This Sunday, Bradley Addinall and 13 of his mates are taking on a second Tough Mudder challenge in memory of their friend Tom. Tom was diagnosed with leukaemia in 2011 and went on to have two transplants through Anthony Nolan, but sadly he passed away on 13 December 2013, aged just 21.
Brad and his friends set up Team TNF (Thomas Nathan Flack) to honour the life of their best mate and have already raised over £6,000. In this blog, Brad shares his memories of Tom, and explains why team TNF are taking on this challenge for Anthony Nolan.
Me and Tom have been friends since we were three or four years old. We met during playtime at nursery, playing on some monkey bars. Then we grew up together right through school, and we were always just as close after we left.
He was always really dopey and lazy – but also honest and up-front about things, and he had a great sense of humour. In short, he was a normal young lad and loved socialising with different people. I think the fact we never took anything too seriously made our friendship so strong.
I don't ever remember my life without him in it. We both felt part of each other’s family, and we were always there for each other.
When I heard that he had leukaemia, I was in complete shock. I didn't really understand how it could have happened – and it was the same with the rest of our mates. You never believe it’ll happen at such a young age with someone so close to you!
We all went to see him in the hospital and met up to try and get our heads round it. And honestly, I cannot believe how well he dealt with the whole situation. Every single setback that he had, he took on the chin and just got on with it.
He was always open to talk about his leukaemia with anyone and would even joke about it. The fact that so many came to his funeral – we are talking a few hundreds (in Christmas jumpers may I add, to make it a celebration of his life!) – shows the impact he had on people’s lives.
Tom's friends gather to spread his ashes in Newquay
His memory and the love we had for him drives us on. No one deserves anything like what he, his family, and his friends had to go through – so we want to try and help the next people who might be going through this.
Me, Tom, Cole Harrison and Ryan Holmes all wanted to run Tough Mudder together last year when Tom was in remission, to get him active again and raise money. Tom relapsed before the event, so he couldn't do it, but he came and watched and loved it. And now we’re running it again!
Tom (in black hoodie) supporting the lads at last year's Tough Mudder
The training’s going really well for me and most of the lads, but we have a few in our group who are going to be put through it! (Surely that makes it all the more worthwhile to sponsor us, though)
Everyone has tried their best to get fit and complete the course as well as possible. As a team, we’re really looking forward to the day. We can’t wait to get into the spirit of it all again and push ourselves to earn our sponsorship.
We all know that the pain you put yourself through when you run a Tough Mudder is well worth it for the donations from people. And it just shows people putting up a fight – like Tom did so well!
There isn't a day that goes by when me and my mates don't think of him, so he’ll definitely be on our minds on the way around the course, helping us get to the end. He’s the reason we are running it, but we also want to do it to help other people, so it doesn't end for them like it did for us.
To the people who’ve already supported us, I just want to say a massive, massive thank-you. Everyone has been awesome with their donations so far, but we don't want it to stop now. We need everyone to keep going and help this amazing charity.
Tom’s donor gave him two extra years of life, which is priceless for us as his friends. We want to fund more donors, and help Anthony Nolan support more friends and families like ours.
To donate to Team TNF, go to www.justgiving.com/TeamTNF or text ‘TTNF99’ followed by the amount to 70070 e.g. TTNF99 £10 to 70070
Inspired to take on your own Tough Mudder or similar challenge? Visit our events page here to see how we can help.