I can’t wait for the day when I forget I ever smoked and hope my story inspires other to give up as their New Year’s resolution - Henry ‘H’ Pridding

Henry ‘H’ Pridding - Christie patient

Lots of people who smoke or drink too much will have decided to give up or cut down as a New Year resolution. By sharing my own experiences I hope that it will give others some encouragement to make their resolution stick. If my story inspires even one person to stop smoking that would be great.

I recently completed 30 rounds of head and neck radiotherapy following an operation to my tongue to remove cancer. It was a huge wakeup call and made me realise that I needed to give up smoking, for myself but also for my amazing wife Tina and our five children.

With the help of the smoking cessation team at The Christie – big shout out to Charlotte and Peter – I managed to kick a lifelong smoking habit in October this year. It’s not been easy and I’ve had to be determined but I have succeeded.

I started smoking and drinking over 50 years ago as a teenager. By the time I was in my 30s I began to realise that my drinking was becoming a problem. When I met Tina, I realised that I wanted to turn things around. Through my love for Tina, who was to become my wife, I managed to stop drinking 28 years ago.

When I stopped drinking I had a thought in my head. If I do it for Tina everybody will benefit, and they did. The whole family benefitted. We could afford to buy things for the kids and I could provide more for my family. Respecting and helping other people is very important to me and being able to respect my family was the thing that helped me to become free from the drink.

Unfortunately, giving up smoking took a lot longer, 28 years longer in fact!

When I had my final cigarette I looked at it and simply decided ‘No more’. Since that moment I have not touched another roll-up and can’t wait for the day when I forget I ever smoked, or even forget the date I stopped because it’s no longer of any importance.

When I’m having a bad day or feeling stressed I take a moment to notice what’s winding me up and causing me to feel that way and then instead of reaching for a cig I’ll do something really straightforward that helps me – I’ll make a cup of tea, or have a chat with Tina or make someone laugh. I have a wicked sense of humour and love nothing more than to make people smile, especially Tina.

I’m an old romantic at heart and I wear my heart on my sleeve. I even have a tattoo of a cup of tea on my arm. It is there for my special Tina.

I don’t allow smoking to occupy my thoughts.

A teacher at school told me there is no such thing as no. As an adult, I now realise if I want to do something, no matter what it is, I can. As far as I’m concerned there is no such thing as can’t!

There have been many times in my life where I’ve thought ‘I can’t do it’ and then surprised myself with what I can achieve. I believe that actions speak louder than words and if you believe your fears or doubts then nothing ever changes.

I believe that something good can come from anything. Since being diagnosed with cancer my daughters, who have witnessed my illness and pain, have both stopped smoking.

With the help of everyone at The Christie, the doctors, nurses, smoking cessation team and radiographers, I’ve been able to quit smoking. To use a Manchester adage, ‘Nice one’!

To find out more about smoking and alcohol cessation services at The Christie please visit www.christie.nhs.uk/services/a-to-h/complementary-therapy/what-we-do/treatments-we-offer/smoking-cessation-and-alcohol-advice-services/

I decided to give up social media to fundraise for The Christie because of my stepfather - Laura Sinclair

Laura Sinclair, Christie fundraiser

Laura Sinclair

I decided to fundraise for The Christie because of my stepfather, Bill, who in August 2015 was diagnosed with stage four head, neck and throat cancer. It came as a shock as he went from a healthy man who would go fishing every week and tend to his allotment daily, to being in a wheelchair after a spinal stroke and then to being told he had cancer.

He underwent radiotherapy at The Christie during the remainder of 2015. The treatment he received from The Christie was incredible. Everyone from the CALMS team who helped him feel relaxed and at ease during radiotherapy, to the staff in the canteen and the nurses and doctors who treated him went above and beyond what we expected.

I wanted other families going through this to get the same treatment, so with the support of my friends and family I have come up with different challenges to fundraise for The Christie. These challenges have included hiking (the Yorkshire 3 Peaks, 50km a day for 5 days), a triathlon, giving up alcohol for a month and in February 2016, I decided to give up social media for a month.

The term social media actually seems to have a flexible definition to people. What does it include? Facebook, Instagram and Twitter seem the obvious choices but where do LinkedIn, SnapChat, WhatsApp, Couchsurfing and Strava fit in? So after many discussions with people I made my choice to include Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, Snapchat and any other similar platform. I decided to carry on using WhatsApp due to having several international friends and not being able to contact them otherwise, and as a final year PhD student looking for a job, I decided to keep on using LinkedIn for professional reasons.

Day one involved the removal of all social media applications from my phone, to remove all temptation. One positive was that the battery life of my phone increased significantly. I deactivated my Facebook account as it was the most tempting to check, and partially because despite my friends being wonderful, I was a little bit afraid they would spam my Facebook wall with Star Wars memes!

I kept checking my phone throughout the next few days for notifications which never came, as an active (perhaps too active) member I would get a lot of notifications each day. Finding ways to contact people was frustrating and sometimes I had to ask mutual friends to send my phone number to friends to get in contact.

When I went to London for a conference I would normally have sent snapchats detailing every aspect of my journey, but this time I enjoyed my time and took in the sights. Inane thoughts normally reserved for Twitter had to remain in my head or if a little bit interesting I texted them to my friends.

A few days into my challenge my family and I went to North Manchester hospital for the results of the CT scan for Bill to see if the radiotherapy had worked. Anyone who has ever been in this position knows how challenging waiting for the results can be, and in the days leading up to it I just never felt like I would be ready to hear the results.

The family (Bill, my mum, Bill's eldest daughter and her husband and me) were taken into a room with the consultant and several nurses. The radiotherapy had shrunk the original tumours but unfortunately, and there was never going to be an easy way to say it, the cancer had spread to the lungs and is now terminal. Bill remained strong and positive throughout this, and was determined to make the most of the time he had.

If I’d still been on social media that’s how I might have told people of the news but having given it up it meant I had to speak to people directly and contacting people to tell them something like that is never easy.

As time passed during the challenge, I eventually found I was checking my phone less and less.

My friends would text or call me, and some sent emails. I began to enjoy not being connected to the world so readily. Sometimes people would talk about things they saw on social media, but I didn't really feel left out.

On a training hike my friends kept asking if I had seen such and such a message, forgetting I had left the world of Facebook. I tend to organise the hiking trips with my friends, and a lot of social gatherings via Facebook, so I had to pass on messages to people or trust them to make plans instead.

The worst part of giving up social media was realising how much I rely on it to connect with friends and family, I didn't have phone numbers for many of them as we would use Facebook messenger or Snapchat. I did miss sharing good news on Facebook during the month, such as my first job offer, but learning to share less has been better.

By having time off social media, I read more books, cooked more meals (I even learnt to a bake a pie!) and was more productive at work. I set aside time in my day to reply to non urgent requests and texts, and didn't feel obliged to respond instantly to messages. You soon lose the fear of missing out on social media and appreciate the simpler things.

What I learnt from the challenge was to have back up ways to keep in contact with the people you care about, although social media is a good way to be in contact with friends and family. I learnt I needed to be more selective in what I share on social media, and that every aspect of my life doesn't need to be shared. I learnt to have more real conversations with people and appreciate my friends and family in person more. If you give up social media for a month you'll have more time for yourself and value your time. And the big bonus is that the battery life on your phone will increase!

If you’d like to support my fundraising, please visit www.justgiving.com/laura-sinclair5/

Sadly, Bill passed away on 1st June 2016. Our thoughts and sympathies are with Laura and his family and friends. 

I’ve really valued the emotional support from everyone around me, especially the team at The Christie - Katie Stephenson

Katie Stephenson – Parotid Gland Cancer Patient (Mammary Analogue Secretory Carcinoma)

Katie Stephenson

I’m 30 years old and November 2015 marks four years since I began treatment for parotid gland cancer. 

I live in Chorley, Lancashire and I work in Public Relations for the NHS. I remember the moment I found my first tumour like it was yesterday. It was July 2011 and I was having a lovely lunch in a beer garden in Lancaster (fish and chips if you were wondering!) when I felt a lump on my jaw. Always the hypochondriac, I dramatically said to my friend, "feel this lump, it must be a tumour!"

The lump didn’t go away and after weeks of poking and prodding by various doctors and a few courses of antibiotics in case it was a cyst, I had an ultrasound. I’d done a lot of research by this point and pretty much knew every eventual outcome so when he told me it was a solid mass I was as prepared as I could be to hear that news. After a fine needle aspiration, which basically meant a doctor stuck a tiny needle into the lump and drew some fluid from it to test, the results were inconclusive so I was delivered the news that I’d need a major operation to the side of my face to remove the lump (most likely a tumour) and half of my parotid gland. 

The parotid is part of a family of three salivary glands and it sits just below your ear. Again, I’d done my research and found that salivary gland cancer is rare with approximately 550 cases being diagnosed each year, most commonly in people over 50. The exact cause of this cancer is unknown and in most cases, tumours in salivary glands are benign. 

With any surgery there were also side effects and with mine these included facial paralysis, numbness and problems with the salivary function. Although these were worrying to me, I was only 26 at the time so my main concern was about the gigantic scar I’d have running down my face.

I had my surgery done in Preston and I cried the first time I looked in a mirror. I’m not an overly vain person (my friends might correct me on this!) but I had 40 stitches down the side of my ear and down my neck, a huge dent in my face where part of the gland had been removed and little to no movement in half of my lip. 

Katie post surgery

Despite this I waited patiently for the results of the tests…..I waited and I waited….20 weeks later I was delivered the news that it was a malignant tumour however it had been removed with clear margins which meant that they believed they had got it all. The reason for the delay was that it was a newly described tumour and not many labs had seen one before. Eventually I was given its definitive name; Mammary Analogue Secretory Carcinoma.

Almost a year to the day of finding the original lump, I found, and had removed a second tumour. Luckily this one was a lot closer to the surface and the surgery was nowhere near as invasive. At the same time as this surgery I received Botox injections to my face as I’d developed a relatively rare side effect of the surgery known as Frey’s Syndrome. This is basically a mutation of your salivary glands so instead of your mouth watering on the inside, I was getting a moist cheek – not a good look when you’re stood in front of a tasty buffet and your cheek starts watering!

Following the removal of the second tumour I was referred to The Christie to discuss my treatment options. As it was a relatively recently named tumour there was some uncertainty as to what the treatment should be. At the initial consultation we discussed the different options available to me; further surgery to remove the rest of the gland or a course of radiotherapy, both of which carried further risks and complications. In the end we decided that I would be a “watch and wait” patient, meaning I’d have scans and check-ups instead of treatment. 

This course of action didn’t initially sit well with me. I’d really struggled emotionally during the wait for my initial results and I didn’t think I had the strength and resilience to do it again, but with the support of my consultant we decided to go ahead. I now have bi-annual MRIs to my head and neck and I visit The Christie four times a year for check-ups. I won’t lie, sometimes it’s really hard to just sit back and wait. I check the area every day and I’m just waiting for the time I feel another lump. I did have a scare last year but thankfully it was just scar tissue from my original surgery on the move.

Throughout my experience I decided to document this by blogging (www.apainintheparotid.wordpress.com). I struggled to find a lot of UK based information about the condition so thought I’d share my experiences with anyone else who was going through this too. I post pictures, tips and updates and I find writing about my day, hospital appointments, scar progress (and the occasional whinge) extremely therapeutic.

I’ve also really valued the emotional support from everyone around me, especially the team at The Christie – shout out to Professor Slevin! Whilst I might not be having visible treatment, people should never underestimate the emotional impact a cancer diagnosis can have and the compassion and care from the team at The Christie has been second to none.

After my surgery I was left scarred, unable to smile on one side of my face and feeling very self-conscious. I became extremely anxious and pretty much ate my feelings, putting on over six stone in weight in the process. Over the last 18 months I have really seen an improvement emotionally, and finally managed to get some focus back in my life. I even went back to university to study for a postgraduate qualification, something I could not have imagined doing three years ago. 

If I was to give one piece of advice to anyone reading this who is going through something similar, it would be to never underestimate the power of emotional support. I know all too well how easy it is to retreat and want to deal with it on your own, but please just talk to someone. I’m a very independent person and leaning on others for support didn’t come easily to me but I learnt that this doesn’t make you any less strong or unable to cope and, without that support, I wouldn’t be the person I am today. I have a much brighter outlook on life, my confidence is coming back and I’ve started to shift some of the weight that I’d put on. I’m still a way from eventual discharge (pending no new lumps – fingers crossed!) and visiting The Christie has just become part of my life routine, but without the fantastic support of the team at The Christie, my friends and my family I don’t think I would have come through this so strongly.