Carol: My prediction on the next epidemic…
THEWAY ISEEIT... Wisewords fromourfeisty, fearless andfunny columnist
‘It was around this time three years ago that I said a final goodbye to my little sister, Tracy. She had cancer but by the time she’d been diagnosed, it had spread to so many areas of her body, they couldn’t tell where the primary tumour was. That was in August of 2016.
She may have known she was ill for a long while before that. Humans do sense when something is wrong but we often put it down to age, or we don’t want to make a fuss, or bother the NHS.
Anyway, she was only 53 and still it doesn’t seem right that I, having had cancer as well, have lived longer.
My cancer was very successfully treated and I am now almost six years without it as far as I’m aware, but it’s a sneaky bugger and it’s not uncommon to not know you have it for many years. If it has managed to set up home in a new location – highly possible due to the type it was, and that it also managed to get into my blood stream, although thankfully not my lymph nodes – I might not know, which is why I’m vigilant to the point of mild hypochondria.
And so, it is with Tracy in mind that I wonder and worry about all the people who’ve had their diagnoses delayed by the NHS cancelling all but emergency and Covid-19 patients, or have been so scared by the virus they dare not go near a hospital, for fear of catching that as well. Just one part of the collective madness that has engulfed the population. Having seen first-hand the devastating effects of cancer as a disease, I truly dread the explosion of cases that is sure to ensue in the next few years.’