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Month 20 has seen a tough month finishing with wonderful news as I walked 94.48 miles while climbing 3,704.77 feet, ran 11.54 miles climbing 592.85 feet, cycled 23.52 miles climbing 1648.88 feet while doing 66 press-ups, 176 sit-ups, moving 5kgs over 264 metres or 1320 kgs over 1 metre, while falling off a bike, becoming more and more unstable, and suffering 3 separate seizures having started to tell the tale of my strategy to beat the beast.

As promised I have continued to take on activity to beat the beast. I have been walking every morning and evening with a session of physical training during the day, while eating well by consuming 9 to 10 portions of fresh fruit and vegetables each day along with brazil nuts, and turmeric, and protein and calcium provided through home-cooked meals made from fresh and raw ingredients, while praying hard twice a day and practicing the organ as much as possible in order to try and retrain the cognitive and motor function of the brain into the healthy left side so that the diseased right temporal lobe cannot switch me off. Each day is hard physical and cognitive work but ensures throughout, that whenever fear, anxiety and depression come knocking, connecting with God’s glorious creation in the great outdoors while connecting with God through prayer, and in seeing a slow and steady progression in my cognitive and motor capability through physical improvements and improvements in my organ playing, I have been finding that elusive peace that passes all understanding, despite the trials that were set before me. Having a positive focus kept me, quite frankly, sane when all about me was unravelling.

As I managed to push away further the fog of treatment caused by the brain surgery, radiotherapy and year of chemotherapy, so my brain started to become more energetic. But in becoming more energetic my brain also became more and more ill-disciplined. And as I started to think more deeply about this exciting path of sharing my strategy to beat the beast to assist others to beat their own beasts, as my new direction of travel, I became more excited about the prospects for healing for others such a path proffered. And so the more that I thought, the deeper I thought, the more excited I became, and the more unruly the brain became. I just could not switch the brain off so found sleep more and more difficult to come by. So I had a new challenge which was one of re-disciplining the brain. Teaching the brain how to calm, how to relax, and how to switch off to rest and recover. Yet I seemed to be trapped in an ever-decreasing cycle of lack of sleep leading to lack of sensible decision-making, and so less sleep as I worried about things said or done or mistakes made, or jumping in and out of bed worrying about what I had or hadn’t switched off et al and so the ever descending cycle dragged me lower and lower and lower. I started to feel decidedly off balance and dizzy. Things were just going wrong. I fell off my bike and ended up with a splint on each wrist after an evening in the community hospital in Stirling. So life became more painful. Even the most mundane of tasks were difficult and sleep became even more difficult as jolts of pain woke me up as well. I got more tired and off balance and even started to bounce off door frames as I tried to walk through a perfectly normal door. I was discovering bruises on my legs of an undeterminable source and so I was dragged lower until I suffered a succession of three seizures, the worst of which started in the morning as I tried to do some work at my desk in Doune. The hive of bees were angry and aggressive. They started working their way up my arms, just under the surface of the skin, so I couldn’t see them, but I could feel them as their stinging pins and needles started to take control of my body. My arms became heavier as they worked their heavy way towards my shoulders, I could smell and taste the thick, pungent, sweet and slightly metallic honeycomb as I started to bite repeatedly on my lips, my cheeks, my tongue, before the bees started to work towards my neck. As if in an allergic reaction to the bees’ presence my lips and cheeks swelled up, my throat swelled up. It became hard to swallow. It became hard to breathe. I started to panic. I paced around the flat shaking my arms and my legs as if to shake this hive off me, all the while fighting to swallow and for every breath. There was nothing for it. If I hadn’t been in the hospital when I started choking with the eels seizure that I wrote about on Day 25 on the 26th Sep 2015, I would most likely have become a statistic as another Sudden Unexpected Death due to Epilepsy (SUDEP). I had no intention of becoming another statistic so I walked to the doctor’s surgery. I had to be somewhere safe. As I walked in and presented myself to the receptionist window, the receptionist immediately informed me that there were no more appointments available for the day. As my eyes started streaming tears, with lips, cheeks and tongue thickened by the seizure, sounding like a child with learning disabilities, and fear deep in my eyes, I started to explain. ‘Seizar, I haing a seizar. I aunt to ee zafe.’ The receptionist took pity immediately and sat me in the waiting room. Shortly a doctor came through, by which time the bees were returning to their hive and my speech was returning. So he took me through to his office and I explained my fear. He checked me over and allowed me to sit and wait for as long as I needed in the waiting room. Until I felt secure again.

Sitting next to the River Tweed on my 10 mile walk
Sitting next to the River Tweed on my 10 mile walk

Days passed and several more seizures followed and with each one I started to feel increasingly weak and just to add to my woes I picked up an ear infection that grew steadily worse transferring its pain down through my teeth and jaw line. Yet through it all I continued to walk, take physical exercise, eat vegetables, pray and play the organ, and find peace before the storm clouds blew in again. I was starting to get jolts of electricity down the sides of my neck like I was being stung by a cattle prod that was strong enough to make me jump and jerk. I would randomly get the sensation of temporary floating, much like sitting in the back of the car while going over a hump. My arms would even raise with the sensation even if just sat at my desk. By late afternoon and evening I would yearn for bed time, but force myself to stay awake until lights out at 2300 by taking a walk, then cooking homemade food from scratch, washing up, then praying and practising the organ, then ironing in front of the 10 o’clock news. I was trying to make sure that I was so tired that I would sleep through the night and force the body back into its circadian rhythm so that I could feel normal again. But every time I would fall asleep immediately on my head hitting the pillow and lights out at 2300 but by 0130 I would need the loo and the brain would switch back on and despite hours of meditation to an MP3 walkman of birdsong and God’s word over headphones which would send me back into sleep for a while, by 0400hrs I would be begging 0600hrs to come so that I could get up, and go for a walk to find peace again.

So the cycle continued to descend with sleepless nights leading to more seizures, poor balance and odd feelings leading to more sleepless nights until I was convinced that the tumour was regressing. I had a scan as had been planned so emailed my team and begged them to look at the scan more closely than they had ever done before because something was wrong. I was hanging on to the hope that all this difficult activity was due to the brain shifting so very quickly, now that the tumour had all but disappeared, back to its original position from which it had been pushed, so very slowly, over 15 years. But my fear was that the tumour was regressing as a much higher grade tumour than it ever was before. So I continued to fight to beat the beast, on each walk or run praying out loud for healing, fighting to get the brain to function through many tortuous hours of organ practice, and taking the fight directly to the tumour through a good balanced diet of whole foods including 9 to 10 portions of fruit and veg, plenty of calcium and plenty of protein. Whatever test was set before me I remained focused on the challenge to beat the beast, so come hell or high water I was going to beat it. So I walked and prayed and practised and scrubbed and chopped and cooked and ate and walked and prayed and played for every hour that God gave me.

Then slowly, over a few days, the fog cleared. I didn’t and haven’t yet quite got back to normal, but my hands were getting better and after a final set of x-rays and consultation at the Forth Valley Royal Hospital, it was confirmed that they weren’t fractured in the fall, just a bad sprain. The bruising subsided and, right side first, I started to get less pain in the hands. I was able to get back to the gym using light weights at first. And then things got better still. The Dalmahoy Hotel and Country Club had agreed to sponsor me to beat the beast with some golf time. The golf professional even offered a couple of lessons to get me started again after these difficult last few months. Then a friend from church invited me to join him on a 10 mile reconnaissance of the Southern Upland Way from Tweedbank to Lauder which we walked in glorious sunshine and then things got even better.

Allie drove me up to the Western General Hospital for the results from my last scan. I was slightly nervous but less so after things had started to stabilise. I briefed my oncology team on the events of the last quarter and how things had seemed to unravel, but how I was starting to feel a little more stable, so I was hoping that this was down to a physical shift in the brain’s position, rather than a regression of the tumour. And then my brilliant oncologist gave me the good news. ‘Archie, your tumour is too small to measure!’ In other words they couldn’t find the thing. My oncologist showed us the scan again and the ‘fuzzy bits’, the bruising and the scarring from the surgery and treatment but there was no tumour, nothing. I grinned like a Cheshire cat and exclaimed that, ‘I knew it. I knew that we had beaten the beast! Are you really sure that you can’t find it?’ Why have I been having all these weird things happen to me? ‘Archie, we have analysed your scans in great detail from the first ever scan to now. It is just too small to measure. Your tumour was in the electrical epicentre of the brain so you have been experiencing symptoms of electrical storms sweeping through your brain. These will settle as the brain settles down but it will take time. Remember, your brain has been severely assaulted by the treatment so it will take time, but in the meantime we need to tackle your seizures because each seizure compounds the likelihood of another seizure, and each seizure leaves you tired and damages the brain so I am referring you back to your epilepsy specialist. I think we need to up your anti-seizure medication further.’ The news was wonderful but the warnings of a possible regression stemming from a single remaining cell that just couldn’t be found remained extant. I was already close to the maximum dose of my anti-seizure medication and didn’t want to increase it further as that would make me even drowsier, but the memory of that last seizure, that felt as if it was trying to be my last ever seizure, the last ever thing that I experienced before dragging me away permanently was raw and fresh. So I needed to engage further with tackling the epilepsy. It was also clear that I had to continue to walk, pray, play and eat my way to a confirmed healing which they confirmed would be if I could get to the 5 year point post treatment. My 12th and last cycle of Chemotherapy finished in October 2015 so if I can get out to October 2020 I can officially declare that I have beaten the beast. Now that would be a wonderful day in which I would be able to affirm what I have always believed: that no matter how hard life becomes, no matter how steep the odds, no matter how impossible your desired intent would appear to be, never give up. Never ever give up because, with a little hard work and determination you really can make the impossible possible.

As this wonderful meeting closed my oncologist confirmed to Allie, ‘Don’t worry, Archie will have the cognitive capacity to say ‘I do’ in just a few weeks’ time!’

This has been an emotional roller-coaster writing this post but I am so very glad that I have shared this experience with you, because to do so shares my wisdom garnered from a tough journey of many lessons learned. I very much hope that the good news that falls from my story can provide you hope, inspiration and encouragement to keep up the fight no matter what challenges you face right now. With a little hard work, determination and imagination you really can make the impossible possible. I will continue to lay out my strategy on the website for all to use and follow to beat their own beast. So I leave you with a meditation sent to me by a friend who saw in the river’s journey much complicity with my journey. It brought me peace and reassurance. I hope it does for you too. If you have made the impossible possible by transforming your life inspired by my journey and would like to inspire and encourage others to do the same too with your story, do please drop me a line on archie@beatthebeastchallenge.co.uk

‘It always seems to me as if the spirit of the river was speaking to me, and telling me how in its rapid continuous course, it is setting an example to man how he can most wisely and happily regulate his life. The water is so wise, when it comes to little banks and uneven places in its bed, it gently flows over them without making any bother about it, and this, says the river, is just the way in which men should treat the little un-pleasantness’s and smaller misfortunes of life instead of allowing such things to distract and worry them, and perhaps alter the course of their lives. That when huge boulders of rock stand out into the stream, the river glides quietly round them, accepting them as necessary evils which must be endured since they cannot be cured, which is the way in which men should treat the greater difficulties and the hardships of their lives, instead of fuming and fretting, or sitting down in despair. ‘These are things that rivers never do’ says the Spirit, ‘and, moreover, as they constantly move forward, they explore with their water every hole and corner within their reach, neglecting nothing, and giving a kindly wash to everything that comes in their way, and holding a pleasant conversation with all objects with which they come into contact’. So a wise man and one who desires to make his life useful and pleasant to himself and others, will always seek for information as he goes along through the world, will have a cheery word for his fellow travellers, and be ready to do a kind and friendly action to any that require it. And if he does so, just as the river grows broader and wider as it reaches the ocean in which it finally loses itself, and merges its waters in the infinite space of the sea, so the man’s life will become grander and more noble as it approaches its close, and he will have gained the affection and respect of all whose respect and affection are worth gaining, before the stream of his life, too, floats out into the ocean of eternity.
Knatchbull Hugessen
Yours aye Archie
Deo Juvante
We can Beat the Beast!

The challenge in numbers since the start on 20th August 2015

Years spent Beating the Beast: 1.7
Months spent Beating the Beast: 19
Weeks spent Beating the Beast: 76
Days of official challenge activity completed: 183
Total Miles Cycled: 1137.69
Total Miles Walked: 1222.87
Total Miles Run: 218.34
Total Miles Paddled: 7
Total Distance Cycled, Skied, Run and Rowed in the gym: 99.63 miles
Total Distance Swum: 5,370 metres
Total Miles covered under own steam: 2,688.83
Total Height Gained under own steam: 113,680.84 feet
Mountains Climbed: 8
Hills Climbed: 36
Days of Voluntary Activity: 11.5
Organ tunes learnt and performed: 5
Salmon Caught: 0!
Bats Found:4!
Curling Matches played in: 8
Curling stones placed on the button (the centre of the target): 3
Weight Training Sessions: 42
Weight shifted: 10kgs lifted over 3,786 metres or 37,960kgs moved over a metre,
Aerobic Circuit Sessions: 15
Press Ups: 2,066
Pull Ups: 87
Sit Ups: 4,987
People Met and Hands Shaken: 639
Pots of tea shared: 42
Prayers joined on the top of a hill: 3
Prayers joined in the street!: 5
Prayers joined in a Train Station: 1
Prayers joined in a Café: 2
Pills popped: 1,541
Days until Driving Licence (lost to epilepsy) possibly Returned: 730
And most importantly – Money Raised as at Week 68 – £11,861.

Considering I started this challenge 19 months ago very quietly with no target beyond a fiver, thanks to the brilliant advice from a friend of mine, I am absolutely thrilled and again thank you all. That is £64.81 for each and every day that I have managed to find the will and energy to take on an activity designed to help me Beat the Beast and my goodness it has been worth it for my peace of mind, for my healing and for the five wonderful charities you are supporting through your generosity. Long may it continue. May I also ask again however that if you are not sponsoring me to please consider it for as much or as little as you can afford.

Thank you all for your incredible comments and support. Please continue to spread the word. If you see me around do please give a cheery hello and shake my hand or give me a cheery wave to show your support and encourage me on.

Thank you
Yours aye
Archie

Thank you for joining me on my own personal journey and encouraging me to walk, cycle, climb, paddle, sport and do good deeds each day to ‘Beat the Beast’ while helping to improve the lives and life chances of so many more people through sponsorship.

The Five Charities that I have selected to support are:

  1. Cancer Research UK – My Father Succumbed to Lung Cancer; a couple of friends are currently fighting cancer and I am fighting a brain tumour. Let’s Help to Beat Cancer Sooner.
  2. The Prince’s Trust – Inspiring and preparing disadvantaged Young Lives for success.
  3. British Red Cross – helping those in need around the UK and the world whoever and wherever they are.
  4. World Wide Fund for Nature – For a Living Planet and a Future Where People and Nature Thrive.
  5. Help for Heroes – Support for our Wounded and their Families.

To learn more about my story that brought me to this point, how I plan to ‘Beat the Beast’, what activities I plan to do within the challenge and why, please see my welcome video on this page.

How to Sponsor Me

The Beat the Beast Challenge is self-funding through my own contribution while keeping costs to a minimum with voluntary support and corporate sponsorship in kind. Therefore the entirety of every penny donated will go directly to the 5 challenge charities. Please sponsor me by completing a standing order form either through your own personal internet banking or by completing a hard copy standing order form in your branch of your bank and then handing it in to the teller or posting it to your bank at the address found in your cheque book.

The Beat the Beast Challenge Account details needed for the standing order form are as follows:
Payee: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge (It is essential that the entire payee reference of: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge is included in order to ensure that your sponsorship gets to the Beat the Beast challenge account)
Sort Code: 20-63-25
Account Number: 03278786

Remembering that I will complete 20 days of activity each month, suggested but not exclusive sponsorship options, are as follows:
£1.00 per day = £20.00 per month.
£0.50p per day = £10.00 per month.
£0.25p per day = £5.00 per month.
£0.05p per day = £1.00 per month.
It is entirely up to you how much you would like to and are able to sponsor me for so do please give as much or as little as you can. Every penny will be very gratefully received.

To Sponsor Me from an account outside of the UK the following details will be needed by your bank for a standing order:
Payee: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge (It is essential that the entire payee reference of: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge is included in order to ensure that your sponsorship gets to the Beat the Beast challenge account)
Sort Code: 20-63-25
Account Number: 03278786
Swift Code: BARCGB22
IBAN: GB87 BARC 2063 2503 2787 86.

While I hope you will encourage me to keep going by sponsoring me for every day I survive and am able to find the cognitive and physical capability to complete a day’s task designed to improve my chances of ‘Beating the Beast’ or improving the lives of others, 5 days a week, four weeks a month, for as long as ever I can any One off Cash contributions will be most gratefully received and distributed in exactly the same manner to the five charities as the sponsorship.

Any one off donations can be made by BACS or cheque sent to the following account:

Payee: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge (It is essential that the entire payee reference of: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge is included in order to ensure that your sponsorship gets to the Beat the Beast challenge account)
Sort Code: 20-63-25
Account Number: 03278786

Address:
Kingdom Bank Limited
Ruddington Fields Business Park
Mere Way
Ruddington
Nottingham
NG11 6JS

To complete a BACS donation from an account outside the UK the following details will be required by your bank:
Payee: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge (It is essential that the entire payee reference of: 1001-02414-8 Beat The Beast Challenge is included in order to ensure that your sponsorship gets to the Beat the Beast challenge account)
Sort Code: 20-63-25
Account Number: 03278786
Swift Code: BARCGB22
IBAN: GB87 BARC 2063 2503 2787 86.

NOTE If you need to contact Kingdom Bank Ltd you can do so on 0115 921 7250.

Thank you for having enough faith in me to sponsor me.
Yours aye
Archie
BtB!