Baxter's Battle

Many people know Mark Baxter ( or just 'Baxter' to his friends). He has been a vociferous champion of the less well off for most of his life. Most recently he has devoted time to supporting cancer fundraisers, particularly men's prostate cancer. Last year for example he took part in the TranzAlpine Scooter Safari, riding a ridiculously small scooter across the Southern Alps.

He had looked forward to joining this year's Scooter Safari, and spent months fundraising, but had to be persuaded to postpone doing this due to skin tumours he had started developing in a few part of his body - including the bum he would have been sitting on for ten hours. Being Baxter, he has called this a 'postponement' and still fully intends to undertake the ride, by himself if need be.

Over the past months the tumours kept growing and spreading, causing a huge amount of pain. His GP found getting a diagnosis very challenging due to the lack of specialist services here in the South, most particularly a dermatologist. In fact it was only when the lesions were 'bad' enough that a dermatologist on a chat group made the first move that resulted in skin samples being taken and tested for specific possibilities.

From this - to Baxter's immense shock - it was revealed he had a rare T-cell lymphoma blood cancer (multisite (T3) PCALCL Lymphoma).

At the time of writing, he is in the cancer ward managing infection and pain, as is in need of some support.