Tom in the Lake District

Heroes come in many guises. Some people achieve glory by conquering mountains; others demonstrate incredible bravery in the face of peril.

Ordinary lives become extraordinary when individuals step beyond the humdrum and demonstrate a human spirit most of us only dream of. We’d like to nominate one such man as a hero: Tom Buckley.

Tom is, as we write, on the edge of the Cleveland escarpment, a good way towards completing Wainwright’s Coast to Coast Walk.

It’s a tough route at the best of times: 192 miles, mountain ascents, glutinous bogs and day after day of footslogging. Even in summer it represents a major challenge. In a December reminiscent of winters of old, it’s a hell of a task. And Tom is on day 13 of his trek from St Bees to Robin Hood’s Bay.

The 23-year-old from Comberbach in Cheshire is being supported by his mum and dad and his twin sister Jennifer. They are having to contend with some of the roughest December weather for years.

Tom has a few other difficulties to contend with. By the second day, on the western edge of the Lake District, he was beginning to realise the problems he faced.

“The enormity of the challenge I have taken on became apparent as the day went on,” he says on his blog. “Having half a lung missing, a knee replacement, a tibia replacement and missing muscle made the high hills we had to scramble up seem that much more difficult.”

He also has inoperable cancer.

Four years ago, he was diagnosed with osteosarcoma – bone cancer – a result of earlier prolonged treatment for childhood retinoblastoma – cancer of the eye, which was diagnosed in 1985.

With amazing detachment, he wrote: “I received Chemotherapy at The Christie Hospital in Manchester.

“I had to have a knee and tibia replacement and various lung operations due to the cancer spreading. This means that I have problems walking long distances due to muscle removal and metal parts in my left knee.

“The cancer returned in 2006, 2007 and 2008. In September 2008 I was told that the cancer was now terminal as a tumour in the left side of my head cannot be operated on and because I have had too much chemotherapy and radiotherapy in my life, there was nothing more that could be done.

“I am having three weeks of small dose radiotherapy in October to try and slow the rate at which the tumour grows.”

It would be so easy for a young man in Tom’s situation to descend into self-pity. But his reaction was quite the opposite. He determined that he would do something special in his final months.

“I owe a lot to the doctors and nurses on the Young Oncology Unit who have worked with me over the last four years, trying to get rid of this cancer and, as I have done in the past, I wanted to do a fund raising event to raise as much money as I could,” he said.

“I know that I have less than a year to live and so I want to try and push myself as much as I can. I feel that this Coast to Coast Walk will give me something to focus on and something to live for. So I am doing this event for myself as much as the hospital, but if I can make money as I do it, then that would be brilliant.”

Tom’s doctor, Professor Tim Eden, paediatric oncologist at the Christie Hospital, was at St Bees to see him on his way on a cold, sunny day Saturday at the end of November. With a pebble from the beach and a few drops of the Irish Sea, he set off eastwards.

Today, he makes the climb on to the Cleveland hills, setting off from Ingleby Arncliffe, on the final major ascent of his walk. Within hours, he should see the steely waters of the North Sea, his final destination, still four days’ walking away.

Tom Buckley in typical December weather

En route, he has had to cope with a whiteout on Greenup Edge, knee-deep, energy-sapping snow on the High Street ridge, iced-up paths on his ascents of the Lake District fells, support vehicles stuck on the ice and day-long torrential rain.

But his spirit seems indomitable.

As his walk progressed, so grew the amount of donations on his Just Giving website. By the time he had reached Kirkby Stephen, there was £21,000 in the funds. A fellow cancer patient stopped her car near Orton and gave him £10 as sleet battered his face.

By now, Tom had determined this would not be his swansong. Walking the Coast to Coast has given him physical strength and the will to carry on helping other cancer patients.

After the boggy horrors of Nine Standards Rigg, he noted in his online diary: “The weather was another icy and foggy day, but no rain.

“It was a great day for me to think lots and to take stock about why I am doing this whole challenge. I realised I am doing it for a number of reasons. I obviously want to stay as fit as possible and this is a great way to do this.

“There are more important reasons though. I want people to know about the great work that the doctors and nurses on the Young Oncology Unit in Manchester do. Awareness in cancer in teenagers and young adults is another reason why I am doing this walk.

“A lot of people are just simply unaware that young people can suffer from cancer. This leads to late diagnosis and can therefore reduce survival rates. So, I have decided that this Coast to Coast walk will not be my last fundraiser. I need to maintain my fitness levels in order to stay alive for as long as possible.

“I also want to raise as much money as I can for my ward and for the Teenage Cancer Trust, who have provided me with the care and support I have needed to help me have a life with cancer.”

By the end of Swaledale, Tom had picked up an Achilles’ heel sprain, but would not take a break. He sympathised with his father who had to put up with his moaning.

Television interviews and journalists’ quizzing followed as word of his odyssey spread.

No excuse for not donating

He was joined in the Vale of Mowbray by an old school friend from Northallerton – his former home – as he navigated the arable fields of the plain before the final high ground of the North York Moors.

Like many Coast-to-Coasters, by this time, everything is aching, but his determination will, we are sure, see him through to Robin Hood’s Bay.

If you have time, he’ll be happy for you to join him on the last four days of his trip. The Just Giving account now stands at an incredible £33,000 which, with Gift Aid, should ensure the oncology unit benefits to the tune of £40,000. So get your plastic out and do your bit for a remarkable young man.

We’ll leave the final words, so far, to Tom, at the end of his 13th day on the route, wracked by aches and pains but still cheerful: “I am here, alive, walking around Britain and it’s a great feeling to know that, today, I am healthy.”

Tom is keeping a Facebook diary and updating his Just Giving website regularly. He is due at Robin Hood’s Bay on Tuesday, 16 December.