Accidental diagnosis has stolen good years from my life

KEVIN REID, 61, was diagnosed with kidney cancer after a scan for muscular pain, leaving him ‘flabbergasted’. Sometimes he wishes he’d never been told about the finding.

‘Knowing I have cancer has stolen good years from us,’ says the retired chemical engineer, who lives with his wife Emma, 55, a charity sector volunteer, in Cardiff.

Kevin (pictured) had originally gone to the doctor after experiencing a painful ‘pulling sensation’ in his abdomen during sex. He was sent for a scan which found a 1cm tumour on his left kidney.

‘ The GP said my pulling sensations were nothing to do with it — I still have them,’ says Kevin. ‘I was told the cancer could have remained there for many years without me knowing about it.

‘Kidney cancers are often symptomless until the tumours are at least 1.5cm wide.’

Kevin had surgery to remove half of his kidney in July 2018 and had scans every year. For the next two years he ‘lived as normal’, he says.

‘But then a scan in December 2020 found four 5-10mm tumours on my lungs. They were slow-growing but inoperable as they were so deep inside my lungs.

‘I was given three to five years to live. So many thoughts went through my head, and I became withdrawn and depressed, thinking about what would happen. I’d always thought I was invincible and that I’d live to an old age.

‘It all felt so surreal, especially as I didn’t feel unwell. I had no symptoms and still don’t — if it wasn’t for the scans I wouldn’t know the tumours were there, and they haven’t grown since.’

He has retired in order to enjoy the time he has left, but adds: ‘Knowing my prognosis changed everything. Since then our lives have been all about cancer.’

He has a scan every three months — last December this showed the cancer had spread to near his windpipe.

In February he started having immunotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink the tumours so they wouldn’t affect his breathing.

‘I still don’t feel unwell at all from the cancer, but I have experienced sideeffects from the treatment, including tiredness.

‘Recently I became very unwell and I was diagnosed with immunotherapy-induced type 1 diabetes, an uncommon side-effect of the treatment.

‘If it hadn’t been for the initial scan, chances are I’d still feel fine and be enjoying life without cancer hanging over me.

‘I would rather have waited until I got symptoms to know about all this, even if that meant only having months left to live. It’s a real doubleedged sword having these things found by accident.’