This Cancer Talk Week we are talking about the General Election 2015 and about making sure cancer care is high on the political agenda. Vikki is one of three people who have offered to share their story. Here she talks about how early diagnosis could have made a difference when her father was treated and why it’s important to push for earlier diagnosis and better support.
My father Ade had a persistent and very nasty cough for about 18 months or so. He went to the GP with his cough and they told him it was bronchitis, meaning he was given antibiotics.
The cough didn’t shift so he was given a further two courses and eventually it gradually settled of its own accord.
Months later he started getting pains from his hip. We didn’t think much of it really. He’d had an accident in his teens and the hip had been pinned. There was always a chance he’d develop arthritis in it as he got older and we assumed this was what was happening. He wasn’t a man who complained, he was very stoical, and he didn’t talk about it much, but he could see that it was getting worse.
He eventually had a hip scan and was told that he had a secondary bone tumour in his hip, with further secondaries in the spine, pelvis and ribs. The primary site was the lungs. It wasn’t operable, the lung tumours were too close to the central core. They call it ‘inoperable’ these days, but it’s just a new name for ‘terminal’, we all knew that.
He’d be offered palliative radiotherapy for the hip and then three cycles of chemo to try and shrink or slow the lung tumours. We were horrified – we’d gone from a dodgy hip to terminal cancer in days. It’s impossible to take in and accept it immediately.
He died eight weeks later. Now there’s just us learning to live differently and adjust to a new way of things. We all have good days and bad days, mum especially. The family dynamic has changed without him here and it’s hard to accept that and learn to do things a different way. The ‘firsts’ are hard, like the first birthday without him and their wedding anniversary.
Sometimes I wonder if the people left behind are the ones getting the rough end of the stick because for them there isn’t any peace, not at this stage anyway, although a friend has assured me that it does get easier as time goes on.
What is important is that Ade went to the doctor with a cough which he was worried about 18 months earlier. But at no point was he given a scan or an x-ray, despite having been a heavy smoker for 30 years and being slap in the middle of the average age to develop lung cancer. From questions I have asked of other people and families affected by cancer, he isn’t alone in this.
If someone has a persistent cough and they are worried about it, especially if they are in the high risk category like Ade was, and then they need to be put forward for a scan and further investigation.
If it can save someone from going through what Ade went through and their family from feeling what my family has felt then it’s certainly worth doing.
Help us make cancer a priority this election. Find out how you can be part of the change at www.timetochoose.org.uk
