It sounds a bit strange, but I don’t feel like I’m a cancer sufferer when I attend the unit.
Liza was diagnosed two years ago after she slipped and broke her neck in the garden. After further investigations in hospital, they found that she had small cell lung cancer, which had already spread to her head and other parts of her body.
Liza recalls: “In hindsight, there were a few niggly things which were warning signs. I had started to feel extremely tired. But after the fall, that’s when it all unravelled. I was in hospital with a brace and had to stay flat for four weeks. When I returned home, I had sepsis. For that whole year, everything started to go wrong with me, and it unleashed a monster. I was in and out of hospital. I then had a blood clot. And then after a routine eye test, it was discovered there were tumours behind my eyes. Then they found tumours in my brain, which they gave me radiotherapy for.”
Fast forward to now, Liza is receiving chemo every three weeks at the unit, based in Stroud, half an hour from her home. “Cheltenham Hospital is quite away from where I live which is Wickwar, the last postcode in Gloucestershire! It would take me at least 45 minutes to get there, on a good day. It’s not so much the distance, it’s the fact that I lost my independence overnight as I was unable to work, and they took my driving license away. I had to rely on other people to drive me and it was quite a commitment for someone to drive me there and back – my husband was often unable to as he had a business to look after.
Her sister Tracy, whom Liza describes as “my absolute crutch” drives her. “It’s a lovely drive and quite therapeutic. We just chat and put the world to rights!”
It’s usually the same nurses as I see at Cheltenham, who are terrific. There are only four people on the unit at any one time. I can be in and out within half an hour whereas the hospital was so much longer. It makes a big difference.
As someone who describes herself as a sociable person, she found the environment on the unit totally opposite to the one in hospital: “When I got talking to a couple of people on the unit I thought actually, this is better because you’re connecting with people who are going through similar to what you’re going through. And I think that’s been one of the best things about being on the unit because you’re sat near to people so you can’t ignore them. You do swap stories with people who understand what you’re going through, and compare side effects, then I know what is happening to me is quite normal under the circumstances. Everybody’s treatment is different and everyone reacts differently to the same treatment. You get to know the nurses as well; they’ll ask, how are you? The staff are just too busy and pushed for time in hospital, so you don’t always think of questions you wanted to ask at the right time. On the unit there’s more time for that as it’s more relaxed.
“It sounds a bit strange, but I don’t feel like I’m a cancer sufferer when I attend the unit. It’s calmer and more friendly as you’re sat closer to people. It’s more intimate, there’s more conversation with both the patients and staff. You can have a laugh over a cup of coffee.”
She recalls her experience at the hospital when striking up a chat was made difficult as people were often sat quite a distance apart. The oncology department was a stark reminder of her illness and her own mortality as “every sign of cancer is there and immediately it brought my mood down. I would see people in a much worse condition than me and my heart went out to them, but I didn’t want to see them suffering, it was too much. I’ve got myself to focus on and looking back, I didn’t think I would be here a year from now.”
She is often quite tired from “crippling” fatigue and treatment day is “really written off.” She found the trips to Cheltenham exhausting and she has saved so much time and energy which she now puts to good use. She says: “I’d feel I had to get dressed up, put on a smile, and then wait for ages, which can be draining. Now I just throw on some casual clothes; it’s a very relaxed atmosphere on the unit. When I’m not going to the unit until the afternoon, I’ll meet my friend for coffee in the morning. That’s not something I would be able to do if I was having to go to Cheltenham.”
Liza feels that with the more intimate atmosphere on the unit, she’s more open to sharing with others what she’s going through, as “we’re all in the same boat.” After recently sharing the good news with them that the tumours behind her eyes had gone, there was much excitement for her.
“It’s these little things that mean a lot.”
It sounds a bit strange, but I don’t feel like I’m a cancer sufferer when I attend the unit.
Liza was diagnosed two years ago after she slipped and broke her neck in the garden. After further investigations in hospital, they found that she had small cell lung cancer, which had already spread to her head and other parts of her body.
Liza recalls: “In hindsight, there were a few niggly things which were warning signs. I had started to feel extremely tired. But after the fall, that’s when it all unravelled. I was in hospital with a brace and had to stay flat for four weeks. When I returned home, I had sepsis. For that whole year, everything started to go wrong with me, and it unleashed a monster. I was in and out of hospital. I then had a blood clot. And then after a routine eye test, it was discovered there were tumours behind my eyes. Then they found tumours in my brain, which they gave me radiotherapy for.”
Fast forward to now, Liza is receiving chemo every three weeks at the unit, based in Stroud, half an hour from her home. “Cheltenham Hospital is quite away from where I live which is Wickwar, the last postcode in Gloucestershire! It would take me at least 45 minutes to get there, on a good day. It’s not so much the distance, it’s the fact that I lost my independence overnight as I was unable to work, and they took my driving license away. I had to rely on other people to drive me and it was quite a commitment for someone to drive me there and back – my husband was often unable to as he had a business to look after.
Her sister Tracy, whom Liza describes as “my absolute crutch” drives her. “It’s a lovely drive and quite therapeutic. We just chat and put the world to rights!”
It’s usually the same nurses as I see at Cheltenham, who are terrific. There are only four people on the unit at any one time. I can be in and out within half an hour whereas the hospital was so much longer. It makes a big difference.
As someone who describes herself as a sociable person, she found the environment on the unit totally opposite to the one in hospital: “When I got talking to a couple of people on the unit I thought actually, this is better because you’re connecting with people who are going through similar to what you’re going through. And I think that’s been one of the best things about being on the unit because you’re sat near to people so you can’t ignore them. You do swap stories with people who understand what you’re going through, and compare side effects, then I know what is happening to me is quite normal under the circumstances. Everybody’s treatment is different and everyone reacts differently to the same treatment. You get to know the nurses as well; they’ll ask, how are you? The staff are just too busy and pushed for time in hospital, so you don’t always think of questions you wanted to ask at the right time. On the unit there’s more time for that as it’s more relaxed.
‘Helen’ is the Gloucestershire based mobile cancer care unit that Liza visits.
“It sounds a bit strange, but I don’t feel like I’m a cancer sufferer when I attend the unit. It’s calmer and more friendly as you’re sat closer to people. It’s more intimate, there’s more conversation with both the patients and staff. You can have a laugh over a cup of coffee.”
She recalls her experience at the hospital when striking up a chat was made difficult as people were often sat quite a distance apart. The oncology department was a stark reminder of her illness and her own mortality as “every sign of cancer is there and immediately it brought my mood down. I would see people in a much worse condition than me and my heart went out to them, but I didn’t want to see them suffering, it was too much. I’ve got myself to focus on and looking back, I didn’t think I would be here a year from now.”
She is often quite tired from “crippling” fatigue and treatment day is “really written off.” She found the trips to Cheltenham exhausting and she has saved so much time and energy which she now puts to good use. She says: “I’d feel I had to get dressed up, put on a smile, and then wait for ages, which can be draining. Now I just throw on some casual clothes; it’s a very relaxed atmosphere on the unit. When I’m not going to the unit until the afternoon, I’ll meet my friend for coffee in the morning. That’s not something I would be able to do if I was having to go to Cheltenham.”
Liza feels that with the more intimate atmosphere on the unit, she’s more open to sharing with others what she’s going through, as “we’re all in the same boat.” After recently sharing the good news with them that the tumours behind her eyes had gone, there was much excitement for her.
“It’s these little things that mean a lot.”
