Dad given two years to live after cancer diagnosis running ultra-marathons in Sahara and Arctic 10 years later

A dad who was given two years to live after being diagnosed with terminal cancer 10 years ago continues to defy the odds and run ultra-marathons in the Sahara and Arctic.

Kevin Webber, 59, from Epsom, Surrey, was diagnosed with stage four prostate cancer in 2014 and told because it had spread throughout his body, there was little chance he would live more than a few years.

But now 10 years later, Kevin, who works for NatWest, is still going strong after developing a real passion for running and completing two marathons while undergoing chemo.

Since his diagnosis, Kevin has run more than 16,000 miles, completing ultra-marathons in different corners of the globe, including the Sahara Desert and Arctic tundra.

His efforts have so far helped raise more than a million pounds for Prostate Cancer UK and the father-of-three is already planning his next big run, the Ice Ultra, next year.

“There I was telling my dad that I’ll probably be dead before him,” Kevin told PA Real Life.

“So now here I am, 59 years old, 10 years of terminal stage 4 cancer, and I’ve just run further than I ever have done in my life.

“I want to raise awareness because if people know about the risks, they might make one trip to the Marsden for radiotherapy rather than over 200 in my case, for chemo, radiotherapy and neverending drugs.”

Kevin noticed he was frequently waking up to pee during the night while on holiday with his wife Sarah and three children, Ollie, 19, Ben, 24, and Hayley, 26, at Disney World, Florida, in August 2014.

After returning to the UK, he visited his GP who carried out a PSA blood test and rectal examination which Kevin calls “a doctor’s special handshake”.

A week later Kevin collected his results and was told it was prostate cancer but “not to worry” as it was very often curable.

“It’s true, around 82% of men with prostate cancer will be cured, but unfortunately I was in the 18%,” said Kevin.

“My prostate cancer had already spread into other parts of my body and unfortunately it’s a bit like letting the genie out of the bottle.

“Once the genie is out, you can’t put him back in again.”

On November 6 2014, Kevin was diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer and told his chances of surviving more than two years were slim.

“Obviously at the time there were lots of tears,” he said.

“I mean all of my dreams for the future, like seeing my kids grow up, going on holidays, retiring, seeing Wimbledon get into the Champions League… they were never going to happen in my expected lifetime.”

Kevin started chemotherapy a few months later (January 2015) at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton.

He remembered looking out of the window of his house after his first chemo session and thinking “I’m going to go for a run”.

“I only managed three slow miles, whereas a week before I could run 20 miles,” he said.

“It changed everything because I realised at that point you can either be a victim and give up on everything or you can do something about it.”

Kevin had entered the Brighton marathon before falling ill and asked the oncologist whether he could still participate despite his cancer treatment.

“He said ‘well people don’t really do that’ and wasn’t very impressed,” explained Kevin.

“But then he said, ‘if you can train for it, then I suppose you can do it’.

“It was definitely hard because chemo is all the rubbish you think it is.”

Thirteen weeks into chemotherapy Kevin completed the Brighton Marathon in four hours and 36 minutes, his slowest time to date.

Off the back of this, he was offered a place in the London Marathon which he completed two weeks later, beating his Brighton time by 12 minutes.

Kevin said: “I went back to hospital for my chemo session and the doctor asked ‘well, did you do the marathon?’.

“I told him that I had done two and he seemed quite impressed, and then asked me what I was going to do next!”

Kevin had always dreamed of running the Marathon des Sables, a 160-mile race through the Sahara Desert over seven days, which is considered to be one of the hardest in the world.

With some encouragement from his wife, Kevin signed up for the gruelling race in 2016.

“So I trained for that and I had all sorts of problems with my knees and hips, but somehow 2016 came around and I got off the plane in the Sahara and ran the Marathon des Sables,” said Kevin.

“You are going over sand dunes that are 200 feet high and go on for 10-mile stretches.

“It’s billed as one of the toughest races on Earth.”

Despite crossing the finish line and thinking “never again”, Kevin said he found running to be a great source of “escapism” and a way of staying positive.

“When I finished, I was 18 months into my prognosis and still thought it could all go wrong, and that I could be dead quite quickly,” said Kevin.

But Kevin defied the odds and is still running 10 years and a week later.

He has now completed the Marathon des Sables four times, becoming the only person with stage 4 cancer to do so.

He has also run races across the Arctic, Iceland, Cambodia, Bhutan, Jordan, Spain and Albania.

Even during the Covid lockdown when public gatherings were cancelled, Kevin found a way to run an ultra-marathon.

“I ran 2,600 laps of my back garden to make up the 160 miles in a week,” he said.

“I wanted to prove that even though it wasn’t an ideal world, if you wanted to run, you could.”

To mark 10 years since being diagnosed with prostate cancer, Kevin decided to honour those who have cared for him at the Royal Marsden.

“I basically ran from my house in Epsom to the hospital and back 10 times and every lap was for a different department at the hospital,” said Kevin.

“Each lap was eight miles, so I did 80 miles in 24 hours – I had never done that before.

“I raised around £22,000 for the hospital.”

All of Kevin’s other exploits have helped raise more than £1 million for the charity Prostate Cancer UK.

Next year, he is planning on celebrating his 60th birthday by running the Ice Ultra, a 140-mile self-sufficient run across the Arctic Circle in Sweden.

He has launched a fresh fundraiser on JustGiving with an initial target of £1,000.

“I got to know some men who were diagnosed and died six months later,” he said.

“But I have not met anyone who was diagnosed and is still alive 10 years later.

“I am obviously not the only one, there are other people but not many of them.”

For his fundraising efforts Kevin was awarded the British Empire Medal in the late queen’s birthday honours list.

To help inspire others, he has also written a book titled Dead Man Running.

Kevin continues to receive treatment for his cancer, which could stop working at any time.

“I have a scan every few years, but I haven’t had one for a while,” he said.

“All you have is bi-monthly blood tests and you hope the drugs keep your PSA score low and consistent.

“Normally the drugs you take (Abiraterone) work for around 12 months – I have been on them for more than eight years.”

If you are concerned about prostate cancer visit: prostatecanceruk.org/risk-checker.