Mark Cribbs, 49, owner of Urban Gardens restaurant in Exeter Gardens, took to Facebook on September 20 to share that he had been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin follicular lymphoma last week. The cancer is reported to develop when white blood cells cells cluster together in your lymph glands or organs with Mark told that he has a tumour in his chest that is 17cm by 9cm. On a video on Facebook, Mark said: "I've been on a bit of a journey in the last few months with some challenging health stuff and the outcome of that health stuff is that I've been diagnosed with non-Hodgkin follicular lymphoma.
"Fundamentally, I've got a big tumour in my belly [and] chest, sort of pushing on my kidneys and against my aorta." The tumour has been regarded as treatable but Mark has been warned that they don't believe it is curable. Since the diagnosis, Mark has spent the mornings watching the sunrise at Hengistbury Head and said he is "not going anywhere".
"I've been here for the last few mornings, celebrating the beautiful sunrise at Hengistbury Head, which is stunning," Mark continued. "The reason I'm here watching the sunrise is there's a lot of stuff I can do around diet and nutrition and meditation and headspace. [I've] got a lust for life and a lot of stuff to live for.
" Mark previously owned the Urban Beach Hotel which was opened in 2005 but closed in October 2022 and was taken over by new owners. He was also the previous owner of Urban Reef, The Wood Oven, and Jenkins and Sons. "I've been unlucky to get this obviously, especially at 49.
You don't expect to be going through chemo at that age," Mark added. "I'm calm, I'm pretty upbeat, I'm pretty confident, I'm lucky. This is a type of cancer that generally responds well to treatment which is exceptionally good news.
"We'll be staying positive, sucking it up and taking as much from it as I possibly can.".
