Hello, my name is Leo and I'm introducing myself to the forum. I have had the pleasure of doing an insane 24 hour run with the organiser Gill this weekend to raise money for HaNC and she reminded me that I need to get on here! I hope anyone who comes on here who has been diagnosed with Head & Neck cancer and reads this will be off to a good start - I've had it and I ran 40km cross country this weekend across 24 hours with no sleep!
I suppose the best thing is to introduce yourself with your own case, and that is what I am doing. However I had a salivary cancer called mucoepidermoid carcinoma which turned up in a lump in my neck and was (and technically still is) of an unknown primary, so basically I'm a bit weird!
Its unlikely anyone will come on here soon with the same case as me. So as I don't want to be 'billy no mates' then I hope I can help people with other forms of HaNC too. Because I think all of us with HaNC can relate to each other and many have been through the same treatments despite the differences in our exact forms of cancer, and had the same fears and feelings. So its certainly not essential to have exactly the same badge on to help each other out.
I am not far from being 4 years out from my lump turning up and I'm doing really well and am healthier than ever, living a great life. There is very much life after cancer, we can beat it together and I believe having a positive attitude is one of the most powerful things you can have in your armoury. A guy I used to know very well on another forum used to say 'control the controllables'. In other words, we can't control everything; none of us ever wanted to get cancer, but we can't change that and there are things that we can do to help - keeping our spirits up and helping our bodies, even when it seems tough.
So if anyone comes on here with salivary gland cancer, has a cancer of unknown primary or they have gone through a neck dissection then I have specifically been through all of those things, and I would be a good person to talk to. But I want to be able to help anyone going through HaNC and hopefully share some of our experiences at the very least. I know the positive stories always helped me, and I definitely have one.
So I'll finish by saying welcome to the club none of us wanted to be in!
I'm sorry you are here, but there is hope and I know that the specialists in this area (especially at Aintree) are committed, dedicated and brilliant people.
You are in the best possible hands, so lets try and fight this together!
All the best
Leo
thanks so much for your post Leo! What an amazingly positive story. Having seen you run a marathon over the 24 hours at the weekend I can see how determined you are and I'm not surprised your cancer legged it, there was no way you were going to let it win the fight.
It's an absolute pleasure having met you, such an inspiration.