Interview LC13

Age at interview: 67

Age at diagnosis: 67

Brief Outline: Diagnosed with small cell lung cancer 2002, treated with chemotherapy, then radiotherapy from outside the chest to the lung, and radiotherapy to the head to prevent spread to the brain.

Background: Electrician (retired), married, 2 children.

He went to the hospital with chest pains which were at first diagnosed as angina.

Well it all started off with a very pleasant weekend with my son down in York and I had experienced some chest pains and it was, I knew it wasn't angina because I've had angina pains before and it was a strange pain and I decided foolishly just to soldier on.

Finished off our weekend and returned to the family home, contacted the family doctor and told him what was happening and he said he would phone me back in five minutes. He phoned me back in five minutes and said "I want you to get up to the hospital right now. If there's any problem with transport I'll organise it but you must get, can you get up there right now?" I said "Yes my wife will take me up right now." He said "Right they're waiting for you."  

So I went up to the A & E and went through various tests there and transferred from the A & E into the ERU, that's the Emergency Receiving Unit in the hospital. And they continued with the tests and was told it was, that I had prolonged angina attack and this was the line of their enquiries. And they kept me in the ERU from the Monday until the Friday and on the Friday afternoon a doctor came in and she told me she had good news for me and she says "[Name] you do not have a prolonged angina attack, what you have got is a tumour in your right lung and the tumour in our experience it's of a cancerous nature."  

He felt despair but resolved to fight the disease with help from the health care team and his...

And I must say that there's a moment of despair but it seemed to take a step back and I felt very contented, I had no fear, no hang-ups, no inhibitions, no emotions at all, just a feeling of wellbeing and contentedness. And I had a wee thought to myself, now cancer, now I had to tell my wife. I left the ward and went outside, I had my mobile phone with me and I phoned my wife and I just told her "Look there's complications and they think it was cancer, we need a wee talk." And my wife, she came up and we both had a wee greet but we took a great strength from the Lord, he gave us a strength from within. And after, a strange feeling but I feel, and I still feel a very contented feeling within myself and I know that I've got a fight on my hands. I've got to fight and I'm fighting it with the support of my family and I know that the Lord Jesus Christ he's on my side, he's striding with me and there's all the medical people and there's so many hospitals and all the staff and they're in there fighting for me, for my wee body, my little body here they're doing things for me. And the thing that I've got is a positive attitude and I know I'm getting better and I know I will get better because I know, I know that there's more people living with cancer than there is dying from it and life goes on and I'm hanging on to this life and I want this life and I've no fears for the future.

Explains that the family has been very supportive.

Well my wife and that, I've got two sons and well for my wife she's been very supportive for me, she's all these things, she's a rock and my anchor and all this sort of stuff, she's been a great support for me, front line soldier. You get a wee bit short tempered and you're not conscious of being short tempered but I get a wee bit short tempered without realising it but my wife herself she's got a good understanding of that I think and she's helped me.  

And I've got two sons one lives at home, he's in the process of setting up his, moving out of the family home, setting up his own home just now and he's been, my son he's been very supportive and my eldest son he's, he lives away, he lives down south, he lives down in York so he's a bit of a distance away. But as soon as [my son] had, as soon as he, my eldest son heard the news well it was he and my grandson came up you know within hours of hearing to see what it was. But to see if he could do anything for us but we're a strong family, we're a close family, we've got our faith and we found all these things have got an accumulative effect, these slide into the, that's what the family units are all about, have your family and that and family has been very important to us.

Describes what it was like having chemotherapy injected into her spine, but only the thought of...

And when you were actually having the chemotherapy, those three days, did you actually have to stay in the bed or could you get up and walk around?

No I was mobile, I could walk about. What happens there in the hospital bed, nobody has ever done, you go in and they get all ready, all geared up and they put the stands at the side of your bed, lift on the bags for all the stuff you're going to get and it's put into your drip and that's you mobile. And you walk about, if you go to the toilet, I just walked about the ward with that, and in my hospital they were very good, I could walk out into the kitchen, make a cup of tea, cup of coffee whatever I wanted.  I walked back into the bed, walk up to the lounge to watch the TV, so I was mobile, I wasn't athletic or anything but I was, I wasn't back prone on my bed I was mobile.

And what was it like actually being in hospital those three days?

It was very pleasant, it was very pleasant, everyone is so nice, so attentive, so kind, and they really spoil you, you know they're all over you, really. You miss the comforts of your own home and your own family that's an understatement but when you're actually in hospital there's so much going on, everything is going, you've no time to think. And you can discuss things with other patients and discuss things with nurses and the doctors and everybody is so attentive.