Michael is a forklift truck-driver who, although he felt healthy at the time, found a lump in his neck in the autumn of 2001 that turned out to be non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
'It was September 2001 when I found a lump in my neck one day but, as it was only small, I thought it was just a spot. My partner advised me to see my family doctor and, when I went, she took some blood for tests. The next thing I know, I am in an operating theatre having the lump removed. My oncologist told me that I had high grade, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, which meant very little to me at the time. As I understand it now, it was Stage 1 disease, but very aggressive.
'After all of the results from the tests following my operation had come back, the oncologist decided on six sessions of chemotherapy, followed by 20 blasts of radiotherapy. At the time, I thought I tolerated the chemo quite well, but the radiotherapy hurt me more than I could have imagined. My mouth was so sore after the second week that I pleaded with my doctor not to have anymore, but I had to finish the course. It was about December 2002 before I was feeling more like myself.
'A while later, I started to sweat profusely at night. When I mentioned it to my oncologist during one of my 6-monthly checks, he ordered a chest X-ray and took some blood, but the results did not show anything abnormal. Just before Christmas of 2003, I found another lump in my neck, luckily in the same place as the first one.
'Once again, after all the tests, I was disappointed to find that my cancer was back but I couldn't just ignore it. I was referred to a haematology unit at another hospital with a view to starting high-dose chemotherapy, followed by a peripheral blood stem cell transplant. Phew, what a time I had with that! I won't bore you with all the details about the treatment. The hardest thing I found was being away from my partner and daughter. 'It is now the start of 2005 and I hope the non-Hodgkin's lymphoma doesn't come back, but you never know. I don't know what I would do if it does, but it's no good worrying. If it's going to come back, there is nothing I can do to stop it - I just have to keep my fingers crossed.
'Good luck to anyone who is reading this, because you wouldn't be reading it if non-Hodgkin's lymphoma hadn't touched your life in some way.'
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