Introduction

In the battle with my tumour I made many mistakes, but I learned much from those mistakes, and seek to share my hard earned wisdom with you, because I hope to give you the very inspiration, encouragement and tools you require to beat your own beast, along with a good splash of hope in my reassurance and example that you really can beat your beast, and make the impossible possible whatever beast it may be that you are fighting, while also improving your quality of life.

In the news over the last few months there has been a huge amount of coverage on the benefits of healthy eating, on the benefits of exercise, and even on the benefits of mindfulness. They are, of course, absolutely correct, but I wish to put this massive information overload into context, into a handrail of a ready reckoner that you can use to start to build your own strategy to beat your beast.

The important first lesson is simply that there is no such thing as a silver bullet. Modern medicine has come on leaps and bounds yet is unlikely to be able to heal you completely on its own. Modern medicine can set the conditions for your healing, but it is unlikely to heal you completely unless you engage with it and do all you physically can to reinforce the foundations for healing that your treatment team is trying to give you. You need to become a key player in your own treatment team.

When talking about ill health and its healing, you will quickly understand that we are talking about percentages. Every percent in your favour that you can muster by the actions you take will quickly add up and, done over time, start to stack up to a massive percentage advantage in your favour. I can’t help you to beat your beast. I can only advise, inspire and encourage you. Your medical team can treat you, but only you can help yourself to beat your beast and only if you take action. Don’t just talk about it. You must do it and start to do it now. But start slowly. Design your strategy and check it for its suitability with your medical team. Then get going. You will need to be transformational in your approach. Don’t dilly dally. You are going to have to completely change aspects of your life in order to have life, and better than that you will discover that it can start to become a better life: a much, much, much better life. It will require a huge amount of determination, flexibility and an obsessive seizing of opportunities. It is going to make you feel more tired at first and seem almost unachievable but YOU CAN DO IT. You can achieve your goal and even make the seemingly impossible possible.

BUT THERE IS NO SILVER BULLET. You cannot do one thing and not the other. You cannot pick the bits you like and ignore the bits you don’t. You have to take a holistic approach and embrace this fleeting opportunity for a chance of healing.

Over the next few weeks I will guide you through the strategy that I devised after much research and many mistakes but which ultimately led to what Dr Bernard Brom, who I met in South Africa, called the perfect combination for healing: exercise, diet and faith. I will cut through the myths to the facts and hope to inspire and encourage you onto a new path towards a healing, happier and healthier life.

Even if you are outwardly fit and healthy, we are all now acutely aware that the odds are stacked against each and every one of us. The chances are that we are all going to have to tackle some beast of a disease, whether mental or physical or both, at some point in our lives. Too many times I have heard people tell me that they know what they should do but they cannot find the time to do it, or that they know what vegetables they should be eating but don’t like vegetables, or that it is too stressful to give up smoking etc etc etc. We all know what should be done, so do it. I can say that as an ex-smoker under extreme stress with a terminal disease who managed to stop smoking and completely transform my life in order to have life. I am not saying that it will be easy but YOU CAN DO IT. So Acta Non Verba – stop talking, stop finding excuses, start doing. Start now to prevent the need for curative therapies which I can assure you cause much suffering with little certainty of being successful. Modern medicine is incredible but it is not a silver bullet. Only you can take the action required to try and beat the beast before it materialises, or worse, try and beat the beast once it has materialised.

So I will, over the next few weeks, talk you through my 5 Fs strategy of Food, Physical Training, Family and Friends, Focus, and Faith, the mistakes I made and the lessons learned. I seek to provide you with hope, inspiration and encouragement through my own example, but I also have a couple of volunteers who have themselves embarked on a transformational life, using my journey as their inspiration, in order to beat their own beasts and who very much hope to share their story with you, through my website, as they progress. If you too would like to help me inspire and encourage many others to seek a better chance and even quality of life by the telling of your story, inspired by my story, do please email me at archie@beatthebeastchallenge.co.uk. I promise that I will only publish what you would like me to and will keep it completely anonymous should you wish.

None of my 5 Fs is more important than the other so I was unsure which one to start with but I have chosen Family and Friends because it is this support network that will be so very important to your success, so my next chapter on this journey for your transformation will be on family and friends.

In the meantime start to make some simple changes to begin your journey so very gently. Try and eat your five a day and start to take some exercise outside in the fresh air at least twice a day, even if it is just taking the stairs rather than the lift, or walking or cycling rather than driving, or just walking to the next bus stop, not the first one. For example on the day on which I write this post over 3 separate train journeys, rather than wait for the bus I have walked to the Forth Valley Royal Hospital from Larbert Station, I walked from Stirling Bus Station to the last bus stop I safely could which was opposite Dobbies on the A84 on the way to Doune, and I walked up the cycle track from Waverley Station in Edinburgh to Newhaven instead of taking the bus. As I saved journey time by starting to walk rather than waiting for the bus, I lost little time in doing so but walked 7.7 miles in the process while climbing 397.31 feet. There are many ways to increase your exercise and fit it in to your day so start now by following my balanced daily lifestyle, but start gently after seeking your doctor’s advice.

The other thing to do of course is to reap the benefits of the positive endorphins delivered by your brain as a reward for doing something charitable. So please sponsor me to help me improve the lives and life chances of so many more people through the 5 charities I support. All the details on the charities and how to sponsor me can be found on the website. www.beatthebeastchallenge.co.uk so take time to do charity, it is the key to heaven. Even if it is just £1.00 a month. In the same way that every percent that you claw back in your favour stacks up to help you to make the impossible possible and beat the beast with which you suffer, every pound that I can gather together for the 5 charities stacks up and can help improve the lives and life chances of so many more people.

Thank you and I pray that God will hold you in the palm of his hands as you start your journey to beat the beast or even prevent it from ever being able to take hold in the first place. YOU CAN DO IT!

Yours aye

Archie
Deo Juvante we can all beat our beasts!!