If you worry you die, if you don’t worry you’ll still die. So why worry?

If you worry you die if you do not worry you will still die, so why worry?
Told me many years ago by a good friend called Paddy Lambe

My name is Steve ‘Brick’ I have been a climber, walker, and skier since 1968. I was a member of a local climbing club in Blackpool for many years. I heard John Ellison on Radio Lancashire in late February and decided to support CAC and bought a T shirt. I went on my annual Skiing trip, to Italy, in March 2013 but, before I went, I started to have intermittent pains in the back.

Since Christmas 2012 I had ‘consciously’ lost 5-10kgs in weight by refraining from cakes biscuits and cutting down on the beer but I lost my appetite as well.

During the Holiday I was using heat patches and gels Voltorol and Fastum to relieve the pain. I managed to survive the holiday with no problems at all and dismissed the pain as old age and poverty.

When I returned to work, as an engineer, I found that carrying my toolbox was becoming painful to my back so I had to take out quite a few tools to lessen the load. In early April I was away on business staying at a hotel in Nottingham. However, when I tried to get out of bed the next day, the pain in my back was excruciating. I made an urgent appointment with my GP who examined me and told me I had a swollen liver. I then had blood tests which showed that I had abnormal blood counts from the liver. He sent me to a consultant who arranged a couple of CT scans in early May. A colonoscopy and a gastroscopy was arranged for the following week.

My Father had died from colon cancer and so this would have been the 3rd colonoscopy I had had in 7 years. On the 13 May 2013 I was told, both during and after the procedure, that I had cancer of the stomach with secondary cancer in the liver and it was inoperable.

At such a moment all your priorities change in an instant: work, money, holidays, plans for the future all go out of the window and down the pan.

It took me 4-6 weeks to come to terms with my situation and, for quite a few weeks, my brain was completely addled until I had fully taken on board and absorbed the immortal words of Paddy Lambe.

The consultant then referred me to an oncologists who diagnosed me as but would treat me with chemotherapy in order to reduce the growth. I was at the time still experiencing a lot of pain in the lower back, especially in the morning, and the painkillers were not having a great effect. My 6 sessions of chemotheropy are still on-going but the pain in my back means I am unable to function as normal. An urgent MRI scan was arranged by the oncologist.

I had arranged to marry my long term partner on Blackpool Prom on the 2nd of July (it rained). An MRI scan was then performed on the 3rd of July and it was discovered that a vertebrae in my back had been invaded by the cancer. I have since been given 5 consecutive sessions of radiotherapy at the Rosmere Cancer Centre at the RPI (pictured).

I would like to encourage people to give to as many cancer charities as the are able to afford because you never know what is around the corner and it can happen to anyone out of the blue.

One in four people will die of cancer.

Only time will tell what will happen in the future but in the words of Paddy Lambe.
If you worry you die if you do not worry you will still die, so why worry?