“I’d never given lung cancer a thought. Even after my uncle died of the disease 15 years ago, I didn’t cut back on my smoking. I just thought, ‘It’ll never happen to me’.
I received an over 55s NHS Health Check letter through the post. Usually, it was the type of thing that I would have just stuffed in a drawer but, for once, I decided to act on it. So I had my check then we went on holiday in Portugal; we liked to go on at least three, if not four, holidays a year!
I got the results when I got back, and they were surprisingly fantastic. They asked me if there was anything else I was concerned with and I mentioned my chest felt a little tighter than normal. They arranged for a chest x-ray that afternoon.
I got a phone call two hours later, telling me they had found a large mass on my right lung. And I knew – I knew straight away it was cancer.
I was with my wife, Rae, when the consultant confirmed it. I heard a sharp intake of breath and I just tapped her on the knee and said, ‘Don’t worry darling I’ve known for a couple of weeks now, it’ll be fine’.
“As the treatments have gone on, we’ve realised I can still do a lot of the stuff I was doing before. We’ve been on holiday, and I still do all the driving”.
Craig, living with lung cancer
When I first started my treatment, I suffered from really bad mouth ulcers and obviously my hair fell out. I was also extremely tired; I couldn’t even walk to the end of the street. I ended up having a blood transfusion with three bags of blood. However, as the treatments have gone on, we’ve realised I can still do a lot of the stuff I was doing before. We’ve been on holiday, and I still do all the driving.
On a day to day basis, I don’t even think about it – I’ve not got cancer right now. Two o’clock tomorrow, when I’m hooked up to my chemo – then I’ll have cancer. During my consultation with a radiotherapist, I’ll have cancer then. The time in between, I haven’t. That’s just my coping strategy.
There’ve been times where people have come up to me in the pub and asked, ‘how are you feeling, Craig – I hear you’re ill?’ I just say, ‘Well I’m not unwell, I’ve just got cancer’. They don’t ask you many more questions after that!
I’m just being me. I play pool on a Wednesday night. I go to the pub and watch football. And, of, course, we’re still planning holidays!”