Iain Kerr, Helensburgh
In October 2013 when I was 58, my wife Wendy and I embarked on a huge move from the Southwest of England to Helensburgh. As you would normally do, we registered with a local GP practice and two weeks later we received our first bowel screening test. At that time, if we continued to live in England we wouldn’t have received this test until we reached 60.
We both completed the test, and funnily enough we were both invited to have a colonoscopy. Wendy’s was first and during the procedure they found a benign polyp. A few weeks later, towards the end of January 2014, I had mine. To be honest, I was more worried about Wendy’s results than my own procedure and started asking questions about her polyp and whether that diagnosis was accurate.
When the consultant had finished, she invited us both to a room to talk about the results. I knew then it was cancer, as this was a completely different experience to Wendy’s appointment. She explained that they had found a tumour. For the first time, I was completely stunned. I didn’t have any symptoms of bowel cancer. I was speechless.
What followed was a whirlwind of blood tests, scans and appointments. In February it was decided that I would have surgery to remove the tumour. I had complete faith in my medical team, they had been superb and I knew that my surgeon was one of the best in the UK.
During the surgery in March, they removed any cancerous lymph nodes. They had found 28, which is an incredible amount. I was then advised that I needed a bowel surgery to remove the tumour and have a colostomy.
The stoma nurses were brilliant, I had all the information and instructions to care for it. It was daunting but there was a lot of support, and of course Wendy was absolutely a fundamental part of my care.
I was preparing myself to think the worst that it had spread to other organs, but in April I was told that no further treatment was needed. I was stunned once again.
For the next few years, I had regular monitoring, blood tests and scans for any signs that the cancer was coming back. It was all going well and I was about to reach my five year milestone, but in 2019 a scan showed something worrying. I had an operation to have a biopsy but this was a false alarm. I’m still having regular monitoring and two months ago I had a colonoscopy, which went well.
I do think that if I continued to live in England and didn’t receive a screening test until I was 60, the outcome may have been very different.
