Grantham rower, 76, achieves gold at British Rowing Indoor Championships in Birmingham after surviving cancer

A rower has achieved a gold medal after surviving cancer.

This time last year, Chris Cumbers, 76, was undergoing radiation and hormonal treatment for prostate cancer, after he was diagnosed in 2022.

Then, after 19 months of treatment and being told he was a cancer survivor, Chris, who lives in Grantham, went onto win the gold medal in the 75 to 79 year old age category at the British Rowing Indoor Championships in Birmingham earlier this month.

“I was delighted - having been through the treatment and achieving this afterwards, I was just delighted,” said Chris.

Chris underwent his treatment in the oncology department at Lincoln County Hospital.

He wanted to thank the department for their treatment and help.

Chris added: “The oncology department was excellent.

“I want to dedicate this medal and success to them because I would not have done it without their help.

“I am very grateful to them, as I could not have rowed competitively without them.”

During his treatment, Chris experienced tiredness and hot flushes, however it was the loss of muscle mass during hormonal treatment that affected him the most.

He said: “As an athlete, you like to train and when you train you are improving your muscle.

“So, I just had to wait and recover.

“However, during the treatment I was able to keep training, except for four weeks of daily radiation.

“Apart from that, I was able to keep it going with low level exercise and then in July, I started 17 weeks of training for the event.”

The British Rowing Indoor Championships is an annual event, where an age range of men and women compete.

Apart from his gold medal win, Chris added that the event was “great”.

Chris started indoor rowing in 1998, in his late 40s. However, due to some setbacks he was unable to compete for 15 years.

He said: “This was for my mental health, due to the stress of competing.

“I found it overwhelming and so I gave it up for a while.”

In 2020 he made a comeback and competed at the English National Indoor Rowing Championships, winning a silver medal.

He added: “I was able to move into an older age group, so I thought I should go back into it, but my mental health was still holding me back.

“So I ended up speaking to a sports psychologist and it helped me.”

Since then, apart from Covid and his cancer treatment, Chris has continued to compete.