"Dealing with Pancreatic Cancer"

After being diagnosed with Stage 4 pancreatic cancer and shortly after my first round of Chemo I had a call from Kim a local cancer care nurse who offered to come and see me.

I had just come out of hospital having had a severe reaction to my first chemo treatment. My wife was extremely anxious and concerned as this was completely new territory for us both. My wife was desperate. Kim came and sat with us for nearly two hours to help us understand and deal with this nasty disease and the side effects of chemo. We asked lots of questions and found Kim to be extremely helpful. My wife was greatly relieved to get professional support and help. Today is 1 year since my diagnosis. Through that period Kim has been in regular contact with us and has been an invaluable source of professional support during this period. Right now I have complete metabolic resolution as per PET scans and my last four blood tests show that my CA19-9 marker is in the normal range having come down from nearly 24000 from when Chemo commenced to 17 some 11 months on.

Having care and support of this kind has been invaluable for both me and my wife who had given up her work to be my carer. We really appreciate the work that people like Kim do in the community of cancer sufferers and hope that they can be recognised and supported for the amazing work that they do.