Bowel (Colorectal) Cancer

Interview 13: I'd actually seen something on TV which really made me concerned. By the time that she'd actually realized there was something really wrong. She was saying that when she was going to the toilet, it was like sort of a tube of toothpaste. And that sounds a bit horrendous. But that's actually what it ended up being like for me. So I did keep going back to the doctors, and they thought there was nothing really seriously wrong. But they did book me in for an appointment, finally, to have a barium anima, which was in the December.

Interview 17: About four days later, when I went to see him, I went in and sat down and he looked at me and he said, “we've got a problem”. And I was actually very impressed with that because, I immediately felt that I wasn't on my own in this. And, I said, “ is it cancer?”  And he said, “yes”. I asked him if it was operable, and he said “yes it is.” He said, “I'll tell you what I propose to do about it”. And he told me, I asked him if there were any alternatives, any other options. And he looked me straight in the eye and he said, no. And I completely trusted him. He was obviously very experienced. And, he made me feel that he was in it with me.

Interview 02: He put me these alternatives, and it seemed to me, and there was-, to begin with he put them in this very even way. And I, I found myself trying to mindread what he really wanted to do. And in these circumstances I said  “well what would you do if it was your brother?” In a desperate attempt to get him actually to commit himself? And alright well what to the-, you know, I was sophisticated enough I suppose to say “well what are the five year survival rates for these things”, and so on. And eventually he committed himself and he was quite clear what he wanted to do, and it was quite clear that was an alternative that would leave me, if it was successful which was, with pretty well no disability and a very good chance of no recurrence.

Interview 26: And what I did was write about what I call ‘a balance sheet of life’. I wrote down all-, I wrote down all the things I regretted that I would be missing, and they just amounted to eight things basically. But I also wrote down all the achievements, all the happy memories, and that came to over 100 things. So I was able to look at this and say, okay, if I've got a die, I've had a damn good life.

Interview 37: He's been very positive, very encouraging. He hasn't given me any sympathy. He feels that that is the most important thing. Sympathy, you can't have sympathy with something like this. It's a war, it's a battle, and you have to fight it.

So how has he supported you?

Literally, by being there for me every step of the way. Encouraging me every step of the way that every operation was going to be successful and everything was going to be fine.