Dealing with cancer and depression

I remember well the moment I was told I had prostate cancer. ‘Don’t be alarmed by what I am about to tell you,’ said the doctor.

I wasn’t alarmed, or sad. I didn’t feel much at all apart from confusion. It seemed like someone else was in the room with the doctor, and I was just an observer. It didn’t really hit home for a couple of weeks and even then, I didn’t want to believe it. I thought they’d got it wrong.That was back in 2017, but I kept putting off the treatment, hoping the problem would go away, but of course, it didn’t. I ended up having 37 daily sessions of radiotherapy over Christmas into the new year of 2019.

It wasn’t easy travelling to Sheffield every day to get zapped, but it was just the way it was.

Shortly after the radiotherapy had ended along came Covid and out of the blue, I was shielding.

Everyone deals with cancer and shielding in their own way. I was living by myself and found solace in alcohol, crisps and chocolate. Not surprisingly, I piled on weight, and with every pound I sunk deeper into the abyss.My mental health was suffering, and I knew that I had to do something to halt the slide. I decided to lose weight and eat more healthily. I also made the decision to stimulate my mind, so I began to write…and write.

The end result, after a lot of stopping and starting was my novel, ‘Dogmeat Dave’s Bag’. I stuck to my plan for it to be an uplifting, humorous story, with no mention of cancer or covid. We’d all had enough of it, hadn’t we? It did the trick for me. It lifted me and helped me on my way to recovery.If anyone is reading this who has just been diagnosed, or is feeling like there is no way out, believe me, things do get better. Your way out may be via a different path, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, even if it does seem way in the distance.