Shosholoza sailor fights leukaemia
17 July 2008
A member of Team Shosholoza's 2007 America's Cup campaign has launched an epic "cycle for leukaemia" to raise funds and awareness for a bone marrow donor organization, even though he is back in hospital fighting a desperate battle against the disease.
South African sailmaker Mike Coburn, 35, who was proud to join Team Shosholoza in Valencia, Spain, after recovering from a bone marrow transplant, is planning to raise funds for the Anthony Nolan Trust by cycling 1 000 miles from one end of Britain to the other - John O'Groats to Land's End - in November this year.
The Anthony Nolan Trust manages and recruits new donors to the United Kingdom's most successful bone marrow register. "The Trust's motto is 'Taking back Lives from Leukaemia,'" explained Coburn in an e-mail.
'A new lease on life'
"They found my donor and gave me a new lease on life so I want to give back to them. Our End to End Epic will be a tough ride but I think it will be one of the most rewarding things I'll ever do."
Gung-ho with enthusiasm a few weeks back, Coburn even challenged the 100-foot record-breaking super maxi yacht Leopard to a race around Britain's Isle of Wight to raise awareness for the cycle campaign. He was confident he could cycle around the island faster than Leopard could do it on the water.
However, a day before the annual 28 June Round the Island race, he was admitted to hospital as an extreme emergency case with a platelet count of zero and internal haemorraghing.
Serious
Since then Coburn has been on six drips a day for eight out of every 24 hours and he remains in a serious condition. Yet he has continued a relentless appeal for the sponsorship and promotion of the cycle challenge via email and skype.
"Please support us. Cycle 4 Leukaemia is very close to my heart and I know if anything happens to me, my team - Cath Vise and Haig Youens on bikes and Pat Jolly in our support car - will continue with it," he wrote in his latest email.
Coburn's world first came crashing down in March 2004 - the same week that founding managing director Captain Salvatore Sarno announced the launch of Team Shosholoza as South Africa's first ever America's Cup challenger.
Durban-born Coburn had been working in Australia and had just moved to England when by chance he was diagnosed with Chronic Myloid Leukaemia. If untreated he would have had three to six months to live.
'You've got cancer'
"Nothing on this planet prepares you for when a doctor is going to say to you: 'You've got cancer'. I was only 32-years-old. Life as I knew it ended in a split second."
Coburn said he was lucky a donor was found and that after a lot of hard work - especially convincing his doctor it was a good idea - he was finally well enough in 2006 to join Shosholoza in Spain. He said it was "without doubt" one of the best things he had ever done.
"I knew very well the problem Mike had when I accepted to enroll him," said Captain Sarno who is busy writing a book on Team Shosholoza.
'We were crazy'
"Although we had not too many possibilities to talk together, Mike was for me the team member that was most like me; both of us, we were crazy, both of us were dreaming the impossible dream, and both of us, we were believing in what we were doing and dreaming. He is a special page of my book."
Coburn's cheerful and unassuming nature meant that few of his Shosholoza team mates knew about the ordeal he had been through, or that he was still on medication and had to fly to Britain every month for a check up.
Even fewer knew that working the gruelling night shift - which meant checking and repairing every seam of every sail that came off the water to ensure they were race ready for the next day - actually suited him because it helped prevent overexposure to the sun's UV rays, which would have put his whole transplant in jeopardy.
'Positive mindset'
At the time, team member Mike Giles said: "Mike is alive because of his positive mindset and his will to live and fight.
"He wanted to be part of Shosholoza and make a difference and took a huge knock in salary and living conditions to do so. He was a valuable asset to the team and never let his 'illness' get in the way. In fact, he never missed a day's work."
Besides Team Shosholoza the only other highlight Coburn mentions on his blog is meeting South African singer Johnny Clegg in London recently. He describes Clegg as one of the "great inspirations in struggling against impossible odds".
"Meeting him and the words of encouragement he provided renewed my will to fight this impeachment and strengthened my resolve to find a cure for Leukaemia from which all mankind can benefit," he wrote.
Blog update
A friend, Ollie Hilton, posted the latest update on the Cycle 4 Leukaemia blog, saying he felt compelled to do so partly because Coburn was so critically ill and also because time is running out.
"Something needs to be done right now," said Hilton. "Mike has had two really close shaves this week. I know I speak for everyone when I say that we are hoping and praying for a miracle. The people that are helping Mike to fight for his life need more than prayers and positive thoughts.
"The Anthony Nolan Trust needs generous support right now. Please give generously and forward the website blog to everyone you know," he added.
Mike Coburn can be contacted by E-mail or Skype him on: seaweed1972.
Source: Team Shosholoza
