It’s just fantastic. It takes no time at all to get there and I can nip into Tesco on the way home
When Linda Venton watches her daughter get married in Italy’s stunning Sorrento later this month, she will be forgiven for shedding a few tears of gratitude for the fantastic medical care that has given her a second chance at life after being diagnosed with cancer twice.
“I have nothing but praise for the treatment I have received under the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and the mobile cancer care unit five minutes away from where I live,” says Linda who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
“I had two young children at school at the time and I thought I was fit and healthy. Life was good. But then I got diagnosed. It really was a bolt out of the blue,” she says.
Linda responded well to drugs along with chemotherapy and radiotherapy and after 10-years she was signed off, but in her own head she had set a time frame of 15 years.
“I had told myself if I got to 15 years, I would be ok. But three weeks before that milestone I fell over in the garden and was taken to hospital where they told me secondary cancer had been found in my bones.”
It was a bombshell that she says she didn’t cope with well in the early days.
“Everyone deals with it differently and I will admit I was very low, in a very dark place to start,” she says.
But she started chemotherapy and radiotherapy again and after a few years of trying to find what worked for her she says she was put on the ‘rock star’ of chemotherapy, Trodelvy which she accesses at her local mobile cancer care unit on a three-week cycle as well as her regular blood tests.
In the early days, Linda had to have her treatment at the hospital which is around 30 minutes away from her home as her bloods were unstable.
But as soon as things settled down, she was asked if she would like to have her treatment on the mobile unit which parks up at her nearby health centre.
“It’s just fantastic. It takes no time at all to get there and I can nip into Tesco on the way home,” she says.
“Although you get free parking at hospital you don’t always get a space. I have been known to drive out of the hospital and circle it three times looking for a space. It’s just added stress that you don’t need.
“The treatment at the hospital was fantastic but on the drive there I was always a little bit on edge, worrying about the traffic, if I was going to be able to park, how long it was all going to take and not to mention the cost of the fuel.
“Being able to use the unit just takes all that stress away and I get a lovely cup of tea from Anthony the driver when I arrive.
“I had to have my picture taken recently and Anthony the driver had us all in hysterics doing his David Bailey impersonations with the camera.
When she attends daughter Holly’s wedding alongside her husband Bill and son Matt in their party of 62, Linda knows she is very lucky to be able to celebrate such special family events.
She has been involved in several fundraisers for breast cancer and has run the London Marathon three times.
“I want to do something for Hope for Tomorrow next as the service it provides is so fantastic” says Linda.
“No-one knows what’s around the corner, you really have to enjoy every day and make the most of it. It’s always helpful to remember there’s always someone worse off than you.
“Bill and I love the outdoors and we have plans to travel. I feel I have a future now thanks to the brilliant care I have received.
I know it sounds odd to say but the unit can be a very jolly place. Having cancer is not all doom and gloom.
“We do manage to have a bit of a laugh, especially when it comes to discussing some of the symptoms or side effects, it’s not something we might discuss with anyone else outside the unit, but we are all in the same boat.
“I am getting the same treatment I would get at the hospital, so it seems silly to do a one hour round trip when I have the same facilities on my doorstep. There are a lot of elderly people on my unit and Suffolk is a very rural area so it’s brilliant that the unit comes to us and it is beautifully air-conditioned.
“I hadn’t heard about the unit before I went there and had no idea what it did but now, I tell everyone about it.
“I still get all the same treatment as I would at the hospital but it’s a lot more informal.
Linda visits her local mobile cancer care unit ‘Frisbey’ in West Suffolk, ‘Frisbey’ now requires a rebuild to ensure this vital service can continue.
Please donate today to help us ensure that we’re there for more patients like Linda.
It’s just fantastic. It takes no time at all to get there and I can nip into Tesco on the way home
When Linda Venton watches her daughter get married in Italy’s stunning Sorrento later this month, she will be forgiven for shedding a few tears of gratitude for the fantastic medical care that has given her a second chance at life after being diagnosed with cancer twice.
“I have nothing but praise for the treatment I have received under the West Suffolk Hospital in Bury St Edmunds and the mobile cancer care unit five minutes away from where I live,” says Linda who was first diagnosed with breast cancer in 2007.
“I had two young children at school at the time and I thought I was fit and healthy. Life was good. But then I got diagnosed. It really was a bolt out of the blue,” she says.
Linda responded well to drugs along with chemotherapy and radiotherapy and after 10-years she was signed off, but in her own head she had set a time frame of 15 years.
“I had told myself if I got to 15 years, I would be ok. But three weeks before that milestone I fell over in the garden and was taken to hospital where they told me secondary cancer had been found in my bones.”
It was a bombshell that she says she didn’t cope with well in the early days.
“Everyone deals with it differently and I will admit I was very low, in a very dark place to start,” she says.
But she started chemotherapy and radiotherapy again and after a few years of trying to find what worked for her she says she was put on the ‘rock star’ of chemotherapy, Trodelvy which she accesses at her local mobile cancer care unit on a three-week cycle as well as her regular blood tests.
In the early days, Linda had to have her treatment at the hospital which is around 30 minutes away from her home as her bloods were unstable.
But as soon as things settled down, she was asked if she would like to have her treatment on the mobile unit which parks up at her nearby health centre.
“It’s just fantastic. It takes no time at all to get there and I can nip into Tesco on the way home,” she says.
“Although you get free parking at hospital you don’t always get a space. I have been known to drive out of the hospital and circle it three times looking for a space. It’s just added stress that you don’t need.
“The treatment at the hospital was fantastic but on the drive there I was always a little bit on edge, worrying about the traffic, if I was going to be able to park, how long it was all going to take and not to mention the cost of the fuel.
“Being able to use the unit just takes all that stress away and I get a lovely cup of tea from Anthony the driver when I arrive.
“I had to have my picture taken recently and Anthony the driver had us all in hysterics doing his David Bailey impersonations with the camera.
When she attends daughter Holly’s wedding alongside her husband Bill and son Matt in their party of 62, Linda knows she is very lucky to be able to celebrate such special family events.
She has been involved in several fundraisers for breast cancer and has run the London Marathon three times.
“I want to do something for Hope for Tomorrow next as the service it provides is so fantastic” says Linda.
“No-one knows what’s around the corner, you really have to enjoy every day and make the most of it. It’s always helpful to remember there’s always someone worse off than you.
“Bill and I love the outdoors and we have plans to travel. I feel I have a future now thanks to the brilliant care I have received.
I know it sounds odd to say but the unit can be a very jolly place. Having cancer is not all doom and gloom.
“We do manage to have a bit of a laugh, especially when it comes to discussing some of the symptoms or side effects, it’s not something we might discuss with anyone else outside the unit, but we are all in the same boat.
“I am getting the same treatment I would get at the hospital, so it seems silly to do a one hour round trip when I have the same facilities on my doorstep. There are a lot of elderly people on my unit and Suffolk is a very rural area so it’s brilliant that the unit comes to us and it is beautifully air-conditioned.
“I hadn’t heard about the unit before I went there and had no idea what it did but now, I tell everyone about it.
“I still get all the same treatment as I would at the hospital but it’s a lot more informal.
Linda visits her local mobile cancer care unit ‘Frisbey’ in West Suffolk, ‘Frisbey’ now requires a rebuild to ensure this vital service can continue.
Please donate today to help us ensure that we’re there for more patients like Linda.
