I am a 50+something woman who likes cycling. I'm not competitive and I don't train - I would never win any prizes if I competed because I am pretty slow and I'm rubbish on hills! But I love the freedom that being on two wheels provides, powered only by one's own energy, able to go as far as I want (or as far as I can), my only fuel being good food.
I've loved cycling all my life, but in some ways, life hasn't been kind to me. When I was 17 I was diagnosed with a rare tumour, which though non-malignant, was extremely aggressive. Over a period of years I had a dozen operations, as this nasty tumour re-occurred and threatened my life several times. In 1983 I had a massive dose of radiotherapy, to attempt to finish the tumour off for all time, with a temporary colostomy to protect my bowel. The colostomy was reversed, but more operations followed.
I was left with chunks of muscle and tissue missing from both legs (plundered to repair my abdomen), partial paralysis of my left leg (nerve damage during difficult surgery), a substantial incisional hernia, and bowel trouble.
I cope with the scarring, but the bowel difficulties have dominated my life for 30 years. I'll spare anyone reading this the symptoms, you know what they are. "The gift that keeps on giving...", said my consultant, referring to the older doses of radiotherapy. My prognosis was poor, it was only ever going to get worse.
I accepted an ileostomy because whatever life remains to me, I no longer want to live shackled to the bathroom, often unable to go out. An ileostomy offers me relative freedom, though in some ways I may find the need to plan runs contrary to that.
It's going to be a challenge to do some things of a cycling nature. But I do intend to have fun, regain some fitness, and re-learn to enjoy that two-wheeled freedom which throughout my dark days, I craved.
There is so much to live for.
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