Mez
In our podcast entitled No one like me is talking about this, Mez talks with honesty about his diagnosis and treatment for DLBCL.
As a 42-year old Indian Hindu with a wife and 1-year old daughter, Mez found it hard to find others going through the same experience after his diagnosis of diffuse large B-cell lymphoma. Mez shared his story with us in our podcast episode as he wanted to support others like himself. He talks about the challenges of treatment and how he created circles of friends and family to support him through the difficult times. Mez is a problem solver and explains how important it was for him to arm himself with as much information about lymphoma as possible; leaving clinical decisions to the medical professionals who he put his trust in. Mez speaks candidly about his struggles with fatigue and extreme short-term memory loss and strategies he adopted to help him
“I wanted to share my story to raise awareness of lymphoma amongst men and also amongst ethnic minority groups” he says. “My main source of information when I was diagnosed came from Lymphoma Action. Their books and information are so helpful. But I found it difficult to find someone else like me who had been through a similar experience. I wanted to hear real stories from real people - sharing my story gives me the ability to help others through the fear and uncertainty that comes with cancer."
"Men struggle to talk about health-related issues, including cancer” he continues. “There are so many men (especially in ethnic minorities) that go through cancer alone and it doesn't need to be this way. I remember a friend of mine asking me if I was OK as he’d noticed I had lost a lot of weight. I’m so glad he checked in on me and feel it’s so important for men to support each other and not be afraid to have those conversations.”
Now in remission, and with a new addition to his family, Mez cherishes the joys of family and is keen to share his experience with them too so they have an awareness about lymphoma, and health related issues more widely.
“I didn’t know that lymphoma was a type of blood cancer, and after researching it I was really surprised by just how common it is” he says. “Now, I’m making it my duty to raise awareness and talk about cancer to my children, so they can be armed with the knowledge that I didn’t have in the beginning.”
Mez has shared his story with us as part of our Let’s talk lymphoma awareness campaign running throughout Blood Cancer Awareness Month in September. He has also created a series of videos on his YouTube channel upon receiving his lymphoma diagnosis to document his personal journey. Find out more about how you can get involved in our campaign this September to raise awareness and funds to support our work.
Watch Mez talk about his lymphoma diagnosis