Maggie's

Team Chesty-182

Team Chesty-182

Team Chesty-182

My Story

Hi folks, 

This page encompasses all fundraising efforts by Rhys King, Tim Doyle, Rhys Miles, Darren King, Rise Above Cancer and others (under "Team Chesty-182") between now and the London Marathon 2026, in aid of Maggie's Swansea and for our mate, Chesty — details below.  

FUTURE EVENTS:

  • Apr '26 - Rhys & Tim: London Marathon

PAST EVENTS CALENDAR:

  • Oct '25 - Tim: Chicago Marathon
  • Nov '25 - Rhys & Tim: Chesty 182 (182 miles. Cycling + 1 air bike marathon + 1 full marathon)
  • Fri Jan 9th '26 - RISE ABOVE CANCER PRESENTS: Chesty-182 Live @ Sin City, Swansea

---------------------

OUR MATE CHESTY & THE LONDON MARATHON:

Back in August 2024, one of our good pals, Mark Chesterfield (aka “Chesty”, the handsome lad pictured above), was unexpectedly diagnosed with stage IV, inoperable, incurable oesophageal cancer. 

The news was so out of the blue, that it came as a complete shock to us and the rest of his close-knit group of pals. 

Despite having such heavy news, Chest kept his chin up. He made it his aim to extend compassion, kindness and love to himself, at a time when he needed it most.

All us boys did the same – as well as continuing with the unrelenting daily WhatsApp group barrage of memes, GIFs and vintage wrestling clips. 

To date, Chesty’s proceeded with an incredible amount of resilience, courage and grit. His attitude towards the whole situation has truly astounded us. 

It’s also inspired us; to want to try and do something not only to help him directly, but those closest to him, other cancer sufferers, as well as their loved ones.  

When a good pal is suffering, you immediately want to be there for them. To tell them everything’s going to be sound, hug it out and try to make them laugh.

Then you get overcome with wanting to actively do something to help. 

Knowing Chest and those closest to him have benefited greatly from Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Swansea, we wanted to see if I could get involved in doing some fundraising for them. 

More on Maggie’s in future posts, but it’s a true gem of a place that offers one-to-one and group support to sufferers and those closest to them. Seeing they had places for the TCS London Marathon in 2026, we quickly applied, noting all the reasons why we wanted to run for them and for Chest – to which there are numerous! 

Within weeks, we'd been contacted by Maggie’s Swansea to say we'd be having the honour and privilege to run for them in London next year.

---------------------

CHESTY 182 - RHYS:

After setting up the fundraising page, an idea began to percolate for me. I wanted to do something in addition to London, that was not only more personal, but also closer to home. Something that could involve more people. 

So I got thinking…

When I think of Chesty, one of the main things that comes to mind almost instantaneously is the band, Blink 182. 

Many of you will know that Mark Hoppus of the band actually went through his own battle with stage IV cancer, and I know this has been a source of comfort, strength and inspiration for my Mark. 

As soon as I hear Tom Delonge’s signature vocals, any of Travis Barker’s marching band snare rolls or Mark Hoppus’ bouncy bass lines, I think of Chesty. 

To me, Blink is interwoven with the very fabric of who Chesty is. They are inseparable. He loves all their records – side projects too. Always has. Always will. He knows all the words. Can play all the riffs. Able to mouth all the ad-libs for the live versions. He’s even tatted up one of his arms from shoulder to wrist with Blink album art. 

Chesty is the definition of a megafan and I love that about him. It’s pure, unbridled passion and enthusiasm. 

One day while going for a walk, a thought came to me whilst thinking of Chest and listening to Blink…

“What if I ran 182 miles? How many marathons is that?”

I whipped out my phone and asked ChatGPT. 

The answer is 7, almost exactly.

(182 divided by 7 is 26. A marathon is 26.2 miles). 

My intuitive sense was that I had to do it and the idea for a challenge was born: 7 marathons, in 7 consecutive days totalling just over 182 miles. 

There was no other fitting name, other than: Chesty 182. 

Unfortunately, an injury meant I had to adapt my approach to the 182, but in November, Tim and I cycled, air-biked and ran our way to 182 miles each in total. We were also joined along the way by many others and it was truly an event we'll never forget! Thank you so much for your support.

As of December, I now have the ability to properly rehab my foot ahead of the London Marathon in April 2026! Betwee now and then we have a couple more things up our sleeves in terms of fundraisers, so stay tuned!

---------------------

WANT TO JOIN TEAM CHESTY-182?

Given that supporting someone through cancer is a team effort, we encourage you to join Team Chesty-182!

Have an idea you think could work in helping us to get our target?

Please get in touch!

 

---------------------

Why Maggie's? 

Maggies is a fantastic charity close to our hearts, set up to support people and families suffering with the effects of cancer, as well as championing quality architecture for their centres.

Maggies Centres offer practical and emotional support to people with any type of cancer, at any stage, for free. They receive no government funds and rely on the generosity of their supporters. They focus on the things that really make a difference, such as financial worries, housing, help with managing stress and anxiety as well as side efforts of treatment and they offer family support. They offer this through 1-1 support or group sessions.

There are 24 centres in the UK welcoming 100+ visitors into each centre every day.

---------------------

Mark's Story - In His Own Words:
Hi, my name is Mark and thank you for reading my story.

In 2024, after some months of gradually feeling unwell and in particular struggling to eat I went to the doctors in the August, who then referred me to have an Endoscopy. This was done on the 19th of August and that’s when I learned the reason for not being able to eat. The Endoscopist stated that he could see a tumour in my lower oesophagus that looked malignant and had taken biopsies to send off. He prescribed me meal replacement drinks and sent me home and said the next contact would be from the oncologist with the results.

The following 2 weeks were horrific, my body wasn’t having what it needed and my levels depleted rapidly and I ended up in hospital very late one night after a call to 111. I was on a drip for 15 hours to get everything back up acceptable levels. I was waiting for my results at this point too just to add to the stress of it all. 

At the beginning of September I had my first meeting with my Oncologist. This is where I learned that I had stage 4 inoperable and incurable Oesophageal Cancer (which was also present in the stomach), and it had spread to my liver also. As you can imagine that was a bleak meeting but I refused to crumble and almost immediately focused on how we were going to move forward and what the process would be. The goal ultimately was to get everything to a ‘manageable’ state. I felt I was put into life expectancy territory…but I just had to see how I’d react to treatment. An unpleasant thought as a dad. 

I’d have 12 rounds of chemotherapy (around 50+ hours each time) over the course of 6 months and this was going to begin on the 11th of September. I spent my first cycle in hospital for a couple nights before having a PICC line inserted into my arm on the 23rd (a tube through a vein from the bicep, up the arm and over to my chest and into my heart) which meant I’d have my treatment split between hospital and home which was much better. I’d go in on a Wednesday for a few hours and then I’d have a pump attached to my PICC line for 48 hours and then head back into hospital for them to remove it; and then my recovery days could begin. 

I’d lost a lot of weight due to not eating and having treatment which also affected my appetite. I noticed a difference in October after a few cycles had gone by and started to eat little things here and there. Things improved even further and I managed my Christmas dinner (well…2 dinners!) which i was told would be unlikely, so that was a good feeling.

Each oncologist appointment I had was encouraging. During every meeting I was told that the cancer indicator level in my blood was going down each time and that combined with the fact I could eat more was indication things were working. I had minimal side effects thankfully as some of the possibilities of what I could experience didn’t sound pleasant at all. But the worst one for me was neuropathy which affects the nerves in the hands and feet. Its impacted most of the things I like to do; for example I haven’t been able to play guitar for months. Doing simple, every day things is proving difficult especially when it’s cold.

It’s been a tough 6 months but the support from everyone has been overwhelmingly incredible. The support along with my mindset has definitely helped me.

As of February 2025 I had completed 11 cycles of treatment but my neuropathy side effect was causing me some real discomfort toward the end so the oncologist agreed we’d have a break for 9 weeks as all my scans and bloods have shown such an improvement.

Unfortunately after 5 weeks of the break I could feel a discomfort in eating again, and in what felt like a matter of days I was back on my meal replacement drinks and feeling really frustrated at how quick things had come ‘undone’.

I had a scan and a meeting to discuss things and the oncologist had a 2nd treatment lined up, which was comparable to the first but came with its own side effects.

After the first treatment I ended up back in hospital, freezing cold but with a spike in temperature. I had some antibiotics and an IV to boost some levels in my blood. I left hospital and had some vitamins and other things to help pick me back up ready for my 2nd cycle of this new treatment.

At cycle 2 my blood was showing that I was basically anaemic. The nurse said I could probably do with a blood transfusion but the Dr onsite that day said to continue with treatment and they’d monitor my blood. Cycle 3 came and that was much of the same, but I had to have an iron infusion days after as that level was very low still. I had another CT scan after that, and then I was called into singleton the following day for a blood transfusion it was much needed.

At this point though my hair was falling off my head at an alarming rate so I had no choice but to shave anything remaining off. This was very upsetting, so I can’t imagine what it is like for the women that go through this. It’s a really unpleasant experience and it knocked me back, as everything that could go wrong, was seemingly going wrong with this new treatment.

Cycle 4 came and went without issue (side effect-wise) and the blood transfusion made me realise how low I was actually feeling for a while before. I think I’ve just been so used to feeling tired and drained that I didn’t really notice.

Following cycle 4 came the meeting to discuss the scan. Unfortunately this, to my surprise, was a bleak and surprising meeting. The treatment wasn’t working for me, as the lesions on my liver had grown back (only small but the fact they were back is not what we want to see) and the difference in the oesophagus was minimal at best. I was eating a little more (mash etc) during the initial days of the treatment but after a week I’d notice I’d slow right down and struggle again. The discussion I had was I either try chemotherapy tablets, or opt for a trial. This was a point where I really felt like we were running out of options. And I really felt that. Trials would mean Oxford or London but in my circumstances this feels completely out of reach. Not being able to eat makes things like travelling that much harder and therefore a logistical (and not to mention a financial) nightmare.

I opted for the tablets but was under no illusions these were going to work as well as the IV treatment I had first. The hope was that it managed things as they were at the time, but unfortunately it turns out after 3 months of these there was no sign of improvement and things had worsened yet again. It’s been a lot to take mentally. I’m aware my chemotherapy is purely palliative, but the unknown is always so hard to deal with when there’s constant change when treatment is not doing what you’d hope. 

A 4th treatment cocktail was offered, and having done a few rounds of this, a scan has revealed this also didn’t work. The tumours have grown quite a bit, and this is evident in the liver. Compared to a few months back it’s not great.

I then had the option of a 5th treatment type, or to draw a line under everything and stop all together. After some thought I decided to stop. I’m now referred to Ty Olwen’s community hospice team who will be my team moving forward. Everything is in the lap of the gods now and I’m on an ‘end of life’ path. I have some pain medication to take away the discomfort and the team have been great so far. I’ve had to sort out some very serious things and put my wishes down in a will which has been heavy. Thanks for all the support this last year and a half; it’s been immensely appreciated ❤️

Through all this I’ve (as well as family) utilised Maggies Centre in Swansea who offer a safe space and plenty of advice during one’s journey. Everyone there has been a pleasure to talk to, and the work they do and the support they offer not just the patient, but their families too, is absolutely incredible and have been instrumental in a lot of people’s journey no doubt. A wonderful place!

Maggie's

Raising for:

Maggie's
116%

Funded

  • Target
    £10K
  • Raised so far
    £11.6K
  • Number of donors
    301

My Story

Hi folks, 

This page encompasses all fundraising efforts by Rhys King, Tim Doyle, Rhys Miles, Darren King, Rise Above Cancer and others (under "Team Chesty-182") between now and the London Marathon 2026, in aid of Maggie's Swansea and for our mate, Chesty — details below.  

FUTURE EVENTS:

  • Apr '26 - Rhys & Tim: London Marathon

PAST EVENTS CALENDAR:

  • Oct '25 - Tim: Chicago Marathon
  • Nov '25 - Rhys & Tim: Chesty 182 (182 miles. Cycling + 1 air bike marathon + 1 full marathon)
  • Fri Jan 9th '26 - RISE ABOVE CANCER PRESENTS: Chesty-182 Live @ Sin City, Swansea

---------------------

OUR MATE CHESTY & THE LONDON MARATHON:

Back in August 2024, one of our good pals, Mark Chesterfield (aka “Chesty”, the handsome lad pictured above), was unexpectedly diagnosed with stage IV, inoperable, incurable oesophageal cancer. 

The news was so out of the blue, that it came as a complete shock to us and the rest of his close-knit group of pals. 

Despite having such heavy news, Chest kept his chin up. He made it his aim to extend compassion, kindness and love to himself, at a time when he needed it most.

All us boys did the same – as well as continuing with the unrelenting daily WhatsApp group barrage of memes, GIFs and vintage wrestling clips. 

To date, Chesty’s proceeded with an incredible amount of resilience, courage and grit. His attitude towards the whole situation has truly astounded us. 

It’s also inspired us; to want to try and do something not only to help him directly, but those closest to him, other cancer sufferers, as well as their loved ones.  

When a good pal is suffering, you immediately want to be there for them. To tell them everything’s going to be sound, hug it out and try to make them laugh.

Then you get overcome with wanting to actively do something to help. 

Knowing Chest and those closest to him have benefited greatly from Maggie’s Cancer Centre in Swansea, we wanted to see if I could get involved in doing some fundraising for them. 

More on Maggie’s in future posts, but it’s a true gem of a place that offers one-to-one and group support to sufferers and those closest to them. Seeing they had places for the TCS London Marathon in 2026, we quickly applied, noting all the reasons why we wanted to run for them and for Chest – to which there are numerous! 

Within weeks, we'd been contacted by Maggie’s Swansea to say we'd be having the honour and privilege to run for them in London next year.

---------------------

CHESTY 182 - RHYS:

After setting up the fundraising page, an idea began to percolate for me. I wanted to do something in addition to London, that was not only more personal, but also closer to home. Something that could involve more people. 

So I got thinking…

When I think of Chesty, one of the main things that comes to mind almost instantaneously is the band, Blink 182. 

Many of you will know that Mark Hoppus of the band actually went through his own battle with stage IV cancer, and I know this has been a source of comfort, strength and inspiration for my Mark. 

As soon as I hear Tom Delonge’s signature vocals, any of Travis Barker’s marching band snare rolls or Mark Hoppus’ bouncy bass lines, I think of Chesty. 

To me, Blink is interwoven with the very fabric of who Chesty is. They are inseparable. He loves all their records – side projects too. Always has. Always will. He knows all the words. Can play all the riffs. Able to mouth all the ad-libs for the live versions. He’s even tatted up one of his arms from shoulder to wrist with Blink album art. 

Chesty is the definition of a megafan and I love that about him. It’s pure, unbridled passion and enthusiasm. 

One day while going for a walk, a thought came to me whilst thinking of Chest and listening to Blink…

“What if I ran 182 miles? How many marathons is that?”

I whipped out my phone and asked ChatGPT. 

The answer is 7, almost exactly.

(182 divided by 7 is 26. A marathon is 26.2 miles). 

My intuitive sense was that I had to do it and the idea for a challenge was born: 7 marathons, in 7 consecutive days totalling just over 182 miles. 

There was no other fitting name, other than: Chesty 182. 

Unfortunately, an injury meant I had to adapt my approach to the 182, but in November, Tim and I cycled, air-biked and ran our way to 182 miles each in total. We were also joined along the way by many others and it was truly an event we'll never forget! Thank you so much for your support.

As of December, I now have the ability to properly rehab my foot ahead of the London Marathon in April 2026! Betwee now and then we have a couple more things up our sleeves in terms of fundraisers, so stay tuned!

---------------------

WANT TO JOIN TEAM CHESTY-182?

Given that supporting someone through cancer is a team effort, we encourage you to join Team Chesty-182!

Have an idea you think could work in helping us to get our target?

Please get in touch!

 

---------------------

Why Maggie's? 

Maggies is a fantastic charity close to our hearts, set up to support people and families suffering with the effects of cancer, as well as championing quality architecture for their centres.

Maggies Centres offer practical and emotional support to people with any type of cancer, at any stage, for free. They receive no government funds and rely on the generosity of their supporters. They focus on the things that really make a difference, such as financial worries, housing, help with managing stress and anxiety as well as side efforts of treatment and they offer family support. They offer this through 1-1 support or group sessions.

There are 24 centres in the UK welcoming 100+ visitors into each centre every day.

---------------------

Mark's Story - In His Own Words:
Hi, my name is Mark and thank you for reading my story.

In 2024, after some months of gradually feeling unwell and in particular struggling to eat I went to the doctors in the August, who then referred me to have an Endoscopy. This was done on the 19th of August and that’s when I learned the reason for not being able to eat. The Endoscopist stated that he could see a tumour in my lower oesophagus that looked malignant and had taken biopsies to send off. He prescribed me meal replacement drinks and sent me home and said the next contact would be from the oncologist with the results.

The following 2 weeks were horrific, my body wasn’t having what it needed and my levels depleted rapidly and I ended up in hospital very late one night after a call to 111. I was on a drip for 15 hours to get everything back up acceptable levels. I was waiting for my results at this point too just to add to the stress of it all. 

At the beginning of September I had my first meeting with my Oncologist. This is where I learned that I had stage 4 inoperable and incurable Oesophageal Cancer (which was also present in the stomach), and it had spread to my liver also. As you can imagine that was a bleak meeting but I refused to crumble and almost immediately focused on how we were going to move forward and what the process would be. The goal ultimately was to get everything to a ‘manageable’ state. I felt I was put into life expectancy territory…but I just had to see how I’d react to treatment. An unpleasant thought as a dad. 

I’d have 12 rounds of chemotherapy (around 50+ hours each time) over the course of 6 months and this was going to begin on the 11th of September. I spent my first cycle in hospital for a couple nights before having a PICC line inserted into my arm on the 23rd (a tube through a vein from the bicep, up the arm and over to my chest and into my heart) which meant I’d have my treatment split between hospital and home which was much better. I’d go in on a Wednesday for a few hours and then I’d have a pump attached to my PICC line for 48 hours and then head back into hospital for them to remove it; and then my recovery days could begin. 

I’d lost a lot of weight due to not eating and having treatment which also affected my appetite. I noticed a difference in October after a few cycles had gone by and started to eat little things here and there. Things improved even further and I managed my Christmas dinner (well…2 dinners!) which i was told would be unlikely, so that was a good feeling.

Each oncologist appointment I had was encouraging. During every meeting I was told that the cancer indicator level in my blood was going down each time and that combined with the fact I could eat more was indication things were working. I had minimal side effects thankfully as some of the possibilities of what I could experience didn’t sound pleasant at all. But the worst one for me was neuropathy which affects the nerves in the hands and feet. Its impacted most of the things I like to do; for example I haven’t been able to play guitar for months. Doing simple, every day things is proving difficult especially when it’s cold.

It’s been a tough 6 months but the support from everyone has been overwhelmingly incredible. The support along with my mindset has definitely helped me.

As of February 2025 I had completed 11 cycles of treatment but my neuropathy side effect was causing me some real discomfort toward the end so the oncologist agreed we’d have a break for 9 weeks as all my scans and bloods have shown such an improvement.

Unfortunately after 5 weeks of the break I could feel a discomfort in eating again, and in what felt like a matter of days I was back on my meal replacement drinks and feeling really frustrated at how quick things had come ‘undone’.

I had a scan and a meeting to discuss things and the oncologist had a 2nd treatment lined up, which was comparable to the first but came with its own side effects.

After the first treatment I ended up back in hospital, freezing cold but with a spike in temperature. I had some antibiotics and an IV to boost some levels in my blood. I left hospital and had some vitamins and other things to help pick me back up ready for my 2nd cycle of this new treatment.

At cycle 2 my blood was showing that I was basically anaemic. The nurse said I could probably do with a blood transfusion but the Dr onsite that day said to continue with treatment and they’d monitor my blood. Cycle 3 came and that was much of the same, but I had to have an iron infusion days after as that level was very low still. I had another CT scan after that, and then I was called into singleton the following day for a blood transfusion it was much needed.

At this point though my hair was falling off my head at an alarming rate so I had no choice but to shave anything remaining off. This was very upsetting, so I can’t imagine what it is like for the women that go through this. It’s a really unpleasant experience and it knocked me back, as everything that could go wrong, was seemingly going wrong with this new treatment.

Cycle 4 came and went without issue (side effect-wise) and the blood transfusion made me realise how low I was actually feeling for a while before. I think I’ve just been so used to feeling tired and drained that I didn’t really notice.

Following cycle 4 came the meeting to discuss the scan. Unfortunately this, to my surprise, was a bleak and surprising meeting. The treatment wasn’t working for me, as the lesions on my liver had grown back (only small but the fact they were back is not what we want to see) and the difference in the oesophagus was minimal at best. I was eating a little more (mash etc) during the initial days of the treatment but after a week I’d notice I’d slow right down and struggle again. The discussion I had was I either try chemotherapy tablets, or opt for a trial. This was a point where I really felt like we were running out of options. And I really felt that. Trials would mean Oxford or London but in my circumstances this feels completely out of reach. Not being able to eat makes things like travelling that much harder and therefore a logistical (and not to mention a financial) nightmare.

I opted for the tablets but was under no illusions these were going to work as well as the IV treatment I had first. The hope was that it managed things as they were at the time, but unfortunately it turns out after 3 months of these there was no sign of improvement and things had worsened yet again. It’s been a lot to take mentally. I’m aware my chemotherapy is purely palliative, but the unknown is always so hard to deal with when there’s constant change when treatment is not doing what you’d hope. 

A 4th treatment cocktail was offered, and having done a few rounds of this, a scan has revealed this also didn’t work. The tumours have grown quite a bit, and this is evident in the liver. Compared to a few months back it’s not great.

I then had the option of a 5th treatment type, or to draw a line under everything and stop all together. After some thought I decided to stop. I’m now referred to Ty Olwen’s community hospice team who will be my team moving forward. Everything is in the lap of the gods now and I’m on an ‘end of life’ path. I have some pain medication to take away the discomfort and the team have been great so far. I’ve had to sort out some very serious things and put my wishes down in a will which has been heavy. Thanks for all the support this last year and a half; it’s been immensely appreciated ❤️

Through all this I’ve (as well as family) utilised Maggies Centre in Swansea who offer a safe space and plenty of advice during one’s journey. Everyone there has been a pleasure to talk to, and the work they do and the support they offer not just the patient, but their families too, is absolutely incredible and have been instrumental in a lot of people’s journey no doubt. A wonderful place!

Team Chesty-182 is fundraising towards