A Letter From A Member And Cancer

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a3

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Dear members

One of the major reasons that TEF decided to run the raffle this year is due to the misfortune of one of our senior members

Please read his tale, in his own words, then perhaps you will see why we as a forum and gathering of sparks decided to try and help these cancer charities.

Cancer is not prejudiced it will strike anyone at any time.

I am 56, married [32 years], 3 Grown up children and 3 grandchildren. Slightly overweight [see wife for details]. I stopped smoking over 30 Years ago. I like a drink occasionally BUT I am not into Pub Culture…..every Friday night out with the lads etc.
My hobby [when I have time, work permitting] is Diving. I am a mixed gas diving Instructor and have what used to be known as ‘A Martini Ticket’ any depth, any gas, anywhere [to within reason]. But on a personal level I will only dive to 100metres [this is NOT for the faint hearted or those of a feeble mind, PANIC is NOT your friend]…my Instructor Qualification is to 54m. As a result of this I have to have a Commercial Offshore Diving HSE Approved Medical every year…this is a lot more involved than ‘turn your head to the left and cough’…………..so I am not as fit as an Olympic Athlete…neither am I a couch potato.
So, by this stage you are wondering….what is he wittering on about and why????
October 1st last year, prior to going to bed [i find this to be the best order in which to do these things] I elected to go for a pee. What I produced was a very very very feint pinkish colour [imagine an eggcup of Rose wine in a litre of water…with me so far?] Didn’t sleep that night. Woke up in morning and repeated the night be fore’s action [but in the reverse order]….same result.
Rang Doctors, appointment same day. He reckoned it was most likely an infection, gave me some antibiotics, sent a sample off to the lab. And booked me an appointment at the Hospital… Went back after 10 days, no infection, no repeat ever since of the Rose incident…nothing, zilch, nada, nowt.
Now, at this point he could have said ‘Antibiotics have cured you , sorted.’ BUT he said to still go to the Hospital, which was only another week away anyway.

Turned up at Haematuria Clinic, …Ultrasound test to check kidneys etc. Then onto the Cystoscopy Unit [Google it, I am not going into details for the sake of those of you with a weak stomach]

Anyway, 10 minutes in and I am told I have Bladder Cancer!!!! This came as somewhat of a surprise as I THOUGHT THEY WERE ONLY LOOKING FOR A DODGY BLOOD VESSEL OR A BIT OF A LEAK. 
At this point my life changed irreversibly. I was pre-op assessed there and then and booked in for an op a week the following Monday 29th Oct 2012. The length of the Op and the outcome of same would only be known after the Op!!!!!
I came out of the Op piped up with a catheter in for 5 days. This was because in order to remove the tumour so much of my bladder lining had to be scraped away that any internal pressure could ‘blow through’….even in my un-medically trained capacity I knew this to be ‘not a good thing’
I also had a tube left in running from my bladder to my left kidney. This was left in because the scar tissue from the surgery could foul the connection to my left kidney.
Next followed 6 weeks of constant pain from the ‘pipe’….averaging 3 hours sleep per night
2 weeks before Xmas the pipe was removed via the same route it was put in [all under a local anaesthetic so you can view it over your shoulder on a monitor]…I elected NOT to watch on this occasion.
As soon as the pipe was removed the pain that I had had for 6 weeks went instantly
All concerned seem happy…so I am even happier.
I now have to go back 2 x per year for checks [see Cystoscopy]…if all is well then this increases to every 12 months
I class myself as VERY lucky for many many reasons, including
Spotting the first signs, if it had been a ‘sit down pee’, or the lights had been off, or I had not looked down, or I had my eyes shut, or the toilet was any other colour than white I would definitely not have seen it. I had had NO pain, NO signs, NOTHING
Acting on the first signs
The Doctor being so ‘on the ball’ and sending me for a check anyway
The Hospital acting so quickly
Flying straight through the system
I am not writing this looking for sympathy. I KNOW that what I have/had is a drop in the ocean compared to other people’s problems.
I am writing this because it appears that ‘my health problem ‘ was a major contributing factor in deciding upon this years nominated charities for the Raffle.
If the technology had not been there or the research had not been carried out then I think the outcome of my problem could have been a lot worse……and the majority of Cancer research funding is from charitable donations.
More donations are needed so dig deep and buy a ticket or two! You KNOW it makes sense!....I certainly do


Please think about buying a ticket, there are some excellent prizes donated by our very generous sponsors, also please remember that ALL monies generated less costs will be donated to these three charities.

The forum & its owners will make nothing from this raffle, it is purely for the benefit of the Cancer charities named.

 
Thank you to our senior member.

Three very worthy causes I'm sure we will all agree & every donation no matter how little does help.

£1.00 a ticket............bet most of us have more than that rattling around as loose change in the van.

 
Apologies for being dense but how do I buy more than one ticket? Using the "payment processor" doesn't seem to give the option of more than £1 a time. Hope that makes sense. Cheers.

 
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