Farmer takes to the skies after rare cancer ‘all clear’
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A CAITHNESS farmer who was struck by cancer celebrated getting his health back by jumping out of a plane for charity.
Sheep farmer Alastair Alexander (43), of Nipster Farm, Watten, raised £1015 for the Lymphoma Association having suffered for nearly a year with Hodgkin lymphoma before being diagnosed in April 2009 and fighting his way back to health.
After six months of exhausting chemotherapy at Raigmore Hospital in Inverness, Alastair, who is now coming up on two years in remission, was due for one more check-up, explained his wife, Alana.
“We were sitting in Raigmore after he’d just finished his chemo waiting for his last check-up and there was a big photo on the wall of somebody from Caithness doing a skydive,” she explained.
“He said, ‘If I get the all clear I’m going to do a skydive myself’. So of course he got the all clear and he had to stick to his word.”
On October 20 father-of-three Alastair proved himself worthy of his word, jumping out of a small plane above Perthshire on a tandem jump from 10,000 feet above ground level and falling at around 120 miles per hour.
“As he was the last jump of the day the instructor said to him ‘I hope you don’t mind but I like to have a bit of fun on my last jump’,” said Alana.
“So they were doing somersaults and everything and made it even more fun for him.
“He said it was amazing and would love to do it again.”
Alana and their three young boys – Jayden (10), Tyler (7) and four-year-old Ellis – were watching from below.
“I think it was more nerve-wracking for me watching,” she said. “They thought it was amazing and can’t wait to do it themselves.”
But just over two years prior to this epic fatherly feat, it was a completely different kind of fear the family was experiencing.
Alana explained that Alastair, who looks after around 400 sheep on their farm, had been feeling ill for nearly 12 months before his diagnosis.
“He had been going back and forth to his doctor but they couldn’t find out what was wrong with him,” she said.
“It turned out he was diagnosed after we thought he had taken a heart attack with these terrible chest pains which got so bad he couldn’t breathe. He ended up in A&E in the middle of the night.
“A really good doctor was on call and he recognised that his lymph nodes were swollen and he got a biopsy and was diagnosed a week later.”
Alana explained that, unknown to them, in that whole year preceding the diagnosis, the cancer had been getting more prevalent in Alastair’s system.
His symptoms included a severe itch, night fevers, enlarged lymph nodes, excessive tiredness and weight loss.
Alana said the help of hospital staff and the support from the Lymphoma Association made the road to recovery an easier path.
“When he was diagnosed our youngest was only 18 months so it was quite hard work as we were back and forth to Raigmore every week,” she said.
“With three little boys it wasn’t easy but the staff in the hospital were absolutely fantastic.
“It’s not a very well-known type of cancer and he just wanted to try and raise a bit of awareness about it.
“The Lymphoma Association covers the whole of Scotland and England and is the only association that deals with the condition specifically.”
Alana added: “It was a great help and support to us when Alastair was ill.”
According to the Lymphoma Association, the most common symptom is a painless lump or swelling, often in the neck, armpit or groin. Other common symptoms include excessive sweating especially at night, fevers, unexplained weight loss, loss of appetite, unusual tiredness, a cough or breathlessness and persistent itching.
Around 1600 people are diagnosed with Hodgkin lymphoma each year in the UK.
It can occur at any age, although most people who are diagnosed with this kind of lymphoma are either aged between 15 and 35 or 55 and over. It usually affects more men than women and is very successfully treated with the majority of patients cured.
* Donations can still be made online at www.justgiving.com/Alastair-Alexander
* More information on lymphoma can be found at www.lymphomas.org.uk
