But I then went and had three weeks of radiotherapy. Not very nice stuff, but (laugh) it’s got to be done. And I have to take my daughter sometimes so I’d go in to have the treatment. It used to take them ages to set you up but I’d been in there and me daughter would be watching me on the monitor. So, she kept saying daddy’s on telly.

Aw. How old was she at the time?

She would have been three, yeah, just over three, about three and a half, about three, three years and three or four months, not very old. But she sat there good as gold round the back and as I say, it used to take them ages to set you up, it only takes a couple of seconds or so forfourteen seconds to zap you. Setting up can take twenty minutes.

Right, why did it take so long?

Because you’re given the tattoos, tiny little dots, and they line you up and as you’re laying there, you can seeyou can see all the lines as… I think green I think the lines that I have and they just set you up on these marks because everybody’s different. Everybody has to have different sizes and everything has to be set up but it can take them quite a while. Obviously, if it’s taking them a long time, at least you know they’re doing their job properly. [laughs]. And the staff, as I say, are fantastic, but some of the people you meet youyou’re sitting in a room with everybody that’s going through it and you used to get some giggles because some of the machines breakdown, they’re not all a hundred percent guaranteed, so you have to sit and wait for your turn which just takes a while sometimes. But, as I say, staff wise, absolutely fantastic.

But also there was a feedback about the radiotherapy which was very interesting. They did send a form round and one of the things I actually said to them, that the room for somebody who’s not used to large pieces of equipment, it was a bit intimidating. It was battleship grey and the only thing when you’re lying down to stare at on the ceiling, is a little red laser light and the sign that says do not look at this light. And I pointed out to them there was nothing else to stare at and I noticed the second time and a member of staff said, Oh yes, it was partly because of that what you said, but they actually now have a TV screen and you’ve got a choice of watching animals or fish or something lying down, which I thought that is an improvement’, so they do listen to people sometimes.

The next step was the radiotherapy which [oncologist] told me about. And again he sort of laid out and gave me a print off of all the dates, cos that, as you probably know, is every day, for me it was over a period of three weeks three.. two or three weeks. It was three years ago now. So the first one you have to go in and they lay you down and they measure you and they put the little pin prick tattoo on your chest and make sure everything’s sort of mapped out for the radiotherapy machine. So that appointment takes a bit longer than the rest of them, and they give you sort of leaflets on it and tell you what you should do and you should apply sort of aqueous cream every day and there’sexcuse me, your chest could get burnt and, I thought oh, fair enough, I mean, I do all I can to sort of make it as easy as possible throughout the process, so I bought a big tub of aqueous cream and thought well, I’ll slop this on as much as possible and, when it actually came to the radiotherapy it was a case of I had that obviously at the hospital, can’t do that at home, I went in and that was when you started to get the hospital experience, which I hadn’t had with the chemo, sort of waiting around a bit and then waiting for your turn, then going in and this sort of thing. I must say, though, for the radiotherapy I never had to wait an awful long time, to actually get in, although the department was a very busy one they had about three or four machines up there that could be used at any one time, soI think probably the maximum I had to wait was probably about half an hour at any time, so it wasn’t really too bad.

That’s quite good.

And, the actual radiotherapy experience, I mean, some people I’ve read and heard have hated it and didn’t like it, but I mean, to me it was nothing really compared to the chemo or anything else that I’ve had, cos you’re just laying there, and you know, it happens and you get up and you go away and then you come back for your next one. I suppose it’s the actual fact that the area is getting treated and then progressively over the period of time it gets redder and redder and you can see the actual, you know, patch that they’re treating, and that it can get quite sore for some people, but as I said, the aqueous cream did help an awful lot with me cos it didn’t reallyand the oncologist said it could peel and things like that, but it didn’t happen at all with me, [small laugh] so it was excellent.

Did you take precautions like, did you rest and just be quite sensible round that time, or did you not change much in your normal routine?

Well, I had to change my routine because I was going every day, you know, and I found that a bit of a discipline, you know, coz I’m quite busy. Aye, and I found that a bit of a discipline, and I didn’t change my routine any more than I had to, quite frankly, you know?

Was it the same time of day you went every time?

No it wasn’t, actually – it was a bit of a nuisance. Sometimes they had to change it, and then one day they phoned up in the morning and say their machine had broken down and I couldn’t come that day – and then they phoned up at lunch time and said, Oh, you can come in the afternoon, they’ve fixed it Then there was another time that I wanted a day off to go to a funeral. Oh no they were quite, Oh, I see. Oh alright then But they were quite, you know? I said we would add on the other end, you know, but they were a wee bit kinda iffy about that, you know?

So it wasn’t very flexible, then?

No. You’ve got your twenty treatments and that’s it, you know? they’re quite, you’ve got to go every day. And then you met the same people coz they were going too.

Was there people with all different types of cancer?

Yes, aye.

Did you feel any sort of camaraderie with them?

Yes I did. And also the radiologists or the girls that did the machine, they were good as well. it’s very precise – you probably know it’s very precise – they put it up in the computer and get you in the exact position and so on. The first time I was really surprised, you know, how short it was – of course, it’s so powerful. But you’re in it for such a short time. But I got used to it alright you know.

Had you to wait once you were there, or were you taken in
Ah yes, but most of the time, not unduly. Not unduly – their appointments worked pretty well.

Can you tell me a wee bit how you felt about the treatment you were given?

What, the radiotherapy and all that?

Yeah.

Oh, it was alright, yeah. Like I say, it affected my wife really bad.

Your wife did?

Yeah, and I’ve heard a lot of people, it affects them real bad, like, knocks ten bells out of their bottom, you know what I mean?

When she got her treatment?

Yeah, it’s pure poison they put in your body and it makes them really poorly, but me, never. I can’t understand it, can’t explain it, and I can’t even, and even the doctors can’t understand it but it never affected me, and when I used to go back to work he’d say, Are you sure I’d say, Yeah, positive Cos I feel alright, and I went back to work. When I was having me radiotherapy. It was for three weeks every day, five days, for three weeks.

So how did you work in going for your radiotherapy with work?

I used to start early and finishused to start at five in the morning, finish at one, with the agreement with the company, and go for the treatment at two. Or half past two, whatever time it were.

So were you just doing work locally, then?

Yeah.

Were you always doing that or did you do

Long distance. I was a distance driver.

Right, but for those three weeks they gave you sort of shorter routes to do?

That’s right, yeah. They were very good.

So how did you feel after your radiotherapy, in comparison?

Well I didn’t feel very well actually. Funnily enough I got an infection and I had a great explosion out of my chest of something, I don’t know what it was, towards the last few days, I was really feeling quite ill. And I remember that we went on a quick trip to Paris, after we’d finished the radiotherapy, and I remember going down to the Tuileries Gardens to look at my favourite statues there by, Aristide Maillol, who was a famous French sculptor, and I was so tired I just sat on a bench by one of them, and I went to sleep for a bit. And, we flew home, and then I think it was in the morning, or the night. I had this- I had dressings on you know, for the skin, and then suddenly boof, all this stuff came out of my chest. And I’d obviously, they said, you know I had to them have quite some- type of what do you call it? Forgotten the word for the moment, anyhow, treatment.

Antibiotics?

Antibiotics yeah. Antibiotics. To clear it up.

Just oral antibiotics or- Were you in hospital for that?

No, I just had a set of pills, yeah. And there wasn’t a clear link, saying you know the radiotherapy did that, but obviously somehow I got an infection in my chest, and I had these sore places, and then suddenly one of them just whoosh, you know and lots of sort of stuff came out. It was quite surprising actually. And I felt quickly better actually, so I was obviously sort of feverish in a way.

Yeah. So, so actually her radiotherapy went a lot better than mine. And she didn’t get so badly burnt either. I really got quite, you know the skin was coming off, it was like a very bad sunburn, and I had some special cream to put on and dressings which we used to put on every day. So it was twenty five days I think, yeah.

Basically – it’s like going in the microwave, really. But it darkened all this side of me chest.

And is that still darkened, or
it’s still slightly a different colour. it’s notI’ll show it to you if you want to see it.

Yeah.

it’s gone slightly darker. This side, they didn’t do any radio – didn’t need radiation, coz it was the crystals and they got it very, very early. Yeah, they got it very early. Yeah, and it’s
And do you have to now be careful with exposing it to the sun?

Yeah, I mustn’t expose it, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I have, as I say, even in the summer, I keep me arms covered. I don’t, you know, I’ve been – what it is, although I’m sort of fairly easy going and everything, I will do what I’m told, you know?

You sound like the ideal patient!

Yeah – whatever they tell me, you know, whatever they say, I will do it, regardless, you know what I mean? You know, I do exactly what I’m told, you know? You know, they said, you know, Try not to get sunburn. don’t let your arms get too sunburnt

And so they’ve told you to be careful about that for the rest of your life?

For the rest of me life, yeah.

And you talked as well about your experience of radio therapy, so you had that twice. You had fifteen sessions the first time?

Yes.

And then a similar number the second time.

Yes.

And did you have a similar experience of the radiotherapy both times? You said the first time was very tiring.

I think with hindsight, because I was working in the hospital, I just went along, had my radio therapyat the end of it, I have to admit I suddenly realised how tired I was and they said, you know, well you really ought to have had some time of. But the thing is there’s only two of us in the department and we are on demand all the time to fix pieces of equipment for you know, wards and we’re needed. And being offI don’t like being off sick anyway and so I think perhaps I found that more tiring than I did the second time, although the second time of course I’d retired and I was a bit older obviously as well, and I didn’t have the pressure of going back to work. It wasno it was fairly run of the mill really. As I say, it was uncomfortable. It made the skin red, it made it a little bit sore, they recommended a cream to rub on it which helped, cooled it down a little bit and there’s no lasting effects you know, apart from the fact that you know, the hair on my chest has disappeared.

And has that happened on both sides?

On both sides, yes.

So, I don’t know if you feel evened up or whether that’s
Well, yes, yeah as I said earlier, sort of at my age I really don’t tend to be so vain about your appearance.

And did they warn you about that hair loss the first time round or was that something that surprised you?

Do you know, I can’t remember actually. They probably did, they were very, very good. They went throughin the,,, you don’t just appear one day and they sort of give you the treatment. You have the first stage you go and they tattoo you, they put a little tattoo in the middle of your chest andon whichever side it is they’re going tothey put one on the side so they can sight the laser accurately every time so it hits the right spot. And so you go along and have that done and they talk through and explain to you, and then before you start the treatment, usually the first treatment, it’sinstead of being a half hour, it’s about an hour appointment and somebody takes you into a very cosy little room you know, with a nice sofa, you know chair and cups of coffee and that and talks you through it. I can’t remember what they said about hair loss, they probably did because as I say, they were very, very thorough.

That’s nice, so they gave you a really good idea about what to expect.

Yes. At no time did I not feel involved in my treatment.