Category: Patient Stories

My name is Mike, I suppose I deserved my cancer!

After years of smoking, drinking alcohol to excess and bad diet choices I suffered with acid reflux and was diagnosed with a hiatus hernia in 1987 at a Bupa Hospital in Harpenden, but wasn’t told anything about what to do or what it could lead to.

Fast forward to around July 2017 when I had a medication review, by this time it was being controlled by tablets and Endoscopies. I was told I was overdue for an endoscopy which I thought was recent, turned out it was 6 years ago rather than every year that they suggested.

The following fortnight I made an appointment with the doctor for 3 things.

  • I had burnt my armpits using a new flavour of Right Guard deodorant.
  • I was getting bad night cramps
  • I had a strange feeling in my tummy which was a tummy ache, just strange and had been there for about 2 weeks.

Little did I know that that tin of Right Guard was to save my life!

I was given a cream for my armpits. Tablets for the night cramps and sent for an Endoscopy a week later.

I was sent a letter from the consultant asking me to attend an appointment at Bedford Hospital where they conducted the endoscopy on 4th October 2017 and I was told I had a cancer at the base of my oesophagus where it joined the stomach.

They had already had a video call meeting to discuss my case with Addenbrooks Hospital.

I left the appointment that I attended on my own and cried when I got in my car. I rang my wife who was at work and told her.

An appointment was made to try a laser endoscopy to burn it out but it wasn’t an option then to see one of only 6 surgeons in the country who could do key hole surgery to remove my oesophagus and stretch my stomach to replace it.

On January 30th 2018 (isn’t it funny that you remember the exact dates ) I had a 8.5 hour operation in which they also sewed up a hernia and took my appendix out while they were there.

The operation was a complete success and no need for chemotherapy or radiotherapy.

I was supposed to be in for 3 nights and come out with a feeding tube. Unfortunately, I complicated it by having a stroke on ICU the next day. It wiped out my right side completely, I woke up 12 days later, with a tracheotomy and not being able to move.

I was in hospital and rehab until 21st June 2018.

Here I am 6 years later, can eat well, can walk and use my right arm, still have right side weakness and only one step away from a face plant but a survivor.

I am a typical bloke who didn’t look after myself and left things too long, but well done for burning my armpits Right Guard!

Hi, I’m Claire, I’m an oesophageal cancer patient.

Two and a half years ago I started having trouble swallowing bread and chicken, it felt like the food was getting stuck in my food pipe and wouldn’t go down for up to a minute each time. Aside from that I was well and healthy – I hadn’t smoked for 25 years and I walked and went for 10-mile cycle rides three times a week. I ignored the struggle to swallow some foods for a couple of months, thinking it was nothing serious, just acid reflux or something like that. Luckily for me, my partner had known someone with oesophageal cancer and he knew this could be a symptom of the disease. He made me go to my GP, and thankfully she took the symptoms seriously too.

I was suddenly put on a fast-tracked pathway where I got the results from every test within two weeks. I believe that process, and my partner’s insistence about getting myself checked, saved my life. I was diagnosed with OC in September 2021, had chemo for four months then had an eight-hour operation to remove my oesophagus and the tumour in it. I’ve been slowly recovering ever since. It’s been a real slog, taking two years to go from six stone to eight, and be able to eat a range of different foods. But I won’t ever complain about this because I’m one of the lucky few – two thirds of the people diagnosed with oesophageal cancer find out about it too late to have the operation or anything else that can potentially save their lives.

That’s why I am passionate about raising awareness of this cancer – and the potential symptoms everyone needs to get checked out as soon as possible. They are having persistent heartburn or acid reflux, difficulty swallowing food, hiccups that won’t go away, unexplained pain in your chest and excessive burping or inability to burp. Suffer with any of these for more than three weeks and you have to get to your GP straight away to ask for a scan.

I’d never heard of oesophageal cancer until I was diagnosed with it, but I’d love other people to know it exists, so they can get treated and survive it instead of having it diagnosed too late