In 2018, at 35, Chris was diagnosed unexpectedly with stage 3 oesophageal cancer. Very quickly he started a gruelling regime of chemotherapy and radiotherapy and in July of that year underwent a 13 hour operation to remove his oesophagus and had his stomach pulled up in replacement. Whilst in hospital recovering Chris survived sepsis and pneumonia.

In November 2018, Chris was diagnosed with recurrent oesophageal cancer in his neck and only 7 months after major surgery and whilst still in rehabilitation had a full neck dissection which removed everything in his neck apart from the structure. Following this Chris courageously battled 6 months of daily chemotherapy - IV infusion and tablets. During this chemotherapy treatment he contracted neutropenic sepsis and again ended up in hospital.

April 2020, Chris wife noticed a change in his voice and contacted the oncology team - they did further tests and cancer was again found in his pharynx and larynx which resulted in chris’ vocal cords being paralysed.

May 2020 saw the start of another 6 months of gruelling treatment with surgery planned December 2020 - this surgery involved removing the whole of Chris’ voice box, his pharynx and larynx. He would be left with no voice and would have a stoma in his neck to breathe through.

The 18 hour operation was a success and after 3 weeks in hospital and surviving a sepsis yet again Chris was allowed home in time for Christmas.

Things were evident quite quickly that his recovery wasn’t straight forward- he had post op complications with his stoma, weight loss, mobility issues and eating and drinking problems.

The surgeon decided to do a gastroscopy to see what was going on and unfortunately they discovered cancer yet again - this time the family were given the devastating news that there wasn’t any available treatment and Chris was given months to live.