Now if I think I have had bad luck

As I wandered the relatively quiet corridors at the Churchill Hospital shortly after 08.00am this morning, for some reason the enormity of what my body is about to go through hit home for the first time.

I’m not sure why today it finally sank in, after all the start date of my treatment has been known for several weeks now and so I have had plenty of time to contemplate things. Being a man though, I am expert at burying my head in the sand and have lived most of my life by the mantra of “I will worry about that when I have to”. I guess with Radiotherapy starting at 08.15 tomorrow morning and Chemotherapy on Wednesday now would seem an appropriate time to commence that process.

My mind started to think about how well I was going to get to know these corridors, already I can find my way through the maze of walkways that join up the various departments and wards across the sprawling campus and this from a guy who has an appalling sense of direction. Then I contemplated the medical team with whom, over the next few months, no years, you surely cannot help but build relationships with.  It was already in a strange way starting to feel like a home from home.

The walk in blood test centre was not open until 08.30 and so this meant I was front of the queue and was done and dusted a few minutes after it opened, so rather than tackle the snarled up London bound rush hour traffic on the way home, I thought I would have a cup of tea and wait for the roads to clear a little.

I had been told about the Cancer Support Centre “Maggie’s”, where patients and their families and friends can drop in for emotional, practical and social support or simply for a cup of tea or coffee in a nice environment. I thought I would take the opportunity to check it out and it turned out to be one of my smarter moves.

Maggie's at The Churchill, Oxford.

I walked in and headed over to the kitchen area.  I immediately knew I was going to like this place as I spotted the distinctive yellow box of Twining’s Lemon and Ginger Tea neatly standing to attention amongst an array of other brightly coloured boxes, the kettle conveniently positioned nearby.

A couple of members of Maggie’s team introduce themselves (Clare and Atif) and instantly I am made to feel welcome.  Clare, when hearing that I am about to start treatment for throat cancer, asks an unsuspecting man if he would mind sharing with me his experiences of having been treated for throat cancer and he agrees.

I took an instant liking to Pete and not just because we have throat cancer as a common bond. No Pete has that kind of face and smile and general demeanour that I would suggest would cause most people to quickly come to the same conclusion – he’s a thoroughly decent bloke.  

Now if I think I have had bad luck – let me tell you there is always someone worse off than you and Pete certainly was when he got dealt the “C” card. When diagnosed with throat cancer Pete had a PET scan.  Not only did it confirm the suspicion of cancer which turned out to be at the base of his tongue and also the Lymph nodes in his neck, but a completely unrelated cancer also showed up in one of his kidneys.  He finished his treatment earlier this year and today had travelled from Hungerford for one of his routine checks and I am pleased to report that everything was good and his checkups have now been moved out to every two months.

On recounting his story to me Pete points to his neck and says “that was the cloud” and pointing to his back “and that was the silver lining”.  Without the throat cancer there’s every chance the kidney cancer would not have been found in time to treat it successfully.  His outlook on life is fantastic and I hope he doesn’t mind me giving his age away but I seriously hope that I am in his shape at 76 years old. I would never have guessed his age anywhere near that.

We exchanged contact details and this is the mark of the man, this afternoon he emailed me and said he would call me later this week to see how my first chemo session has gone.

A new inspirational figure has touched my life today, call it fate, call it what you like but the timing is impeccable.