the main arterial routes that goes through Lincolnshire”.
PC Rich Precious driving down the A1 up to Colsterworth. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Speaking about the new Roads Policing Unit, he said: “It’s intelligence led policing, it’s targeted policing in areas that have been underrepresented in terms of police presence, on the roads certainly, over a number of years.
“We’re hoping that the development of this unit will help address that balance, and look towards using the ANPR system to prevent criminals’ use of the road, and to identify key areas or routes where there’s a high percentage of people killed or seriously injured on the road, what we commonly refer to as KSI.
PC Precious is helping to keep the roads safer in Lincolnshire. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
When asked if he thinks the new team will help reduce the number of serious and fatal accidents in the county, he added: “That’s what the the unit designed for. Sadly, in Lincolnshire our road network does seem to incur a number of those KSI accidents year on year, and we need to reduce that.
“I’ve worked additionally in my roles as a family liaison officer on road death for 16 years, so I’ve seen first hand the impact that road death has on families and victims families.
“I know it’s important that we try and reduce those because, it’s very sad to see how a fatal road traffic collision can affect a family and the victims of that family.”
Marc Gee, Inspector for Lincolnshire Police’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
Marc Gee, Inspector for the Roads Policing Unit, told The Lincolnite: “Every day there will be officers on duty from both teams and they’ll cover the whole county or the county’s roads.
“Eventually, we’ll have nine police cars and we’ve got six motorbikes. We’ll be utilising them with as many officers as we can every day basically to make our roads safer and enforce against the criminals who feel like it’s okay to come into the county and use our road for criminal purposes.”
Lincolnshire’s Police and Crime Commissioner Marc Jones at the launch of the force’s Roads Policing Unit. | Photo: Steve Smailes for The Lincolnite
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