Page 4 - Inspire Magazine 2019
P. 4
Not me, I was far too healthy. I’d given up be working. I was slowly feeling better and
smoking 26 years ago. this made me more hopeful. I listened to
Tibetan and Indian healing music and read
a book on positive thinking. Then I made
Strangely, I didn’t care about the cancer; up my mind – it was Mustang and India or I have one life,
I was going to die one day anyway. I did,
however, care that I would have to cancel bust, or rather die in the attempt.
an expedition to Nepal. I had waited fi fty
years for this opportunity, and, in the blink My doctors were not happy, but I have and nothing
of an eye, my dream was gone. one life, and nothing was going to stop me
living it.
I phoned every helpline. I looked on every
website, searching for a glimmer of hope. In April 2018, I fi nally made it to Mustang, was going to
But the prognosis remained poor. the journey of a lifetime. We went as high
as 15,000 feet on the Nepal – Tibet border
My tumour was 10.5cm in size. It was with no ill effect. No breathlessness,
leaning on the main vein and my wind pipe. nothing. stop me
It had taken over the lymph glands and
there were nodules in the left lung. It was I returned to the UK; my oncologist said
then that I mentally started choosing the he had never had a patient with lung cancer
hymns for my funeral. who had been so high. living it.
My consultant oncologist proposed the A further scan showed the cancer in my
following treatment: a fi ve-day course of left lung had vanished and the tumour in
radiotherapy, a course of dexamethasone my right lung had shrunk to 7.5cm.
and two years on a trial immunotherapy
drug, pembrolizumab. Since then, I have been back to Ladakh,
fl ying from sea level in Delhi to 12,000
I felt privileged that I was allowed to go on feet in Leh, to see friends whom I have
this trial at my age, but, at the same time, known for 40 years. The altitude did not
being tied to a clinic for two years felt like affect me. I spent Christmas in Sri Lanka
a death sentence. and am planning on going to Tibet later this
year.
I looked at my age. I could not afford to
wait and see what happened after the Learning to live with lung cancer is not easy,
treatment was fi nished. I would be too old but it is possible. For me, it is about
to head back to Ladakh or go on my Nepal downgrading the disease in your head,
expedition. being positive, exercising and staying busy.
There was no other option though; I The places I wanted to go, if they were
accepted the offer of treatment but set a denied to me, I was dead already.
goal that I would return to both countries
one more time – one way or another. We all have to make the most of the time
we have left – with or without a lung
I started the treatment and it seemed to cancer diagnosis.
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