22-03-2024

Wee, wee, wee.

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Despite HCC's attempts to isolate Middle Road by road works at the Brook Lane roundabout in Park Street preventing you from doing U-turn, there was a much reduced audience but still enough of us to make it a good morning.

We really can’t bang the drum loud enough when it comes to our health. On Thursday we treated to a talk from Stewart Crowe very ably assisted by his wife Denise who quietly sat there and kept him on track, well we all know how old men go off course when chatting.

The first thing that we found was extremely apparent is that persistence paid off for Stewart. It took numerous visits to his GP surgery before he finally managed to convince them his condition was not due to a UTI but was more extreme. Finally, he was diagnosed with bladder cancer, apparently the fifth most prevalent form of cancer and probably the least talked about. A point that Stewart made very clearly was that it is not confined to old coggers like you and me but can strike any sex or gender of any age at any time.

He, with the occasional prod from his long-suffering wife, went through his journey from initial diagnosis, through treatment, to almost being given the all clear when it re-appeared and was treated very quickly with very promising results. Just to add insult to injury just before finding the re-emerging bladder council they discovered that he had also developed our old enemy, prostate cancer. So now he is undergoing treatment for both conditions.

Give him his due, he looks well and is certainly fighting hard to bring his story to the big, wide world. From his talk make certain that if you have blood in your urine (apparently it can be there without showing signs) you get yourself checked out and if you are not happy with the first diagnosis keep pushing and don’t give up until you are quite happy with the result, well maybe not ‘happy’, but you know what I mean.

Follow his story from the beginning at https://bladdercancerfollowmyjourney.blogspot.com
And if you want more information and help try https://fightbladdercancer.co.uk or call 01844-351621

Author: Chris Nixon