'I didn't own a bike before my diagnosis': One man with terminal cancer's mission to cycle from Land's End to John O'Groats

Gaz Emmerson was first diagnosed with Ewing's Sarcoma in 2014, now he's riding to fund research to help future generations of young people

(Gaz Emmerson)

Gareth Emmerson's GP initially thought he had slipped a disc in 2014, but soon the diagnosis came through that it was Ewing's Sarcoma in his pelvis - a rare form of bone and soft tissue cancer that primarily affects teenagers and young adults.

The tumour was the size of two tennis balls, but luckily Emmerson responded to treatment. Two years of cancer-free living later, it had come back in his lungs. After beating it again, the cancer returned to his lungs and lymph nodes. Six months after beating it a third time, and receiving a stem cell transplant, the cancer was back again, this time in his brain, lungs, and lymph nodes.

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Hi. I'm Cycling Weekly's Weekend Editor. I like writing offbeat features and eating too much bread when working out on the road at bike races.


Before joining Cycling Weekly I worked at The Tab and I've also written for Vice, Time Out, and worked freelance for The Telegraph (I know, but I needed the money at the time so let me live).


I also worked for ITV Cycling between 2011-2018 on their Tour de France and Vuelta a España coverage. Sometimes I'd be helping the producers make the programme and other times I'd be getting the lunches. Just in case you were wondering - Phil Liggett and Paul Sherwen had the same ham sandwich every day, it was great.