29-05-2025
West Lothian swim coach who thought stage 4 cancer diagnosis meant curtains for him is feeling great
Richard Bennett receives immunotherapy and decided to take on a 38-mile cycle challenge
An inspirational swimming coach from West Lothian diagnosed with stage 4 cancer after turning yellow while holidaying in Portugal is taking on a cycling challenge.
Broxburn-man Richard Bennett is raising funds for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centres by taking part in the Sir Chris Hoy Tour de 4 fundraising cycling challenge — while living with stage 4 melanoma.
The 63-year-old dad had booked a sunshine holiday last year with his wife Lesley, but while they were away he started feeling unusually weak and noticed worrying changes when he went to the toilet.
On returning home his daughter noticed he was jaundiced. Richard, a head coach at Broxburn swimming club, went to St John's Hospital in Livingston that night where he was scanned.
The scan showed up a mass in his pancreas but a few weeks later a biopsy revealed he has melanoma (skin cancer).
Doctors later confirmed the melanoma had spread to his pancreas, marking it as stage 4. Richard has been undergoing immunotherapy which has prevented the cancer advancing.
Richard said: 'It was a year ago just now. Before I went away I'd noticed my urine was darker and the stuff at the other end was lighter. I'd been working hard and had been desperate to get away, just me and my wife.
'I hadn't told my wife beforehand and when I got over there I didn't have a lot of energy and no appetite and thought something wasn't quite right.'
Richard then decide to research his symptoms on the internet which suggested he should seek medical attention.
'My daughter Sophie picked me up from the airport and said I looked yellow, so that was jaundice. What had happened was my bile duct had blocked. I was scanned at the hospital that night and there was a mass on my pancreas that they suspected was cancer. It was such a shock. I ended up in the Royal (Edinburgh) for a biopsy and they put a stent in to my bile duct.
"They thought it was probably pancreatic cancer which would have probably meant curtains for me. When the biopsy came back a couple of weeks later they told me it was melanoma, skin cancer that hadn't actually formed on my skin. They checked my body and there were no signs. They told me that the mass on my pancreas was effectively skin cancer. I haven't came across anyone else that's happened to.
'When they told me it was stage 4, I thought it would be palliative care and I wouldn't last long. I read Chris Hoy's book and found out that all stage 4 means is that it's moved from the original site to somewhere else, it's not necessarily a death sentence.'
Richard is receiving four-weekly immunotherapy treatment which heightens his own immune system to fight the cancer. So far the only side effects he is feeling is numbness in his feet. The mass shrunk and stabilised and there is no growth anywhere else in Richard's body. Richard isn't one for sitting around and was advised by medics to do some light walking.
'I've always kept myself fit so that just wasn't cutting it for me. I joined Xcite gym in West Lothian and told them about my condition, they gave me a training programme which I started doing twice a week and then building it up.
'I'm honestly feeling brilliant, strong. I'm still coaching three or four nights a week.
'I've always had a mountain bike and I've taken this cycling challenge on, which leaves from the Chris Hoy Velodrome on September 7, and is a 38-mile circuit. My friend Iain Blackwood is training me.'
Richard has already raised almost £1000 for Maggie's.
