So the first I knew about Daniel's illness was back in May 2014. We were chatting away as we do and he happened to drop into conversation that he was in hospital. Eh? Bless him, he always downplays it.
He said he was just having some tests and he felt fine . . . blah, blah, blah. Knowing him as I do I called Evie for the real story. She told me that Daniel had had some breathing difficulties investigated back in January and they had found a cyst on his lung. He'd been referred to a consultant and had an appointment sent through for July! July!!!!
But by May he was finding it near impossible to breathe, collapsed and had to be rushed back in. What they had deemed a cyst in January was in fact a tumour and the fact that it had been left meant it had grown to 12cm by 8cm AND he had secondaries.
He was then referred to Guys for a complete diagnosis and once diagnosed referred to Royal Marsden for treatment as they had specialist experience and expertise with Ewings Sarcoma.
Since being at the Marsden, his treatment has been exemplary and all of Daniel's family and friends could not be more grateful to them.
When he first started his treatment there was a lot of talk about claiming compensation from the local hospital that just left his cancer untreated for 6 whole months! I tried to push Daniel to go for it a lot, but his feeling at the time was that he needed all of his energy to fight cancer and didn't have any left over to fight the hospital. I offered to be an advocate for him, but he still felt it would be an added stress and I completely understood that.
However, more than a year later I'm still so angry at that hospital! I constantly wonder how things might have been different if he'd received the treatment he needed straight away. I feel they should be held to account to try and prevent this happening to anyone else. Daniel and Evie were saving to go travelling before his diagnosis. Wouldn't it be wonderful if they had the money to do that once he's better . . . and doesn't he deserve that?!
But what can I do if Daniel doesn't want to proceed? He was having chemo for 9 months and it made him desperately ill. Then when he got the all clear I think he was just so elated that he'd beaten it that he didn't care about how he started his journey. And now he's back having chemo again :( So there won't ever be a good time will there? And are there rules/laws about how long you can leave it before you take action?
Would really appreciate any comments on this one guys.
Talk soon
xxx
