In the London Marathon next month there will be hundreds running to raise money for cancer-related charities. Paul Moultrie of Troon will be one of them, except that he is quite different from most participants because he is running WITH cancer.
Just six days before the Marathon, 59-year-old Moultrie, founder of the Mind Body Golf fitness consultancy, will complete a program of radiotherapy to treat his prostate cancer, a course that he began at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow. He is already undergoing hormone therapy to treat his cancer, and will probably have to do so for the next two years or so – “it’s not a walk in the park,” Moultrie said. “I’ve put on tummy fat and get hot flushes which are things I’d never dreamed I would get.”
To cap it all, while on holiday with his wife Gillian in Tenerife last month, Scottish seniors golf internationalist Moultrie tripped and fell heavily, sustaining a painful injury to his hand and wrist that saw the medics on the island fit him with a brace. It was only when he got home and was advised to go to A & E at University Hospital Crosshouse that x-rays showed he had fractured the important scaphoid bone that needs time to heal and no sharp jolts.
“That was me unable to run for four weeks at least,” explained Moultrie, “but I have taken to walking on the beaches around here to keep jarring to a minimum and have been averaging 10 to 12 miles per outing. I must have walked hundreds of miles already and the other day I walked 14 miles.
“I had never fallen in my life and it was just my bad luck that it happened in the middle of training for the marathon.”
Many other individuals would have called it day and quit training, but in a remarkable show of determination, Moultrie has declared that, even if he has to walk part of the course, he will complete the London Marathon for the fourth time.
His family has had a brush with cancer before, his mother Elizabeth dying of it, and now Gillian and their two grown-up children have rallied round to support Moultrie in his huge task of beating his own cancer and running the London Marathon to raise money for Prostate Cancer UK.
An avowedly private individual, he has also decided to speak about his illness in order to raise awareness of prostate cancer which will affect one in eight men, with Scots more likely than others in the rest of the UK to die from the disease because it was not detected early enough.
It was the realization that six of his friends from the golfing world had been diagnosed with prostate cancer that made the super-fit Moultrie ask his doctor for a PSA (prostate-specific antigen) test which showed he had six or seven times the levels deemed normal. Further tests confirmed he had prostate cancer.
“It was last June and I had none of the usual symptoms so I was asked why I wanted the PSA test,” Moultrie recalled. “I’m glad I insisted as the earlier the cancer is detected the better your chance of surviving it.
“I must commend all the NHS staff that have been dealing me with treatment. They have been absolutely brilliant.
“The same goes for my trainer Gil Stevenson, who has been a tower of strength.”
A well-known member of the Scottish Seniors Golfing Society, Moultrie has the backing of his fellow golfers and with their help has already exceeded his personal £5,000 target for fundraising for Prostate Cancer UK by running the London Marathon – he completed the marathon three times some years ago, and knows it will be more difficult at the age of 59, but his mental approach could not be better and golf has played a huge part in that as has Pilates.
Moultrie says he wasn’t a very good golfer but his record belies that. As a junior, men’s and now senior player, the Royal Troon member has competed successfully at club, county, national and international level and last year represented Scotland in the R & A Home Internationals at West Kilbride Golf Club.
Still working as a chartered quantity surveyor, Moultrie was joined by his wife Gillian in taking up Pilates. An optometrist by profession, Gillian decided to become a full-time Pilates instructor and her husband also gained qualifications, both trained by the world-renowned Body Control Pilates organization.
Mixing Pilates with the Mind Factor systems devised by the famed performance coach Karl Morris, Moultrie created his own ‘Inner Caddie’ program with which he aims to help golfers help themselves to a better game, especially extending the playing days of seniors.
“It’s our age group in Scotland that must become more aware of prostate cancer,” said Moultrie. “It’s a message I want to spread and I hope to do that by running the London Marathon.”