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They say 1 in 2 people will contract cancer at some point in their lifetime and that's a scary statistic.

It became even scarier for us on the 15th of Jan 2022 when Barrie (my husband) was diagnosed with Squamous Cell sarcoma with occult primary. (we cannot ever begin to thank Dr McKeown from Tinto practice for the quick referral to ENT and the introduction to Head & Neck specialist Mr Crosbie and his team of Macmillan Nurses Mel and Lynn Marie). It was found via fine needle aspirations and a core biopsy in lymph nodes on the left hand side of his neck and as cancer very rarely starts in lymph nodes this meant it was a secondary cancer and the hunt was on to try and find the primary. Fast forward a few months following various tests, scopes and scans when an 8mm tumour was found at the base of his tongue. Further scans and biopsies followed to help inform what treatment plan would be needed. They decided the best course of action would be 6 weeks of daily radiotherapy plus 2 sessions of chemo, the 1st on day 1 and the 2nd 3 weeks later. This started on 25th April 2022 and was better than expected as the Macmillan nurses were letting us both know what to expect every step of the way. That was until at the end of week 1 when Barrie then was struck down with steroid induced pancreatitis and was hospitalised in the local hospital with no access the macmillan team. This was a nightmare as despite explaining his situation he was treated like an alcaholic and missed a session of radiotherapy due to their complete lack of understanding. I broke him out of hospital and he carried back on with his daily treatment. Unfortunately early into week 3 of his treatment I developed covid and shut myself away in the back room to try and protect him, but it was to no avail and he too tested positive on the Saturday. We thought at this point his treatment would be suspended, but Macmillan were there to reassure us that it wouldn't be and the Beatson were great when we called to explain the situation and said that although they couldn't see him at his usual treatment time, if he came in 1st thing every day they could still see him and get the place all sterilised before everyone else started coming in for theirs. Barrie was doing well despite the complications, but in week 5 things took a turn for the worse and he stopped being able to eat and was hospitalised where they inserted a naso gastric tube to allow him to get some nutrition, by this time he had lost over 3 stone so they decided to keep him hospitalised with the tube until his treatment was finished. The staff in the Beatson were lovely. And the Macmillan nurses were constantly in touch to see if either of us needed anything and they organised from him to have a nebuliser and a batch of ensure build up drinks for him getting home and they put us in touch with their financial support advisor who helped us work out what (if any) financial help we could get and this was greatly appreciated as his employer would only pay statutory sick pay for up to six months so Macmillan grants were a huge relief when our fridge broke and they funded a new one for us as well as giving us a new matress as Barrie would be spending quite a bit of time in bed recuperating.

I am doing this head shave as I was going to cut my hair very short anyway as I'm stick and tired of dyeing it and want my natural colour to grow back in so I thought why not use the opportunity to raise some much needed funds for this amazing charity and will have another page too for Maggie's Lanarkshire where you can read all about all of the fabulous things their amazing folk have done to help us through this last horriffic year (I don't wish to upset or offend anyone who has suffered the trauma of forced hair loss)

I hope to keep the donations balanced between the 2 organisations so would be hugly grateful if you could split whatever you are willing to donate between the 2 pages. 🙏

Thanks for reading and thank you so much if you have taken the time to donate. We appreciate times are tricky for everyone at present so even a £1 would be appreciated.

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