I think the mobile units in general are great
When Mick McLean went to his GP with a swollen left foot, the very last thing he was expecting was a diagnosis for kidney cancer.
“My foot was so bad I had difficulty getting my shoe on and sometimes at night the pain was so intense it felt like my big toe had been dislocated,” he says.
After a flurry of misdiagnoses, an alert GP sent Mick for a CT scan and it was after that he learned the lump on his foot was secondary cancer.
“It sounds really daft but I was really busy with work at the time so when I got the call from the hospital asking me to go in, I was reluctant as I didn’t want to take time out. Eventually I managed to persuade the doctor to give me the initial results over the telephone.”
“I was shocked to hear it was a secondary tumour on my foot so obviously I wanted to know where the primary was located,”
“I was pretty convinced it would be on my lungs as I had once been a smoker but when I was told it was on my kidney, I found it hard to take it in. I had no indication, no symptoms at all,” says Mick who was about to turn 60 when he got the news.
That was in 2018 when he was living in Cambridge under the care of Addenbrookes Hospital.
“I was told my cancer was inoperable and incurable but the good news was there was a way to pull up the handbrake on it to stop it progressing,” he says.
“I was put on an oral chemo tablet once a day for three weeks followed by a week off with three-monthly scans.”
In 2020 Mick moved to Kent, but last year his treatment hit a bit of a blip when it transpired the daily oral drug which had been working well was no longer effective and the existing tumours had started to re-grow.
Now under the care of East Kent Hospital’s NHS Trust, Mick’s treatment was switched to immunotherapy by IV which meant he could no longer take his medication at home but had to attend appointments at the hospital 30 minutes away.
“At first I went every two weeks to give it a good whacking and then every four weeks,” he says.
“It wasn’t so much the distance to the hospital that was difficult just more the uncertainty of how long the appointment was going to take. I could never plan anything else that day.”
When one of the nurses at the hospital told Mick that if he didn’t have any adverse effects to the treatment after three sessions, he could swap to the Mobile Cancer Care Unit if he wished.
“The unit is parked up in Tesco in Whitfield, just 15 minutes from my home,” he says.
“We shop at that Tesco a lot but I had never noticed the unit there. I was aware of mobile units for diagnostic use such as mammograms but prior to using this one myself I had no idea they also offered treatments as well.
For Mick the convenience and the speed of using the MCCU is so important.
He says: “Because there are only 4 seats it runs really efficiently. If my appointment is at 1.30pm I know I am going to be seen at 1.30pm. At the hospital, because it is so much bigger and busier, that 1.30pm could easily turn into 3pm so I would have to write off the whole day. With the unit I can plan other things that I know I will be able to do.
I find the atmosphere on the unit is very personal. I see the same nurses every time and I get the same medical care, so it makes sense to take the stress out of it and have the treatment closer to home.
“With such a small team it’s easy to get to know the staff who build up a good relationship with the patients.
“And there’s a great camaraderie among the patients too as we see a lot of each other.
“I think the mobile units in general are great, both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment, especially in rural areas as they are just so convenient.”
About a year after his diagnosis Mick stepped away as CEO of the company he was helping to start up and his role is now a non-executive director.
It’s given him time to enjoy life and do things like the leisurely meander down through France to Provence with his wife that he is doing this summer, and he has also started writing his memoir.
“It can be hard not to live scan to scan without any long-term horizon,” he says.
“But I feel good. I know every scan can throw something up but I have been lucky to have had some excellent care so I try to focus on that.”
I think the mobile units in general are great
When Mick McLean went to his GP with a swollen left foot, the very last thing he was expecting was a diagnosis for kidney cancer.
“My foot was so bad I had difficulty getting my shoe on and sometimes at night the pain was so intense it felt like my big toe had been dislocated,” he says.
After a flurry of misdiagnoses, an alert GP sent Mick for a CT scan and it was after that he learned the lump on his foot was secondary cancer.
“It sounds really daft but I was really busy with work at the time so when I got the call from the hospital asking me to go in, I was reluctant as I didn’t want to take time out. Eventually I managed to persuade the doctor to give me the initial results over the telephone.”
“I was shocked to hear it was a secondary tumour on my foot so obviously I wanted to know where the primary was located,”
“I was pretty convinced it would be on my lungs as I had once been a smoker but when I was told it was on my kidney, I found it hard to take it in. I had no indication, no symptoms at all,” says Mick who was about to turn 60 when he got the news.
That was in 2018 when he was living in Cambridge under the care of Addenbrookes Hospital.
“I was told my cancer was inoperable and incurable but the good news was there was a way to pull up the handbrake on it to stop it progressing,” he says.
“I was put on an oral chemo tablet once a day for three weeks followed by a week off with three-monthly scans.”
In 2020 Mick moved to Kent, but last year his treatment hit a bit of a blip when it transpired the daily oral drug which had been working well was no longer effective and the existing tumours had started to re-grow.
Now under the care of East Kent Hospital’s NHS Trust, Mick’s treatment was switched to immunotherapy by IV which meant he could no longer take his medication at home but had to attend appointments at the hospital 30 minutes away.
“At first I went every two weeks to give it a good whacking and then every four weeks,” he says.
“It wasn’t so much the distance to the hospital that was difficult just more the uncertainty of how long the appointment was going to take. I could never plan anything else that day.”
When one of the nurses at the hospital told Mick that if he didn’t have any adverse effects to the treatment after three sessions, he could swap to the Mobile Cancer Care Unit if he wished.
“The unit is parked up in Tesco in Whitfield, just 15 minutes from my home,” he says.
“We shop at that Tesco a lot but I had never noticed the unit there. I was aware of mobile units for diagnostic use such as mammograms but prior to using this one myself I had no idea they also offered treatments as well.
For Mick the convenience and the speed of using the MCCU is so important.
He says: “Because there are only 4 seats it runs really efficiently. If my appointment is at 1.30pm I know I am going to be seen at 1.30pm. At the hospital, because it is so much bigger and busier, that 1.30pm could easily turn into 3pm so I would have to write off the whole day. With the unit I can plan other things that I know I will be able to do.
I find the atmosphere on the unit is very personal. I see the same nurses every time and I get the same medical care, so it makes sense to take the stress out of it and have the treatment closer to home.
“With such a small team it’s easy to get to know the staff who build up a good relationship with the patients.
“And there’s a great camaraderie among the patients too as we see a lot of each other.
“I think the mobile units in general are great, both for diagnostic purposes and for treatment, especially in rural areas as they are just so convenient.”
About a year after his diagnosis Mick stepped away as CEO of the company he was helping to start up and his role is now a non-executive director.
It’s given him time to enjoy life and do things like the leisurely meander down through France to Provence with his wife that he is doing this summer, and he has also started writing his memoir.
“It can be hard not to live scan to scan without any long-term horizon,” he says.
“But I feel good. I know every scan can throw something up but I have been lucky to have had some excellent care so I try to focus on that.”
