| Mike's story
Hello there, I'm
Mike, living in Juillac Le Coq near Cognac and five years down the road since I
completed all my chemotherapy treatments which culminated in a stem cell
transplant and hopefully has put my cancer problem to rest.
Mine is a long
story, which one day I will put properly into words, but in the meantime I hope
I can give some comfort to anyone suffering from whatever cancer it is you have.
Mine was non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma, yours may be of a different kind which entails
entirely different methods of treatment. All my treatment was carried out in the
UK, but I have no doubt that the treatment and care you are getting in France is
as good as that I received in the UK.
There are three
things that I have put to the fore when anyone asks about my illness, and they
are...
-
Cancer isn't a death
sentence. Statistics have shown that, although in the UK there are 30% more
cases of cancer reported each year, the figures of survival are greater today
because research and new medicines have prolonged and cured more people's
lives than ever before.
-
Whatever your cancer
is, try to remember that in the vast majority of cases, it's not your fault
that you have it. I myself was training for my 4th London Marathon when I fell
ill. I thought I was too fit and healthy to get such an illness. Bitterness
certainly crept in as all I could say was "why me, why me?" I had to learn
quickly to replace bitterness with anger. Sure - be angry with it, because
anger subsides and is replaced with 'how are we going to combat this?' To
remain bitter is in itself a cancer and you end up fighting two things instead
of one.
-
And most important
for me is that my illness was always 'we'. I always refer to how we got
through the toughest period of my life, and by we, I mean the consultants,
doctors and nurses, my family, friends and many others who walked this road
with me. I was never alone. Although as individuals we carry the burden of the
illness, without the support of those mentioned, the fight would have been
very lonely and perhaps too much to bear. The "we" thing was very important to
me.
I'm not a medical man, neither am I
a counsellor, you have to be qualified for those. All I am qualified for is that
I have suffered from cancer and feel I have some things I can share with you. If
you want to contact me for a chat, you can contact me most days on 05 45 35 02
66
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