Walking together in loving memory of former firefighter Ricky

Reporter: Grace Marner
Date published: 13 June 2020

A global pandemic isn't stopping Nicola Casey from raising awareness and vital funds for renal medullary carcinoma (RMC).

She has been working tirelessly to set up a charity in memory of her husband Ricky, a local firefighter who passed away from the disease last year.

Yesterday (11th June) was the final day of her latest campaign which saw people across Oldham, Rochdale, Tameside and the rest of Greater Manchester put on their walking shoes, some orange clothes and walk 5k.

The virtual walk has been done with groups in America.

There's currently more research, trials and treatments over there.

But her friend's son Will is took it, quite literally a few steps further by walking from his university home in Leeds to Lees today with his friends. 

There were people along the 32 mile route to keep their spirits up and provide them with food and water, and a socially distanced group met them when they crossed the finish line. 

So far they've raised over £1,000 and you can donate to the cause here.

Nicola decided to do the walk to help raise awareness of this rare and relatively unknown condition that took her husbands life.

She said: "In just under two weeks, I decided I'd try and give it a go and it's been quite successful, we've raised nearly £3.5k.

"We've had over 100 people in orange t.shirts with Ricky's name on and the logo on the back walking across Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale.

"The community and obviously everybody is still really behind it and it just show the love that we've all had for him. It's emotional really.

"We got t.shirts printed, everybody either wore orange or got a t.shirt and they did the 5k wherever they lives and sent me pictures.

"We did some Facebook lives and we all tried to do it at the same time as America so we just did as best we can in this pandemic really.

"It was amazing, in such a sad memory for Rick and getting awareness out there, people had a really good time.

"They tried to take a moment and remember him.

"It's got people doing something and it felt like everybody was together. 

"It was really nice and heartwarming. It was brilliant and so appreciated."

RMC is a rare type of agressive kidney cancer and has a strong link to the sickle cell trait.

Patients are usually diagnosed at stage four and don't tend to live past 12 months from being diagnosed. 

Nicola added: "In America, there's more research, trials and treatments that they're working on and with advocacy and me setting up a charity, I feel it's really helping me with my grieving."

Unfortunately the pandemic stopped Nicola from putting the final steps in place to officially have set up the charity, but she'll be doing it as soon as she can.

Nicola said: "We were just at the point where we were going to meet up with all the trustees to get the charity sent off and then the pandemic hit so we're still at that point where we've not submitted it yet which is so annoying.

"To set up a charity in Rick's name is just something that will be amazing and it's something I feel really passionate about and I've got that drive to keep going.

"We had a charity fundraiser in March.

"It was a 70s theme night for Ricky's 50th birthday and that raised over £13.5k.

"Because obviously there's no screening, chemotherapy regimes, we struggle in the UK to get this information out there and I feel social media and things like that is a massive turning point. 

"I just think, knowing the symptoms, knowing it's got strong links to the sickle cell trait, people getting tested it'll make a difference.

"At the minute the money raised is going to the rare kidney cancer unit.

"There's currently nothing that is just for RMC so together with Rick's oncologist once the charity is up and running ,we're going to look at how we can get into the research and  push it.

"Some money is also going to the firefighters charity but it's mainly going to be aimed around rare kidney cancer and RMC."

The typical symptoms of RMC are:

Blood in the urine

Pain in kidney or abdomen

Losing weight unintentionally

Night sweats 

Fevers

It is also strongly linked to the sickle cell trait

If you're worried about any symptoms, seek medical advice from your GP.

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