Christine

It was an ordinary Monday evening just before the COVID-19 lockdown. I was preparing my evening meal which was going to be salmon with rice and a courgette, cooked in the microwave. But as I turned in my galley kitchen to put the courgette in the microwave I fell to the floor and could not get up. Could I slither to the phone? No. I thought, it is best to press my personal alarm to get some help.

Very soon two friends arrived. They insisted on calling the ambulance for professionals to help me up as they were afraid of causing an injury. When the two paramedics arrived after only about twenty minutes, they easily helped me up but wanted to do some tests.

To my surprise they found a heart murmur and decided they should take me to hospital to have it checked. I had nothing packed for a hospital stay, but my friend Janet managed to get the necessary things together. She was brilliant. Since then I always keep a holdall packed for a hospital stay. Of course, I have not needed it!

There was a long wait in A&E and I was getting very hungry having missed my evening meal at home and arrived too late for one at the hospital! However, a nurse kindly managed to find me a sandwich once I was admitted to a ward.

I was well looked after in the hospital. A physiotherapist visited daily once they found that my injury from the fall had caused a squashed vertebra in the lower back. A heart specialist (cardiologist) visited and prescribed medication for the heart murmur.

One day a haematologist arrived at my bedside closely followed by a group of fresh-faced student doctors. Or at least I presumed they were student doctors as they seemed young. But then at 87, so do most people. He said there were signs of cancer in my blood, but he needed to do more tests to be sure. He said he would probably prescribe chemotherapy. The students took notes. I was amazed.  Nobody in my family had experienced cancer, although nobody had lived into their eighties like me. 

The back injury gradually healed with the help of the physiotherapist. After my return home my haematologist arranged several appointments for me; at least three scans and several biopsies. Eventually a biopsy on a swollen gland in my neck gave him the information that it was lymphoma.

I thought, 'Oh good, we have a result'. Closely followed by, 'Oh, I have cancer.'

Christine

For me, my cancer caused no pain. A blood test by my GP had come back clear just a few weeks earlier when I had reported the swollen gland.

I was diagnosed with stage 3 lymphoma and a course of chemotherapy was arranged which  completely destroyed the cancer and did not give me any serious side effects. 

I could not have had better treatment anywhere. Of course, I also have my little courgette to thank. Without it causing my fall, it is unlikely I would ever have met my consultant, or certainly not until it was too late.