I was happily going through life working and enjoying a social life with friends and family, then out of the blue I was diagnosed with throat cancer. The devastating news was hard to take and it took several days to digest, keeping the news to just myself and my wonderful wife Ness, my rock. The information that specialists provide is vast, from the process of treatment to the psychological issues that you will face and what will happen after treatment through recovery.

The hardest part was not necessarily the treatment, six weeks of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, being fed through a tube up your nose and down your throat, losing nearly three stone in weight, being strapped to the radiotherapy bed every day or the burning pain of radiotherapy. The hardest part without doubt was telling my fantastic daughters, who were and have been so brilliant throughout the treatment and my recovery. The effect on family is devastating.

I am now clear of cancer and have been for nearly two years, over which time I have had the chance to ponder the horrible experience. Without donations to cancer charities it is highly possible that there would not of been the expertise and awareness to diagnose the cancer in the first place. The unbelievable amount of information and knowledge given to me by experts from the facial surgeon who removed several teeth, the speech and language therapist who guided me through the treatment, and of course all the doctors and nurses who provided the treatments developed by researchers.