News

Posted: 5 March, 2021

This March Jo is walking 10,000 steps per day throughout the month to help beat cancer - and the rest of the staff team are joining her!

The last 12 months have been difficult for everyone but for Jo Pinder, Scottish Rowing’s Membership Services Administrator, the challenges have been very different.  It started with the discovery of a dangerously enlarged spleen during a holiday of a lifetime trip to New Zealand in January 2020 - just as the world was hearing of a new virus coming out of China. This abruptly ended the tour and further investigations back in the UK led to a diagnosis of Splenic Marginal Zone Lymphoma, a rare form of blood cancer.

Jo said “I was lucky to have a form of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma with a clear treatment plan and despite the pandemic all the tests happened quickly. The Haematology team at the Royal Alexandra Hospital in Paisley was amazing and had me started on my first Chemotherapy treatment within a month of my first appointment.”

“That a treatment plan was readily available is due to the amazing research funded by charities like Cancer Research UK. The COVID-19 pandemic has hit these charities hard financially and I want to do something to help keep this vital research on track so people diagnosed with all forms of cancer can get the same support I had.”

Despite 5 months of chemotherapy Jo had to have her spleen removed before she was finally declared to be in remission.

“After the operation it was a long six weeks before I could do any exercise, so I have been doing my best to slowly get some fitness back. When I saw Cancer Research UK were doing their10,000 steps every day in March campaign it seemed the perfect opportunity to combine my fitness goals with raising some money.” 

Due to COVID-19, the team here at Scottish Rowing has not seen Jo in person since last February when she shared the news of her diagnosis.  We  wanted to do something to show how incredibly proud we are of her - and since we can’t be there to support her in person, we have pledged to walk with her virtually instead and will be aiming to match her 10,000 steps a day.

As well as her day job with Scottish Rowing, Jo will be familiar to many in her volunteer roles at Castle Semple Rowing Club and as a regular in the finish tower at Scottish Rowing events.

If you would like to support Jo in raising money for Cancer Research then the link to her fundraising page is here https://fundraise.cancerresearchuk.org/page/jos-walk-all-over-cancer-fundraising-page-996.  You could also join Jo and the Scottish Rowing team and walk 10,000 steps a day too.  Share pictures of your walk on Twitter or Facebook and tag @ScottishRowing.  Every bit of encouragement will help Jo reach her fundraising target and keep the whole team motivated to get out there every day in sun, rain, wind and possibly snow, and get those steps in.