Middle-distance runner Andrew McAslan hopes a global fund-raising campaign this weekend can help scientists find answers to the follicular lymphoma disease that he was diagnosed with this year

When Andrew McAslan won 800m bronze in the British Universities Championships behind Alex Botterill and Piers Copeland two years ago, he had hopes of progressing to international level. After barely training as a teenager, he was on the upward curve and felt the sky was the limit.

But his form and fitness began to deteriorate. After struggling with glandular fever while studying at the University of Bath, he began to feel even worse during 2020. In May this year he ran an underpar 1:56.21 for 800m in Leeds. “I knew in that moment that something was not right,” his partner and fellow 800m runner Leah Barrow says.

McAslan searched for answers and finally, following several frustrating misdiagnoses, received the worst possible news. He had an incurable blood cancer called non-Hodgkin follicular lymphoma.

Athletics talent runs in McAslan’s family as his sister, Kirsten, is the British international 400m and 400m hurdler. However, his athletics dreams are presently on hold as he deals with this life-threatening disease.

“Unfortunately my cancer is currently incurable,” he says, “therefore even if remission is achieved, it will still be living in my body and there is a high chance that it will start growing again. However there is no indication of when and how severe.”

Barrow, who lives with McAslan in Leeds, adds: “It can be treated but it will still live within him and therefore a relapse is pretty much certain. Andrew has it at stage four at the age of 25 so unless a cure is found the treatment options will eventually run out.”

McAslan believes the growth of the disease is linked to when he had glandular fever in 2018. Then, during 2020, his performances in racing and training began to fall. “I wasn’t running well at all and could not work out why,” he says.

As he entered this year, he explains: “By January I was experiencing fatigue and some strange discomfort in my stomach and bowel. Along with that my training and performance was getting worse. I started to seek medical help and I was told I probably had IBS, then bloods also showed my iron and haemoglobin levels were low, therefore I was given iron tablets to try and improve that.

“I reduced my training to try and help improve what seemed to be iron deficiency,” he continues. “The tablets improved my iron levels, my training improved slightly for a short period, however my haemoglobin levels remained low and the diagnosis I had been given just didn’t feel right. As a result, I went to see two different consultants to try and get a more expert opinion.

“They came to the same conclusion that I just had IBS probably due to stress. One of them even said they could rule out cancer straight away due to my age. Again, I had a feeling that this diagnosis just wasn’t right, so I pushed for a scan and further investigation, however I had to wait a couple of months for this.

“In the meantime a large lump suddenly appeared under my chin and other smaller ones on my neck. I went to see a doctor about these and I was put on an urgent referral for them to be scanned and biopsied.”

Then came the grim news. “When the results came back I was diagnosed with stage 4 follicular lymphoma, which is an incurable blood cancer. I am currently having immuno-chemotherapy over a course of six months with the aim of getting a complete response to treatment, which means there would be no evidence of disease.”

He adds: “Despite having symptoms for around six months, the consultant said that I will have probably had this disease for around three to four years and that it has just been slowly growing.”

Hopes on finding a cure are pinned on a big fund-raising event this weekend (Oct 24-25). The impact on social media is likely to be significant too given that the person driving the campaign is Nicola Mendelsohn, a top executive at Facebook who was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma four years ago.

Mendelsohn founded the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation with the goal of funding research, raising awareness, helping patients establish support networks and ultimately finding a cure.

During the two-day fund-raising period as well every donation received will be doubled by the Foundation’s generous fund-matchers. Overall the goal is to raise £1 million.

McAslan says: “I would like to raise awareness for this disease and the amazing work that the Follicular Lymphoma Foundation are doing. Their aim is to find a cure for this disease and they are confident that this is possible.

“It has just been underfunded for so long so the time has not been put into finding a cure but the experts have said that it is possible.”

The success in finding a vaccine so quickly for Covid-19 has also given McAslan hope that similar can be achieved with follicular lymphoma. “The haematologists said that if the same kind of work can be put into finding a vaccine for Covid then a cure could be found for follicular lymphoma.

“It’s almost as if Covid has given people the confidence that a cure can be found for this.”

To find out more about this weekend’s fundraising campaign, CLICK HERE

If you are able to donate, please CLICK HERE