Sailing
Suffolk Sailor Planning to Circumnavigate Britain would have been all at Sea Without Macmillan Support Ipswich sailor Olle Nash is planning to sail around Britain to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support, despite having bowel cancer that requires ongoing chemotherapy treatment to keep it under control. He is undertaking the journey in recognition of the Macmillan services and professionals who helped him, and his late daughter Toni, to cope with their cancer diagnoses
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hile much of the British public has mustered the confidence to book, or at least consider booking, a staycation in the UK, one cancer patient from Ipswich is planning to circumnavigate Great Britain by boat to raise muchneeded cash for Macmillan Cancer Support. Olle Nash, 63, will weigh anchor on 23rd May 2022 at Fox’s Marina in his hometown of Ipswich to make the trip of a lifetime around England, Wales and Scotland, despite being on active chemotherapy treatment for bowel cancer and permanently dependent on a colostomy, which his family have named Boris. His itinerary is unlikely to mirror that of any sailor who has come before him, as the reality of living with cancer means he will have to return to Ipswich just three weeks into his journey to undergo a five-week cycle of intensive radiotherapy treatment. A four-month adventure on the choppy waters lapping Britain’s shores may not be an obvious pastime for someone living with cancer, but Olle – whose boat is called ‘Renegade’ – has always been one to push against the tide. He said: “When I was first diagnosed with cancer, I didn’t ask those awkward questions like ‘what does this mean for my life?’ I just wanted to get on with it, but I did think that perhaps I wouldn’t always be as fit as I am now, so if there were things I wanted to do, I should do them. I’d been hoping to spend my retirement sailing all over the place, so I combined this ambition with my fundraising.” While many people emerging from a year of shielding will feel apprehensive about resuming their day-to-day activities, Olle is raring to swap his year of isolation and hospital trips for a challenge that he hopes will raise £10,000 to fund more medical, practical and emotional support for people living with cancer in Ipswich. The former IT security manager had long dreamed of taking to the seas come retirement, having begun a lifelong love affair with sailing as a child learning to sail on Suffolk’s River Deben. When his working life was brought to a premature halt by his ailing health, his later-life adventures appeared, for a brief moment, to hang in the balance. He had enjoyed a relatively clean bill of health until 2018, when he was diagnosed and treated for a rare condition called ExtraMammary Paget’s Disease, which ultimately required an operation to remove part of his large intestine. It was only during this 10-hour procedure at St Mark’s Hospital in London that a suspect growth on the inside of his anus was discovered and sent for testing. Olle remained in the dark however, until a surprise appointment with an oncologist in October 2019. He said: “I had travelled down to St Mark’s Hospital in Harrow from Ipswich for what I thought was a routine follow-up 40 craftsmaneditor@reme-rhq.org.uk
Olle Nash will skipper ‘Renegade’ on a charity sailing expedition around Britain
appointment, but a miscommunication meant that I found myself in a room with an oncologist, without any idea why. She asked how I planned to travel down to Harrow for treatment every two weeks and I just said – ‘what treatment?’ “She explained that the tumour they’d found had been cancerous, that it had metastasised into my lymph nodes in the pelvic area but couldn’t be removed and cured. Instead, I would have to have chemotherapy treatment every two weeks for the rest of my life to keep it at bay. “It was very difficult to take in and I didn’t tell my wife until I got home, which by this point, was only about 12 weeks after the
