How do you feel about the cancer 'label'?
I’ve never really thought of myself as a cancer patient. I always felt alot more interested in the situation than victimised by it. The first time I was diagnosed I was sixteen and two weeks into my AS levels, pursuing a career in neuroscience and genetics and was more fascinated than terrified by seeing scans of my own brain. Because the tumour was benign, I didn’t think of it as cancer.
Did you worry about the outcome of the operation?
In a situation where you have headaches so bad you can’t see, can’t stand and can’t eat, you’re a lot more willing to let someone operate on you to stop the pain than you would be if you didn’t have these symptoms. I didn’t really consider the operation as a bad thing, but as an extremely relieving one. I still think, with all conviction, that this situation was a lot worse for my family and friends than it was for me.
When was the second diagnosis?
After my first year at St. Andrews, and luckily for my academic work, it was taken care of over the generous four-month summer vacation. This cancer was detected through a regular screening that occurs because of my the young age i was diagnosed with the first tumour. This screening obviously proved itself useful when a suspicious shadow showed up on a kidney scan, that then led to almost immediate surgery, what was then discovered to be a malignant kidney cancer being removed, and me being lucky enough only to lose 20% of my kidney, and to retain full kidney function. I was also extremely lucky in that the cancer was caught at the tumour’s removal, and so I did not require any chemotherapy.
Has the experience effected your attitude to life?
I still have regular screenings, and I am very pleased with my ultra-cool scars, one being an 8-inch scar down the back of my head- now mostly hidden by hair, and a very impressive foot-long scar curving along my side, from just under my rib cage to my belly button.
Having known people who have not been lucky enough to beat the disease that now affects approximately 1 in 3 people, I don’t feel as though I can relate to the horror that they went through, and sincerely feel that I am one of the lucky ones.