Interview 145

Age at interview: 43

Age at diagnosis: 38

Brief Outline: Diagnosed with Mantle Cell non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma in 2000 after a tonsillectomy. After initial chemotherapy locally, he was referred to London for high dose chemotherapy and stem cell transplant.

Background: Bank Manager, married with two children aged 12 and 10. Ethnic Background: White British.

More about me...

In 2000 he noticed that his tonsils were swollen and looked infected. His GP prescribed antibiotics but the tonsils remained swollen so he was referred to hospital to have his tonsils surgically removed and as a result was told he had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. He was very shocked to be told he had a serious illness. However, after seeing a cancer specialist 24 hours later he was reassured that his disease was very treatable.

 

He embarked on six sessions of chemotherapy three weeks apart for eighteen weeks. During this time he was told the specific type of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma he had was called Mantle Cell, which was unusual in people of his age. This meant that he needed more aggressive treatment and on completion of his initial chemotherapy at his local hospital he was referred to London for high dose chemotherapy followed by a stem cell transplant. Once again this news came as a shock as he was not expecting to need any further treatment.

 

He spent three and a half weeks having treatment in hospital in London away from his family and found the mental side of this seclusion harder to cope with than the physical effects of the treatment. He remained off work for 14 months in total while being fully paid by his employer. He is now in remission and has yearly checkups at both the local and London hospitals.

 

Five years after having lymphoma he realises that his immune system is never going to be the same as before; he tires easily and takes longer to recover from colds.

Because I think to be fair I had something really, really severe, but its actual impact on me now, my immune system is clearly never going to be the same again, it takes me longer to get over colds and things like that than it ever did before. And I’ve had, I think I’ve had more colds and things like that, I get a flu jab every year now, so my immune system is clearly never going to be what it was, but because I’ve, I get tired, I do get more tired than I did before.  

After having lymphoma 5 years ago he and his family live for today and have spent more time having holidays; he believes that if he wants something and can afford it he should have it.

And we've had holidays where twice we've been, we've had holidays in America where we would've probably perhaps gone once and we would've gone for two weeks and we've been for three weeks, and we do more things and just everything about it. It's quite hard to describe it really, it's quite hard to sort of put it in words, but it stops you worrying about the silly little things that you might have worried about before, it makes you get on and live every day for today, it makes you, if you, you know, it sounds, I don't want it to sound as if you just go mad, but if you want something and you can afford it then you have it, you know, and you don't think twice about it really. And I'm not saying that people, you know, you can go mad and just start spending wildly, it's not that at all, but it does stop you worrying that much about perhaps some of the smaller decisions that you might have thought twice about before.

And both myself and my wife and my children we just live every day and we do more than we ever would have perhaps done before.