Some time ago I started to lose weight, it wasn’t sudden just gradually over several months; I thought, could I have cancer? Because this is one of the first signs, weight lose for no apparent reason, this is because cancer feeds on you and just eats you away.

I got in touch with my surgery and they sent me for 2 blood tests. When the results came back I got told that both tests were negative and that I was fine and there was nothing to worry about and everything was alright, I later found out that blood tests can’t detect lung cancer you have to have an X-ray or ct scan to detect this I was given neither.

Several more months went by and I still continued to lose weight, I was now more than 20 lbs below my normal weight so I got in touch with the surgery again and was told they would get a doctor to phone and have a talk with me. When he phoned me and we got talking I told him straight I think I have got cancer so he said come in and I’ll have a look at you.

When I go and see him he takes my blood pressure and my oxygen level, checks me over and tells me he can’t find anything wrong so I had no need to worry but anyway he says I’ll send you for a X-ray. When the results of the X-ray came back I was found to have shadow on my right lung I was then sent for a ct scan which found I had T4N3M1a cancer which was terminal and incurable and my oncologist who I saw gave me a life expectancy of between 3 and 6 months. I have to add that I have never smoked but this doesn’t seem to matter non smokers can get lung cancer as well as smokers although I have been a miner for 33 years. I do feel very badly let done by my GP.

There’s a special treatment for cancer called a Cyber knife, this is a laser that they say can treat any cancer and only targets cancer cells and leaves normal cells alone. But there is a problem, its very expensive and a course can cost up to £20,000. I found 3 Cyber Knives in England; Japan has 21 7 times more.

I have recorded a programme that I watch and I wish you all could see its about a woman who has a 6cm tumour wrapped around an artery on the side of her neck, this couldn’t have been in a worst place. She was given Cyber Knife treatment, which killed the tumour but left the artery untouched, this how Cyber Knife works. The only after effects she had was to her taste, which she thought, was a small price to pay for the removal of the tumour.

When I was diagnosis with a 31/2cm tumour by my air passage. I found out that the xxxx hospital  had a Cyber Knife, so I got in touch with their oncologist who was extremely helpful even though I wasn’t one of his patients. I asked him would it be possible to have Cyber Knife treatment on my tumour and told him I was in a position to fund my own treatment and would not have to through the NHS. He asked me to send him my medial records, which I did and the results came back that he totally agreed  that I had T4N3M1a terminal lung cancer and it was untreatable with the Cyber Knife, it seems that although the Cyber Knife can treat any tumour it cannot treat cancer that had spread, like mine. I did try.

I have fluid drained from my lung twice and it didn’t contain any cancer cells, I have had a blood biopsy which found no cancer, I was due to have a bronchoscope, but my lung had collapsed and I couldn’t have this, but I still have had no treatment for my collapsed lung. I have had a PET scan and a ct scan where a colour fluid was injected in to me and still the doctors can’t find out what type of cancer I’ve got, to some this might seem good news but actually is the worst possible news because without knowing what type of cancer I’ve got they are unable to treat it. The only other option is major surgery but as I am 86 years old they say am too old and weak to have this, so I’m left with terminal lung cancer, which can’t be treated because the doctors don’t know what type of cancer I have, How long will I last if the cancer is not treated, I don’t know, I’m 4 months into my 6 month life expectancy, my next appoint is in April but will be here then?

Cancer cells are quick dividing cells, that’s their nature they just keep on dividing and spreading until it takes over your whole body and if left untreated will kill you. Chemotherapy targets and kills these cells, but there is a problem, there lots of quick dividing cells in your body that not cancerous but Chemotherapy can’t tell the difference between normal cells and cancerous ones so what it does every quick dividing cell it finds it just kills, this is why when your having Chemotherapy your immune system suffers and your hair can fall out this is due to Chemotherapy killing your normal cells as well as the cancerous ones, this does not happen with Cyber Knife treatment.

The trouble with cancer when we find we’ve got it its usually too late and its spread and is now untreatable, how often have we hear that statement. Japanese doctors are recommending that smokers should have a ct scan every 12 months and non smokers every 3 years this is so that the cancer can be found in its early stages and then would be much easier to treat. I can’t see this happening here simply because of the high cost to the NHS.

I would advise anyone who is ask to have a biopsy to have it right away, this is the only way doctors can tell what type of cancer you have, without this knowledge they can’t treat your cancer so delaying having a biopsy means your giving your cancer more time to spread which could then possibly become untreatable, so have a biopsy.

There are lots of types of cancer, each one is unique and must have special treatment so without a biopsy the doctors cannot give you this treatment. There also lots of new treatments for cancer and providing it’s found early there is no reason why you can’t live for a good number of years, I have seen 2 women on the internet that had lung cancer which was treated and 9 years later their still alive, so please get that biopsy.

I hope some of you will find this listing interesting.

Ivor