CANCER UPDATE 10 - 03-25 Monday

 Good evening everyone , well its been a long time since the 7 th October 2024 , there has been a lot happening behind the scenes that are ongoing and nothing relative to my Cancer Treatment itself so I wont be referring to those in this Blog at all .

On the 23 rd October 2023 I attended North Manchester General Hospital for an Appointment with the Consultant Mr Baldwin , who the previous week had carried out an  Investigation on my throat under a General Anesthetic to obtain Biopsies from the base of my tongue , Mr Baldwin is a very nice man and was very open with me as I had requested at a previous appointment .

" Well  Mr Slattery I am sorry to inform you of this but you have a Throat Cancer " !!  ,I will never forget those words and their impact on me , my Life turned upside down in an instant , Where , What , How ?? so many questions but sadly no real answers to them , I was a Victim of an ever increasing Disease .          But he assured me that it was Treatable by Radiotherapy and it was going to be a Tough road ahead   !!

Well it was and those of you who have followed the Blog will know the Journey well , because I shared it with you all didnt I . so I will fast forward a few months to January the 11th 2025 when I attended a Clinic in Royton near Oldham for my 4 th PET  Scan and I am now pretty used to being injected with Radioactive ( Glow in the dark) Material , and it was all pretty normal with no Issues at all , so it was a matter of wait for the appointment for the Results !! 

Today 10th March 2025 I attended at North Manchester General Hospital with a good friend Bev Heath as my escort and Potential photographer ( optimistic ) for a 9-40am appointment with my Consultant Ms Susi Penney , who as usual was her usual smiley self and welcomed us in and I introduced Bev  and we exchanged a few Niceties and then she smiled at me and said those  Precious words                                      "Well Thomas your PET Scan from the 11th Jan is CLEAR  , NO CANCER  ,NOTHING !!!!!                                    Thomas you have beaten the Cancer it has gone ,Whether it was Residual     or not it has gone and you are clear  ," Go away and get on with your life I will see you again in May or June to check on things but I am Happy for you , you made your decision to reject Surgery and in your Case its worked for you !! "

I was obviously delighted and thanked her for how she had been so honest and straight with me from day 1 and I had trusted her implicitly on the choices I had been allowed to make , although as Ms Penney said they were not without risk. Which she had reminded me of at every PET SCAN  that I had . I asked if I am now handed back to Christies for Obs and her reply "Oh no Thomas your mine" , which I was delighted to hear . So it was a Hug a photo   and a big Thank you and Bev and I headed off to Christies to do the Bell Ceremony .   

Bev and I arrived at Christies and headed for dept 34 where I had received my Radiotherapy in Suite 4 ,my intention being to see if the lovely Team who had done my treatment still worked here , on asking questions it turns out they have moved on to other training all Apart from the Team leader who may be working in suite 5 ! , so off we go to suite 5 and ask , sadly Lydia is on Holiday and back on Thursday ! so I may be going back  , just think it might be nice and courteous to let her know that I am Clear .           And then it was my turn to Ring that Bell again , the last time being 2 nd Jan 2024 , such a long time , there were only a few people there but I rang it and a few applauded which was nice , I felt a huge relief and Bev had recorded it for Posterity and of course this Blog , and we started to leave . 

Tom rings the bell video

And amazingly who is walking down the same corridor towards us but Mr Chris Hughes my Oncologist  ( what are the Odds on that ) He smiled and notice I was wearing my Thomas Trumps Cancer Hat which he back in March 24 had refused me permission  to wear it , weshook hands and chatted about things in general and then we left 

Seeing Mr Hughes had been a perfect end to the morning , He had held strong feelings that whatever it was in my Lymph Nodes it wasnt Cancer and I had trusted him and it was he that I based a lot of my Hopes in that I did not need Surgery and so it proved , and he told us that my case and a few others had led to quite a change in sending People for Biopsies and their reliability . We shook hands and left .

So for those of you who have stuck by me and supported me on this Journey ,Massive Thanks  ,     I wont forget those Dark days and Nights for a long time , to my Family I say thank you so much and sorry for the distress this has given you , to my friends out There a Massive thank you ,  you will never know have important your messages of Encouragement were  !!                                        To those out there who read my Blog Journey and found it useful and informative  , thats good and Partly the intention of it .

So unless anything Drastic happens in the Future it Goodbye Farewell and a big thank you to photographer Bev Heath and Mark bottomley for the help that they have given  along the Journey .

Love you all Tom Slattery 😄❤