Original Text from 26th July 2014.  On Saturday, I glanced at the calendar on my phone and recognised the date as some sort of anniversary – 26 July.  It was exactly 4 years to the day I received my diagnosis of Metastatic Neuroendocrine Cancer.

It all began 2 months previously with a routine asthma clinic appointment when I mentioned to the Nurse Practitioner that I thought I’d lost half a stone in weight. She immediately said, “did you mean to lose the weight” and the answer was “no” on the basis that I just simply thought I was heavier.  As a precaution she sent me for a set of blood tests and then a retest.  I later marched into the GP’s office (having been asked to come to the surgery) to hear the GP say, “I didn’t expect such a well-looking man given the haemoglobin results I’m looking at”.

I was eventually referred to a specialist whose immediate words were “something isn’t right here”. Following a bunch of tests, he then told me he had “found something very unusual“.  More tests and even more tests………. and then on 26 July 2010 I was told I had widespread and incurable Neuroendocrine Cancer which was quite uncommon and without treatment I would eventually die.

A lot has happened since then.  I’ve had approximately 25 hours of surgery/invasive procedures much of it under general anaesthetic and around 34 days in hospital. I’ve had countless scans and other tests. I’ve had more injections than I’ve had hot dinners – this is actually true!  More importantly, I’m still alive and kicking!  I’m feeling great too having recently completed a 6-day hike along the 84 miles of Hadrian’s Wall.

If you want to read (and hear) more detail about my diagnosis, check out these blog posts:  Diagnosis – I’m no longer in control and Did you mean to lose weight?