{"id":448080,"date":"2026-02-27T07:15:19","date_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:15:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448080\/"},"modified":"2026-02-27T07:15:19","modified_gmt":"2026-02-27T07:15:19","slug":"the-fact-that-im-alive-now-is-totally-remarkable-how-one-rider-went-from-cancer-diagnosis-to-cycling-35000km-to-beijing","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/448080\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The fact that I’m alive now is totally remarkable’ \u2013 How one rider went from cancer diagnosis to cycling 35,000km to Beijing"},"content":{"rendered":"

The ache in his shoulder had been lingering for months, but Luke Grenfell-Shaw<\/a>, just 23 at the time, shrugged it off as not worth fretting about. Besides, he was too busy to worry, working as an English teacher in Siberia, Russia. Each day began with a run around the park, followed by a short bike ride to the school. He remembers not being able to lean back in his chair without wincing in pain. Eventually, it got too bothersome and he sought out the school nurse, pulling up his shirt to expose the painful shoulder. Her reaction \u2013 \u201coh my God\u201d \u2013 confirmed this was no normal ache.<\/p>\n

Curious to see what was so shocking, Grenfell-Shaw stood in front of a mirror and took a photo of his back. His left shoulder, he could see, bulged like a powerlifter\u2019s \u2013 far bigger than the opposite side. \u201cAh, that doesn\u2019t look right,\u201d he remembers thinking \u2013 still not panicking. Within two days, however, he was back in the UK receiving a life-changing diagnosis: the lump was a rare form of cancer that had metastasised to his lungs and was now stage four \u2013 advanced and aggressive. The doctors called it a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour, and the medical literature did not offer much hope.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou can see the survival rates for yourself,\u201d he tells me, not wanting to repeat the figures. Patients with this type of cancer typically have a less than 50% chance of surviving beyond five years. Grenfell-Shaw received a prognosis of months \u2013 \u201ctwo years maximum\u201d \u2013 and yet, that was eight years ago, in 2018. Come his 26th birthday, in 2020, he was riding a tandem<\/a> across the world, from his hometown of Bristol to Beijing in China, raising money for cancer charities. \u201cI didn\u2019t know if I\u2019d live to the end of that year [2020],\u201d he says. \u201cThe fact that I\u2019m alive now is totally remarkable, and immensely…\u201d his voice stalls. \u201cI\u2019m just very, very lucky. By luck more than anything else, I\u2019m still here.\u201d<\/p>\n

You may like<\/p>\n

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\"Luke\n<\/p>\n

A photo stop in Odessa, Ukraine. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Luke Grenfell-Shaw)<\/p>\n

Worst news imaginable<\/p>\n

Grenfell-Shaw, now 31, is speaking to me over video call from Guangzhou, a three-and-a-half hour flight south of the Chinese capital, where he is visiting his girlfriend. Casting his mind back to the day he received \u201cthe worst news imaginable\u201d, he begins to chuckle. \u201cI\u2019m laughing about it now because that\u2019s the only thing you can do,\u201d he says. \u201cYour world breaks down. [It’s] nothing less than a death sentence, being told you\u2019re going to die [and that] your time is very limited. There\u2019s nothing you can do about it. I was just crying. It felt like an abyss.\u201d<\/p>\n

From that deep pit, however, came a small epiphany. \u201cThat same day, my dad and I went for a run, and he said to me: \u2018You don\u2019t have a choice about whether you\u2019ve got cancer, but you can choose how you live with it\u2019,\u201d Grenfell-Shaw remembers. \u201cI wanted to live in a way that I believed would give me the best possible chance of survival.\u201d That meant keeping as active as he could.<\/p>\n

Already an avid runner and cyclist since childhood, Grenfell-Shaw cycled to and from each of his six rounds of chemotherapy, and set up a turbo trainer<\/a> in the hospital ward so he could spin his legs while his arm was rigged up to the drip. Midway through his treatment, he ran the Bristol Half Marathon, clocking 80 minutes \u2013 a good time for a fully fit amateur, let alone one with stage-four cancer.<\/p>\n

Once he had finished chemo, Grenfell-Shaw set about organising his tandem ride to Beijing. He would take the front, leaving the stoker\u2019s seat empty for whichever family, friends or strangers felt moved to join him along the way. \u201cIf I only had one year left to live, then that was probably the most interesting, experience-filled way of living it,\u201d he reasoned.<\/p>\n

The latest race content, interviews, features, reviews and expert buying guides, direct to your inbox!<\/p>\n

The story of the ride is told in the documentary A Life in Tandem<\/a> (available to watch for free on YouTube from 8pm UK time today<\/a>), in which Grenfell-Shaw speaks candidly about his diagnosis, the sudden death five weeks later of his older brother John, aged 25, on a hiking trip in the Lake District \u2013 \u201cwhen John died, I knew I had to survive\u201d \u2013 and his parents\u2019 subsequent separation. It is a story of a family\u2019s remarkable resilience in the face of unimaginable adversity.<\/p>\n

Leaving his old school in Bristol on New Year\u2019s Day 2020, Grenfell-Shaw headed east through Europe, beyond Ukraine, Turkey and Kazakhstan, across Central Asia, and south into India. Covid restrictions prevented him from crossing into China, halting his dream of reaching Beijing. He flew back to the UK and completed the 30,000km distance as a fundraising effort on a turbo trainer. The whole adventure took two-and-a-half years, and saw him accompanied by more than 800 people on his tandem \u2013 including a standout character of the documentary, a 17-year-old called Dev who joined him for 1,000km across India. In total, the campaign raised \u00a3131,000 for charity and earned Grenfell-Shaw an MBE in 2024.<\/p>\n

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\"Luke\n<\/p>\n

Fun times with Indian companion Dev. <\/p>\n

(Image credit: Luke Grenfell-Shaw)<\/p>\n

Take two<\/p>\n

Beijing remained the totemic goal for Grenfell-Shaw: a symbol of how far he could go after being told he had just months to live. He returned to normal life after his tandem ride in summer 2022, but in the years since, he says, something felt \u201cincomplete\u201d. That\u2019s why, last October, he took his gravel bike and tent, and bikepacked the remaining leg \u2013 5,600km from Tashkurgan in China\u2019s west, skirting the Gobi Desert through snowstorms and biting wind, to Tiananmen Square in Beijing.<\/p>\n

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\u201cI was covering my feet in plastic bags to keep them warm,\u201d he says. \u201cAt night, it seemed like the wind would find every single gap between the tent and the ground. It was freezing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Grenfell-Shaw arrived at China\u2019s Forbidden City last December, just days before Christmas. After six years of waiting, it was set to be a momentous arrival. Then, 100m from his finish line, a police checkpoint threatened to spoil the party. \u201cIt was quite funny,\u201d he says as he remembers asking the officials, \u201cDo you really want me to get out my tent and my sleeping bag?\u201d Eventually, after a tense back-and-forth, they let him through. He recalls attempting to take photos in Tiananmen Square, scene of the 1989 student uprising. \u201cI only stopped for two seconds, and they [the police] were shouting at me.\u201d<\/p>\n

The moment may have been rushed, but it didn\u2019t dampen the \u201cdeep, deep sense of satisfaction\u201d of having finally arrived in Beijing. \u201cIt wasn\u2019t the feeling of closure that was [strongest],\u201d he says. \u201cIt was the feeling that I could start something new. The next chapter could now begin.\u201d<\/p>\n

Life as a pro<\/p>\n

Today, Grenfell-Shaw\u2019s cancer is in remission, his six-monthly scans clear. \u201cThat\u2019s very atypical, and not what the doctors expected,\u201d he says, then pauses and smiles. \u201cBut, I\u2019m still here. I\u2019m fine right now.\u201d Not only is he fine, he is now a professional athlete. The figure in front of me on the screen is wearing bluetooth earphones, a colourful sports watch, and an orange running jacket from his sponsor, Brooks. Grenfell-Shaw is a full-time trail-runner and spends his days training and racing in off-road ultra-marathons. He has even represented Great Britain at the Trail Running World Championships.<\/p>\n

\u201cRunning had always been my first love,\u201d he says, \u201cwhich you don\u2019t need to publish in Cycling Weekly.\u201d During his recent two-month cycle across China, he ran for an hour every morning, before then riding his bike for up to eight hours \u2013 \u201cthat\u2019s my off-season training block,\u201d he smiles.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember when I was about 19 or 20 writing in my diary a few goals I wanted to achieve by the time I was 30, and one of them was to become a professional Ironman triathlete,\u201d he says, identifying the seed of his current exploits. That ambition fell away after the doctors removed the milk-bottle-sized tumour and surrounding muscle, surgery that left his swimming ability \u201csubpar\u201d \u2013 and an eight-inch scar. \u201cI\u2019m trying to re-orientate my life towards looking more to the future,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n

As we come to the end of our conversation, I ask Grenfell-Shaw if there\u2019s a lasting message he hopes others will learn from his story. \u201cIt took me having cancer and my brother dying for me to take risks to go and live my dreams,\u201d he says. \u201cI suppose what I\u2019d like people to take away is: make those changes that you feel the voice inside is telling you and you’ll be happier doing what you really want to be doing. Follow those voices, actively shape your life\u2019s path, make those tough decisions.\u201d Having cycled across the world, he intends to keep making those tough, rewarding decisions for many years yet.<\/p>\n

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\"Luke\n<\/p>\n

(Image credit: Luke Grenfell-Shaw)<\/p>\n

Friend’s view: TJ Mitchell<\/p>\n

TJ Mitchell, a university friend of Grenfell-Shaw\u2019s, joined for three weeks during the initial \u2018Bristol2Beijing\u2019 tandem ride, crossing Pakistan.<\/p>\n

When Mitchell first found out about Grenfell-Shaw\u2019s diagnosis, he struggled to believe it. \u201cI\u2019d never had a friend or family who\u2019d been through cancer, so, naively I assumed, \u2018He\u2019ll be fine. He\u2019s Luke\u2019,\u201d says Mitchell. \u201cHe\u2019s incredibly charming, he\u2019s charismatic, he\u2019s very handsome. He can speak English, Russian and Arabic, and he\u2019s a scientist. If anyone was going to be a secret agent, it would be Luke. He always just seemed like an all-round super guy.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reflecting today on what his friend has achieved in the last seven years, Mitchell says he feels enormous pride. \u201cI think it\u2019s really remarkable to be able to do that and come out of it as a professional athlete,\u201d he says. \u201cHe\u2019s one of the people in my life that I always champion. If I was going to a dinner party, Luke would be one of the top three guests I\u2019d always want to bring with me. [His story] shows that the world is scary, but it doesn\u2019t really have to be. You can seize the day. You can go on an epic adventure.\u201d<\/p>\n

A Life in Tandem premieres for free on YouTube<\/a> at 8pm UK time this evening, 26 February.<\/p>\n

This feature originally appeared in Cycling Weekly magazine on 19 February 2026. Subscribe now<\/a> and never miss an issue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The ache in his shoulder had been lingering for months, but Luke Grenfell-Shaw, just 23 at the time,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448081,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[37],"tags":[4985,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-448080","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-cycling","tag-cycling","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448080","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448080"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448080\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448081"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448080"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448080"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448080"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}