Len is facing the future with courage and hope, aiming to see his children grow up
'A few weeks before Easter, 2005, I noticed a lump in my groin. Everyone, including my family doctor, told me it was a hernia and nothing to be too concerned about. The week before Easter I took a driving holiday with my brother, who was returning to college, and a friend of mine. I told my friend about my lump and he laughed and said another friend of his had the same thing and that it was also a hernia.
'While it didn't hurt, it nagged at me the whole trip. On Easter Sunday I had dinner with my family at my mother's home. I was experiencing tingling in my left leg and my mother said to go to the Accident and Emergency Department in case it was a "strangulation" hernia. Thank goodness I did. The doctor told me straightaway that it was no hernia but an inflamed lymph node and that it might be cancerous.
'I had a biopsy performed the following week, and a week after that I got the news that would change my life forever. I was told I had diffuse large B cell non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. I turned white as a ghost. Here I was: 34 years old, married, with two beautiful children aged 6 and 2 years. My first thoughts were that I might not see them grow up.
'It's been a rough ride since then. I have been going through chemotherapy and have been very sick. I had a PET scan done a few weeks ago, which showed that the cancer has disappeared. I only have one more cycle of chemotherapy to go and then will return for routine scans.
'I have been told that the next 2 years are crucial to my hopes that I may be cured. I would love to know my options if the cancer does recur, and what are the chances that it may. I pray for all of you and that we all will beat this disease.'
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