A MAN who recovered from prostate cancer is running the Bath Half Marathon to raise awareness about the disease.

John Thompson, 71, of Market Lavington, was diagnosed with prostate cancer in July 2015, after 25 years of suffering increasing problems with benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), an enlargement of the prostate.

Mr Thompson said: “I had a prostatectomy in August last year. When I was being treated I had such fantastic care from Salisbury and Southampton hospitals. Both teams were fantastic. All of the information that Prostate Cancer UK provided was great too.”

This isn’t the first time that Mr Thompson will be running a half marathon, with two already under his belt.

“I did the Half last year with my son. This year I wasn’t going to as training is a full-time job but I was talking to a nurse at West Lavington surgery and she said that she would do it if I did. Since then she has dropped out because she hasn’t had the time to prepare, so I decided to do it on my own. I ran my first one at 61, then again last year with my son who hadn’t trained and cramped up at ten miles, so we walked the rest of the way,” added Mr Thompson.

With training well underway Mr Thompson has been spending his off-time taking part in other sports.

“Training is going well. I did a nine-mile run last weekend and I try to do a three-miler, a six-miler and another nine-miler before. In between I play golf too. I can't say that I'm looking forward to training through the cold winter months, but the good news is that I'm still here to complain about it,” he said.

To sponsor John you can visit https://www.justgiving.com/John-Thompson25.