Day 15 Post Diagnosis

Dear All,

It has been a busy week. Started off recovering from a fantastic final 50th birthday bash put on for me by my work colleagues - still am flabergasted at the generosity and preparations that went into the evening - I am not worthy! Location started and finished at a penthouse suite at the Swiss Hotel overlooking the Thames (best view in London). In between we dined at the RAC Club in the Minstrels Gallery which was sublime. Not sure what time we finally hit the sack, however, breakfast on the terrace in the sunshine started the recovery process.

Pre chemo session at Northampton Hospital on Monday 17th May was pretty straightforward. The most memorable moment was when the nurse said that iI may lose some of my hair during chemotherapy. Apparently my hair could grow back not only a different colour but also straight - that could be very interesting! The plan was to go for 2 cycles of 3 week chemotherapy (two drugs used Cisplatin and 5-FU) and then 6 weeks of radiotherapy and chemo (Cisplatin only). All lined up to start Friday 28th May, subject to the second opinion at the Royal Marsden on Wednesday 19th May. PEG was to be inserted on 25th May.

Royal Marsden - Lucy and I went to the consultation praying for; clarity, guidance and confidence from the Doctors we had been referred to (Peter Clarke - ENT surgeon and Chris Nutting - oncologist chemo/rad specialist). Thankfully we received all of the above in abundance. This, combined with the work Chris Nutting has been doing over the last 10 years in the area of advanced radiotherapy and chemo, convinced Lucy and I that this was the right place to be. The Royal Mardsen uses IMRT (Intensity Modulated Radiotherapy) whereas Northampton Hospital does not currently have this technology/capability - it is on the way. It is still a fairly brutal process, however, there is a better chance of coming out the other side with most functions intact.

The treatment will be as follows;

• 2 three week cycles of chemo (same as above) commencing on Thursday 27th May. No PEG required initially. They will wait to see how I cope with eating/drinking.
• 6 weeks of radiotherapy combined with chemo (instead of chemo delivered one day a week, it will be delivered over 2 days twice in the 6 week period).

Getting to and from London is going to be a pain (2 hours plus by car in peak hour) but we feel 100% confident with the medical team headed by Chris Nutting. We have already had some amazing offers of assistance from friends and family in London so hopefully the logistics will be sorted.

Thanks again to you all for your generous offers of support (physical and spiritual). They are all much appreciated.

Stephen