Surgeon pens books to help families coping with cancer
DOC COLLECTS STORIES AS ADVICE GROUP CELEBRATES ANNIVERSARY
OVER 25 years as a consultant i in Newcastle hospitals, Reg Hall treata ated hundreds of cancer patients.
But a small Tyneside support group taught the expert about aspects of cancer his years of work never showed him – and he’s shared these lessons in a moving new book.
Reg, who worked as a consultant urologist, specialising in bladder, kidney and prostate cancers, helped set up Cancer Connections, in South Tyneside, after retiring from practice.
The charity brings togther people affect- ed edd byb by cancer – patientstit patients, ffamiliesili families, those who’ve lost loved ones to the disease – to offer support and advice in an environment far away from the hospitals and hosp i c e s w h e r e m a n y Former cancer surgeon Reg Hall (front) and illustrator Bob Olley with their book Connecting with Cancer feel ffeell they’veth’ they’ve alreadyld already spenttspent toot too long long.l Operating out of a homely bungalow in South Shields, the group just celebrated their 10th anniversary.
Over that time, thousands of people have shared their stories, and Reg recently decided to write some of these down.
He said: “I simply sat down with people, started recording and said ‘tell me about it’, and they did, in remarkable and individual ways.
“The heart of Cancer Connections is people who know what it’s like, helping other people by sharing their experiences.
“We’ve helped more than 4,000 people, but we realised that if we could publish a book, that would be able to help huge numbers.
“Coping with the idea that you’ve now got cancer, which is possibly a fatal disease – I think I really realised what the impact of that was after I retired from surgery. I have learned an awful lot about cancer that I never knew when I was a surgeon.”
The book, which features illustrations by well-known South Shields artist Robert Olley, has already soldwell, and its author has heard from people who have been moved by and found comfort from the stories.
Reg said: “We’ve had some very good reviews so far, we’ve sold a couple of hundred copies around Shields and the North East already, and I’ve had people contact me from India, Australia, Canada and the USA who 1downloaded the Kindle version.” Connecting with Cancer is for sale on Amazon, as well as in the Newcastle branches of Waterstones and Blackwells, the Central Library, Cogito Books in Hexham and Forum Books in Corbridge.