Ultramarathon Running Helps Mark Support His Wife Through Rare Kidney Cancer

This is a guest post by Mark Dyson, 39, whose wife Dawn is diagnosed with translocation renal cell carcinoma. Mark, who lives with his family in England, is preparing to run an ultramarathon on September 14-15, 2024, to raise funds for kidney cancer research.

I’m Mark, a 39 year old father of two boys, 6 and 3, and have been happily married to my wonderful wife Dawn for the last ten years. Three years ago, Dawn became unwell and was later diagnosed with translocation renal cell carcinoma (tRCC) a rare subtype of kidney cancer. In that time, she’s had one major and one minor operation, seven lines of treatment, three hospitalisations and more scans and appointments than I could possibly recount. 

I feel fortunate in the fact that Dawn has been able to demonstrate levels of resilience I hadn’t witnessed before and has been needed on so many occasions. My own mental health has ebbed and flowed as we’ve navigated the rollercoaster journey that chronic illness brings and I’ve had to discover what well-being looks like for me in order to provide for my family as best as I can in our greatest time of need. 

It’s here, buried in the complexities of anticipatory grief, I found running, and specifically trail running, to be a marvelous outlet for me. The feeling of having no one around me but nature and the elements provided me with opportunities to be present and focus in on what and how I was feeling, something which doesn’t come easy in a hectic household. 

Two years into our cancer journey I did something impulsive and signed up to run an ultramarathon – a 47-mile loop of Lake Windermere in England that includes 8,500 ft elevation of the surrounding hills.

My reason was simple – a big and scary challenge will keep me accountable to look after myself, in turn enabling me to care for my family. Since then, another year has passed by and I’m now a few days away from the starting line.

Both Dawn and I feel incredibly lucky to have received phenomenal support from our family, friends, colleagues and local community since we received our diagnosis.

We’ve also found support in dedicated foundations. The KCA supported Dawn as a patient advocate at the 2024 International Kidney Cancer Symposium: Europe in Sitges, Spain in April which enabled her to share her journey and beliefs surrounding personalised care as well as helping us to connect with doctors and researchers specialising in tRCC, understanding the disease further and helping to determine the right ongoing treatment plan for Dawn.

All of this has culminated in launching a crowdfund for my event in which we are fundraising for four charities and at the time of writing we’ve raised nearly £3,500 ($4,500), which we’ll split evenly once my race concludes on the 15th of September.

I want to add that it’s not easy watching your spouse having to live with cancer. I received some advice early in our diagnosis to attend as many appointments together as possible and it’s made a huge difference to both of us. I don’t want my wife to feel isolated in what she’s going through, so we always discuss what questions we have prior to any appointment. I also can’t profess to know anywhere near as much as Dawn about tRCC, but it’s helped both of us that I know enough to ideate with her. This is especially so when we’ve received difficult news, still having things to ask, when all you want to do is leave the building as soon as possible. 

I think what I’ve learned the most is that it’s so incredibly important to talk to people about what you’re going through. I’ve found that cancer dominates life and it’s very easy for the smaller things in life to become significant challenges because we’re already having to deal with so much. It’s amazing how relieving it is once you start having open conversations with people about what’s happening and how you truly feel.