'This campaign is about creating memories and helping people raise awareness': Bridgnorth man ready to keep on fighting cancer through innovative fundraising campaign

The KO Cancer Challenge is the creation of Dan McMurray and his partner Vicky Bell and asks people to throw their best punch against cancer, make a £5 donation and then nominate three friends to do the same.

Inspired by the Ice Bucket Challenge, the campaign is raising money for Cancer Research and has become a primary focus for Dan as he goes through his own battles with cancer at his home in Bridgnorth.

The 45-year-old began to experience problems with one of his wisdom teeth in 2022 and went through the different levels of treatment to get it resolved.

He said: "I sat down with the dentist and he told me that it was the wisdom teeth pressing through, happening during the end of Covid, and because of where it was, I had to see a specialist and that took the best part of a year because of Covid.

"Eventually, in September 2023, I saw the specialist and was told that I would have to do through the NHS and go under while they removed the tooth, but there was also a lesion on my tongue at the time, which they said was there because of the wisdom tooth pushing through and catching.

"I was told that if I was still in pain 10 days after the surgery, which I had in December, to book another appointment, which I did and they told me not to worry, but I showed them my tongue because due to the anti-septic mouthwash I was taking, it had turned brown.

"They examined me and said that they wanted to look at the lesion, because it looked very suspicious and they were concerned about it, so I went for a biopsy and an MRI and around the middle of February, I was diagnosed with stage 2 squamous cell carcinoma of the tongue and lymph nodes."

Since his diagnosis, Mr McMurray said he had undergone major surgery to remove the tumour and affected lymph nodes, and has since faced radiotherapy and radiochemotherapy and a number of large operations, spending ample amounts of time at Shrewsbury and Telford Hospital and the Lingden Davies Centre in Shrewsbury.

The cancer has since returned and spread to his neck and, from July, he has been undergoing immunotherapy and palliative treatment.

Despite all of this, Mr McMurray said he had never stopped fighting and refused to feel sorry for himself and decided that, alongside his partner Vicky, he wanted to make some good out of a bad situation, do something meaningful and raise awareness.

A previously successful viral campaign had been the Ice Bucket Challenge, which involved the pouring of a bucket of ice water over a person's head, either by another person or self-administered, to promote awareness of the disease amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS, also known as motor neuron disease or Lou Gehrig's disease) and encourage donations to research. 

Mr McMurray said that the KO Cancer Challenge had arisen from his own sporting background and from the support of Vicky and said it helped to really convey the message of how serious cancer can be.

He said: "I've been involved in sports all my life, from martials arts to boxing and kickboxing and it really was a push from my partner to get it started as I'd been a little reluctant to set the wheels in motion, but since we started, it's had a really positive impact.

"I see a lot of the messages and I see how people have been inspired about and how a friend of a friend of somebody has taken up the challenge and given to it and sometimes my name gets mentioned, which is fantastic.

"However it comes about, the money that can be generated for this is positive and if it gets people moving and makes people aware and raises money towards research and technology, then that is fantastic.

"My story is just one of many in a much sadder story, a story in which everyone can be affected by it, so imagine if it's one in two of us who get cancer, that means half the people wouldn't be here, so imagine a parent or a son and 50 per cent of your family disappearing tomorrow and what you would do to bring them back."

Dan McMurray said that he hoped people would have fun with the challenge and said that the money raised came from the spirit of those taking it on.

He said: "It is imperative that this challenge helps to generate money for research and it's an easy thing to do by taking part.

"It's all about people having fun however they do it, whether they are hitting something, hitting thin air, pretending to hit a chair over someone's head or doing a wrestling move.

"To me, it's about people having fun, making memories and raising awareness and I don't care what people do, but I would say that if cancer walked into your life, you would do whatever you to fight it.

"I remember Gerard Butler in 300 shouting 'This is Sparta' and to me, this is our Sparta."