The first time Brian Cameron went on a training walk for the Aberdeeen Kiltwalk, he made a terrible mistake.
“I wore jeans,” says the 52-year-old train driver from Peterculter, who will tackle the 18-mile course on Sunday June 4. “It wasn’t that long a walk, but it was very uncomfortable.”
Brian has since learned his lesson. His training gear now consists of much softer clothing.
And because he will tackle the Kiltwalk in – of course – a kilt, he has prepared for any potential chafing.
Underneath his Honour of Scotland tartan will be a strategic pair of Lycra shorts.
“The kilt is one of those lighter ones, thankfully,” Brian says. “But I’m not taking any chances.”
Why is Brian taking part in the Aberdeen Kiltwalk?
Brian is more than ready to run the risk of a gentle chafe for the Kiltwalk.
The event, which has been running in its current form for seven years, saw 2,300 people take to the streets and paths of the north-east last year to raise nearly £1 million for charity.
This year, participants on the Mighty Stride will walk a shorter route to last year’s 26-mile course. A child-friendly 3.7-mile Wee Wander that starts at Crathes Castle is also available.
With the Mighty Stride in his sights, Brian has already raised more than £1,500 for his designated charity, Prostate Cancer UK.
It’s a charity that strikes a deeply personal chord – he was diagnosed with the disease last September.
In a further blow, doctors told him his cancer had spread to his spine and ribs, making it effectively untreatable.
Kiltwalk is chance to fund research into prostate cancer
Brian has since come to terms with the fact he has incurable cancer. So far, he has managed the condition and feels perfectly fine.
But he maintains he is not doing the Kiltwalk for himself.
Instead, he is walking to fund more research into a cancer that in the UK affects one in eight men.
“I understand that this isn’t going to help me,” Brian says. “But it may help someone five, ten years down the line, who can get proper, reliable testing.
“If there had been one in place, it could have made the difference for me.”
By his side will be his daughter Emma. The 20-year-old claims doing the Kiltwalk was her idea, a assertion that Brian only half-heartedly contests.
Anyway, he is looking forward to sending some quality time with his daughter in the six-or-so hours it should take to reach the finish line in Banchory.
As Brian jokes, it’ll make up for all the training sessions she missed with him because of late nights out.
“She was supposed to be out with me on the one today,” he says with a laugh. “But she was struggling with a sore head after Friday so she didn’t want to push it too far.”
‘No one has said how long I’ve got’
Brian’s cancer journey started like so many others – as a bolt from the blue.
“I’d had issues including a bladder that didn’t feel empty after going to for a pee,” Brian say, before deadpanning: “Obviously, as a man I left that for about a month.”
Things only started moving after he told his wife.
“Next thing I knew I was at the doctor,” he says, laughing.
At first, the outlook was positive. Prostate cancer’s survival rate is relatively generous – about eight out of 10 people with the disease live for more than a decade after diagnosis.
But the prognosis changed when doctors discovered the cancer had spread.
With radiotherapy out of the question, Brian was instead put on a course of hormone therapy.
“I’ll be on the treatment indefinitely,” he says. “But no one has said how long I’ve got, or anything like that.”
People can last for several years on hormone treatment, Brian says. And, at his latest bone scan he got the welcome news that the cancer had receded.
However, he remains philosophical about his condition.
“I went in thinking I was going to be cured [with radiotherapy], but then I was told I wasn’t. So I thought, I’ll just have to deal with that, then. I can’t change anything.”
His wife, it seems, is more worried than he is.
“I think she thinks I’m going to shatter into a million pieces if I do anything, but I’m a big strong boy and I just get on with things.”
How life has changed for Brian since prostate cancer diagnosis
Brian is back driving trains with ScotRail after stepping away for a couple of months.
“The medication I was on made me dizzy, which isn’t ideal for a train driver,” he explains with his typical dry humour.
Meanwhile, he and his family have already booked a trip to Disney World in Florida for Christmas, something that Brian has always wanted to do.
And he’s looking forward to a beer and cinnamon bun once he reaches the Banchory finish next Sunday.
But he’s aware of a shift in his attitude to life since his diagnosis. He feels he’s become a more considerate person, though he jokes it might just be the tablets he’s on.
There is also the sense that time is more limited. It’s a feeling that has subsided since the early days of his diagnosis. But it still lingers.
“Every now and then, a weird thought just pops into your head,” he explains. “Something that you’d planned to do, you think to yourself, I might not get to do that.”
He pauses. And then his tone brightens.
“But then you go, ach, it’ll be alright. And you just carry on.”
To find out what the symptoms for prostate cancer are, click here. Brian’s Just Giving page can be accessed here. Sign ups for the Aberdeen Kiltwalk are still open and can be found here.
