Page 25 - Inspire Magazine

“Your imagination is a terrible thing. “My dad, Bevan, did everything he
You imagine the worst, you can’t
really imagine the best.
My understanding before my
diagnosis was very limited and very
negative. I had never come across
someone who had had lung cancer
and survived.
But now I have – me.
Things are improving all the time
and the sooner it’s diagnosed, the
sooner you know what’s happening.
The sooner it can be tackled, the
better. It’s worth facing that fear. I’m
proof of that.”
Wendy received her diagnosis
around the same time. Sadly, she
was diagnosed with late-stage lung
cancer. However, new treatment
options mean, after nearly seven
years, she is still here, still working
and still enjoying life with her
partner, Simon, her son and her cat!
We want more people to know this
and so have launched our ‘Face Your
Fear’ campaign.
Featuring people affected by lung
cancer from across the UK, ‘Face
Your Fear’ looks to dispel the fear
of finding out, raise awareness of
signs and symptoms and empower
people when going to their doctor.
We hear many stories of people
who had symptoms only for them
to be diagnosed as something else
so we want people to have the
knowledge and the confidence to
challenge their GP if they don’t feel
they are getting answers.
But it is better to know. Just ask
Emma Hawkes who lost her father
earlier this year:
*Incisive Health. The State of Cancer:
An analysis of public attitudes towards NHS cancer
services in England. August 2018.
the doctor. That’s why, as hard as it
could to hide his symptoms from
us. When he started coughing, he’d
walk out of the room. He talked
down the pain he was in, which was
so bad it stopped him playing
snooker with my brother Paul,
which he loved.
Most shockingly, after he died,
Mum and I were cleaning his room
when we found lots of scrunched-
up kitchen roll with dried blood
behind his headboard.
“... the sooner it’s
diagnosed, the sooner
you know
what’s happening.
The sooner it can
be tackled,
the better. It’s worth
facing that fear.
I’m proof of that.”
I remember when he was
eventually diagnosed, he told the
consultant ‘this day has come as no
surprise to me’.
Being a welder, he had seen many
of his friends and colleagues die of
lung cancer. I think this is the main
reason he didn’t go to the doctor
earlier. He believed that, even if he
had lung cancer, there was nothing
that could be done and he would
die just like his colleagues had.
I remember dad saying, ‘you never
see an old welder, Em’. When I asked
why, he’d just reply, ‘lung cancer’.
My dad will certainly not be alone
in his belief and inactions; he was of
a generation where men provided
for and protected their family. He
was stubborn and petrified of
is, I wanted to join the ‘Face Your
Fear’ campaign.
By the time Dad was diagnosed, it
had already spread to his bones. He
died just two short months later.
If our story prompts one person to
face their fear and get an early
diagnosis, or even more time, as a
result then that’s everything.”
To find out more about the
‘Face Your Fear’ campaign, or
get involved in campaigns, visit:
www.roycastle.org/campaigns
Under the guidelines outlined by
the National Institute of Health
and Care Excellence (NICE) and
Scottish Medicines Consortium
(SMC), a person should be
referred for an urgent chest
x-ray (within two weeks) if:
They are 40 or over and have two
or more, or if they have ever smoked
and have one or more, of the
following unexplained symptoms:
• Cough
• Fatigue
• Shortness of breath
• Chest pain
• Weight loss
• Appetite loss.
GPs should also consider an urgent
chest x-ray in people aged 40 and
over with any of the following:
• Persistent or recurrent chest
infection
• Finger clubbing
• Supraclavicular lymphadenopathy or
persistent cervical lymphadenopathy
• Chest signs consistent with lung
cancer, or
• Thrombocytosis.
If you feel these guidelines are not
being followed, don’t be afraid to ask
your GP to refer you for a chest
x-ray. As Kathy, one of our
campaigners, said:
‘No one wants you to live more
than you, so take charge of your
diagnosis, take charge of your life.’
INSPIRE 2018
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