Cancer survivor from Northampton takes on the world at triathlon this weekend

Chris Baldwin from East Hunsbury, Northampton is set to compete in World triathlon championships this weekend in Pontevedra, Spain. just 2 years after starting in the sport after a chance invitation, this also comes just 5 years since finishing cancer treatment.

Chris says: "In July 2017 I had a 18.5cm mass in my chest which required 2 lung drains and had a 50/50 chance of survival.

I was told I had stage 4 cancer - Hodgkin’s lymphoma.

I was admitted to hospital and started 12 rounds of chemotherapy, putting on 25kg of extra weight thanks to the treatment.

At the end of chemotherapy, I couldn’t wait to get back out and run. I attended Sixfields Upton parkrun with my friend Warren Marsh and we walked the course. I attempted to run a bit of it but was just too drained, but we did finish and it was a good feeling. I then returned every week to build up my stamina and strength.

Unfortunately the chemotherapy had not shrunk the cancer enough so I had to have 3 weeks of intensive radiotherapy to reduce the mass down from its now 3.5cm.

At the end of the radiotherapy I suffered from bad side effects, unable to eat due to the damage to my oesophagus and hit with severe fatigue, but I persevered with my fitness and slowly built it back up.

Post lockdown to get fit again I was given a chance to try a triathlon with just 2 weeks notice, I got the equipment together and trained in the little time I had. It was a disaster, I couldn’t swim and had to doggie paddle from one canoe to another just to get through it, I was so exhausted and just stumbled to the bike, but then I regained myself and powered through to the end.

But knowing how the swim almost defeated me actually gave me the ammunition to prove myself, I immediately signed up for the same event for the next year and vowed to train and learn how to swim to have a better race.

I set up a few more triathlons through the year to aid the training and learnt to swim from YouTube videos and books, going from a paddle/ walk to front crawl within a month, then building the laps.

I then did a triathlon at leeds and won my age group, such a great result that it qualified me for the 2023 world championship.

Since qualifying I continued to train and work on my race technique but felt my run was off. I finally joined my local tri club - NTri this July and it has helped massively, swim and run times hugely improved.

I’ve put in so much work for Worlds and can’t believe it’s now here - I can’t wait to represent GB it’s been always been a dream to get to this level.

I hope that my story can be an inspiration to anyone - and that determination can really get you through anything. Just never give up ."