A retiring pub landlord says the support from his punters during his battle with a rare cancer has been \u201cunbelievable\u201d.<\/p>\n
Kevin Richards, who has run The Maypole Inn in Borden with his wife, Lesley, for almost 19 years, first received the \u201cshocking\u201d news last year.<\/p>\n
Owners of The Maypole Inn, in Borden, Lesley and Kevin Richards. Picture: Joe Crossley<\/p>\n
The 67-year-old had been experiencing pains in his right side for six years but doctors did not find anything on two visits.<\/p>\n
He went on a family holiday to Las Vegas to celebrate his son’s 40th birthday last summer, and on his return found he had been sent an NHS home testing kit to screen for bowel cancer.<\/p>\n
Shortly after, the grandfather-of-five was told he needed to go to Medway Maritime Hospital.<\/p>\n
On September 13, he was diagnosed with bowel cancer and told he would need to have an MRI scan.<\/p>\n
The scan happened a week later and he was found to have a second rare cancer \u2013 called Pseudomyxoma peritonei (PMP), which affects just three in every one million people \u2013 in his appendix.<\/p>\n
The Maypole Inn in The Street, Borden, near Sittingbourne. Picture: Joe Crossley<\/p>\n
Mr Richards said: \u201cWe’d just come back from holiday and there was a test sitting there.<\/p>\n
\u201cI looked at it for a week before I decided to do it and send it off.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s when Medway called me in and said, \u2018You’ve got a problem here.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u201cThey said if they hadn\u2019t treated the appendix cancer, I wouldn\u2019t have been alive in six months.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo it is so important that you don\u2019t ignore the tests.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is hard to explain how I felt at the time, as you don\u2019t think it will happen to you.<\/p>\n
\u201cBut when they tell you you’ve got two types of cancer, it’s hard.<\/p>\n
\u201cYou just have to let the doctors get on with it and hope they know what they’re doing.\u201d<\/p>\n
In January, under the care of specialists at Basingstoke Hospital, he underwent a gruelling ten-hour surgery during which both tumours were removed. He then spent 21 days in hospital recovering.<\/p>\n
He also underwent a radiotherapy \u201cbath\u201d, during which doctors scrubbed him of cancer cells.<\/p>\n
On May 17, he had a second surgery, lasting more than two hours, to repair his bowel following the earlier operation.<\/p>\n
Landlord of The Maypole Inn in Borden, Kevin Richards, battled a one in three million cancer. Picture: Joe Crossley<\/p>\n
On the same day, patrons of the pub, known as \u2018The Maypole Family\u2019, were raising money for Macmillan Cancer Support in honour of Mr Richards.<\/p>\n
It was organised by his daughter Maddy and her partner, Keith Gorman.<\/p>\n
Almost 25 people took part in the walk from Mr Gorman\u2019s McCans Brewery in Bugglesden Road, Tenterden, back to the nearly 300-year-old Maypole pub \u2014 a journey of around 22 miles.<\/p>\n
The brewer, 54, rallied support at the pub by putting up a sign-up sheet on the notice board in February after learning about Mr Richards’ surgery.<\/p>\n
Keith Gorman organised the sponsored walk to raise money for the landlord of The Maypole Inn in Borden, Kevin Richards. Picture: Joe Crossley<\/p>\n
He said: \u201cWhen our friend fell ill, it was shocking news and we all wanted to take on a tough challenge for a cause that really mattered to us.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen I asked Kev which charity meant the most to him, he said Macmillan straight away.<\/p>\n
\u201cI think anyone who has been touched by cancer knows that Macmillan is just a fantastic charity.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe Maypole is the centre of the community here in Borden, so it didn\u2019t take much to get people involved in what is a great cause.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe fundraising has just been amazing \u2014 an outpouring of love for Kev.\u201d<\/p>\n
They had hoped to raise around \u00a33,000, but their efforts have brought in over \u00a37,200 \u2014 \u00a34,000 of which came through a JustGiving page.<\/p>\n
The Maypole Inn punters celebrate the end of their fundraising walk in honour of pub boss Kevin Richards, who has been battling cancer<\/p>\n
Mr Richards said the support has been \u201cunbelievable\u201d.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cI did not expect them to raise that much.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe know we’ve got a brilliant crowd that comes in here, but you don’t realise just how much they like you until you really need them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Mrs Richards, 64, added: \u201cWe\u2019ve had so much support from The Maypole Family and from our amazing staff.<\/p>\n
\u201cEveryone has really stepped up and helped us. The person who lives above the pub has helped clean the pipes and lock up the pub.<\/p>\n
The punters of The Maypole Inn prepare for their fundraising walk with breakfast at the Hop House, McCanns Brewery in Tenterden<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n
The couple, who have been married for almost 25 years, are now looking forward to a \u201csemi-retirement\u201d. They have sold the pub and plan to leave in around two months to work with Mr Gorman at the brewery.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s our time to go,\u201d Mr Richards said. \u201cIt\u2019s time for somebody else to run it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnybody who\u2019s got a pub is only passing through.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"A retiring pub landlord says the support from his punters during his battle with a rare cancer has…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":154284,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[609,495,36785,53,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-154283","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-technology","8":"tag-human-interest","9":"tag-kent","10":"tag-sittingbourne","11":"tag-technology","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114618386731332216","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154283","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=154283"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/154283\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/154284"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=154283"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=154283"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=154283"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}