The Uneducated PT Podcast - Ep.62 - Thomas Woodcock - Tommys Cancer Journey

Episode Date: February 16, 2025

In this episdoe of the Uneducated PT Podcast we speak to Wicklow Man Tomas Woodcock about his inspiring and insightful page documenting his cancer jounrey. 

Hello and welcome to the uneducated PT podcast with me, your host, Carlo Rourke. The goal of this podcast is to bring on interest and knowledgeable people from all walks of life, learn a little something from each conversation and for you, the listener, just learn something from each episode. So don't forget to subscribe to the channel, press the box below, show some support and I'll see you on the next episode. Okay, welcome back to the uneducated PT podcast. We've been out of action for the last couple of months as I've had to move flat and get Wi-Fi sorted

and everything else, but we won't get into that. So we're back in action. We have plenty of great guests coming up in the next couple of weeks and I wanted to start off with a very, very special guest today, Mr Thomas Woodcock. I'll give a little bit of an introduction into Tommy before we get started. So he started off documenting his cancer journey and I would highly recommend following it, especially if you're someone who's going through anything similar

or how family may be going through it. Me and Tommy were both brought up in the same area actually as younger sister Grania is one of my closest and oldest friends. So that's how I know Tommy originally. And I've always known Tommy for being someone, you know, big into sport, strong, athletic. He even used to bully me on the football pitch when he played for show. But we won't get into that.

He's an absolute gent. And yeah, we even worked together on my online training program back in. I think it was January 2021. I was looking up there, Tommy. So an absolute breeze to work with as a client. Just someone who loves exercise, loves staying fit. And correct me if I was, if I'm wrong. I think it was the knee that you had issue with, wasn't it?

I did. I did both knees in. playing football or soccer as they call it over here you know so the knees were were banjacks but it didn't stop tommy from from training hard i think we had you on the cycling bike you're boxing at the time as well aren't you i was doing a little bit yeah just training with the boxing in the boxing club yeah yeah yeah basically like you know even when even with work commitments i think you were in college at the time as well were you yeah it was in college i was getting me engineering degree yeah so i was doing that at night yeah yeah so like working college commitments family commitments

and still trying to find a way to train even with two touchy. The little lad being born in December kind of slowed all that day. I'm sorry, but like it just goes to show someone who was kind of resilient and committed to it to whatever he does. And, you know, I think before before going into actual this, you know, documenting of the cancer journey and talking a little bit about that, I suppose I wanted to, for anyone who's listening who might not know you because we do have kind of viewers from all over the world.

you moved from Ireland to New Jersey What year did you move? Yeah, I moved. I actually moved over here in 2014 for six months just to try it out because I have family over here. So I've been over here on holidays a couple of times and I loved it.

So in 2014, I got the chance to go and I was like, you know, I'll try this out. Try it for six months from October, 2014 until around April 2015. and I absolutely loved it. So when I got back home, I started out, you know, I worked on getting my visa and whatnot for that. And then I came back January 2016 and I've been here ever since then.

What was the motivations for going over and what made you stay? I was young, free and single, as they say. And I felt like I was getting too old for Bray. You know, that kind of way. Too old to be down the Marlisello every weekend. Yeah, well, that was the thing. I found myself giving all my wages to John Douglas. So I was like, you know, I better get out and sort something out.

So I came over here and I loved it. And then I was like, you know, that plays for me. And then ever since, it's just been great over here. You know, other than these knocks, it has been brilliant, like, you know. And your wife is from New Jersey as well, doesn't she? She's from California. She's from San Francisco. Yeah.

Yeah. So I met her in the city after a few weeks of living here. And then we've just been together ever since. Yeah. And so you consider. consider that home nearly now, would you? I don't think you can ever take Ireland now to home. Every time I think of home, I think of all.

But yeah, you're right. I do think here now it's because I have me little lad here, I have the misses. But we're always looking at where we want to really go permanently. So it's kind of like this is, I've been here, what, nearly 10 years now. I've been in the same apartment here for close to nine years. So, yeah, this is home for me right now. But, you know, you can never take away Bray as being your home. right yeah yeah the mart hello that's your home huh no stop every time i'm home i have to have a drink

in there all right um so i i suppose then uh getting into that context let's let's talk a little bit about uh the the instagram page that you made can you can you talk a little bit about you know what type of cancer you're fighting what treatments you've been through and uh even going back to a little bit to when you were first diagnosed and what what that experience yeah so it would have been uh 20 22 in and around February 2022. The first thing I noticed of it was it's actually mad it is. This is like, you know when you get a feeling about something, which you know, people kind of like,

ah, he's probably saying that after the fact, but you know when you get a feeling about something? I had this warm rush of blood through my leg one day when I was sitting there watching television. And it happened a couple of times. It was like, it's like as if it was a few inches long of a vein that was just flowing around, just warm blood, mental like this. I never really told anyone this, but I was sitting there and that happened to me one day. And I was like, what's that? And it kept happening this one day. And you know, when you go on Google and you, you start being a doctor on Google and checking things. And I found this one thing that said,

it can be like a sign of cancer. Now, I can't exactly remember what it said, but it was something to do with cancer. And I was like, oh, God, please don't be giving me that sort of thing, you know. I'm not really thinking anything of it. And a few days later, I was driving to work and I could feel something in the back of my mouth, you know where your tonsils are. So I kind of feel something at the very back, something you wouldn't really normally notice.

It was just driving and just in a world of my own. And I was like, what's that? Didn't think much of it. Got to work. Got home that night, was watching television, about to go to bed, and I noticed it again. And I said, let's have a look at what is that? So I looked in the mirror and I could see like

it actually looked like a tumor right at the back of my mouth. Like that's, I don't know how to describe it other than like a, you know, it was my idea of what a tumor looked like. And I've said, oh God, what is this? So I have really good health insurance over here. So straight away that morning I called up and said, I want to come in and be seeing. I have something in the back of my neck.

I wanted to get looked at. So they seen me that day and she basically said it was an infected tonsil. and she put me on antibiotics and I said Are you sure that's all it is now? And she's like, yeah, I said, grand. Didn't think much of it. Done a week of antibiotics. I still had the lump in the back of the neck.

It was still there. So the lad who sits next to me and work, he's just about to retire and his two brothers have just got cancer at this point. And one of them got throat cancer. So he says to me, how's your throat? And I said, that thing's still there. But I googled it and it says it's a gland.

they can still stay swollen even after infection as being cleared up. And he said, no, no, don't mess around with that. My brother has throat cancer and, you know, get yourself back in there and check that out. I go, you know what? You're right. Actually, I'll give them a call and let them know it's still swollen. So I called the doctor and she said, you know what, go and see an ENT just to be sure. So within that couple of days that I had my appointment set up for the E&T, I noticed that my lymph node,

well, I didn't know as a lymph node at the time. I just felt a lump on the side of my neck. on the outside here. And I said, geez, that feels a little bit hard there. What's going on there? So when I went into the E&T, he checked around and he felt the hard piece on me neck. And he goes, this is concerning. So what started off is what I thought was an infected tonsil turned into seeing the E&T,

then going for a biopsy and ultrasounds and everything else. And everything starts leaning towards it being cancer. But in your mind, you don't really. feel like you're getting cancer for somebody it's just like ah no it's not going to be that that's in your head it's like i know it's not going to be it's not going to happen to me you know and um i i remember he called me one night and i had just had Tommy Tommy was about six months old at this point so Heidi was upstairs putting him down I was ran downstairs to just throw to rubbish out and I got a call as it was on my way back to the house and um it was him and he basically just said listen

It looks like it could be cancer. We've to do some more tests. So, you know, you've got to enjoy your life while you're healthy. That's what he said. I'm like, Jesus, you know, like hit me like a ton of bricks. I remember coming up here and I was in shock. I told the misses about it. Two of us had a good cry.

We didn't know what to do. You know, two of us sitting here with a six-month-old just put down to bed. We didn't know what was going on. So I had a few more tests to diagnose exactly what it was. And this was in a place called Summit Medical. which was my primary care hospital. It's not a cancer-specific treatment center. It's just a primary care.

So he had sent me to, when they found out what it was and they knew it was cancer, you know, they kind of said I had caught it early and it was one that's very treatable. So that's what, so that was kind of good news, you know. And he had sent me to a surgeon in somewhat medical, but when I went in there,

it felt like I was going back in time with the hospital, you know, I was like, Jesus, this is, this is like, I just don't feel comfortable in here, you know? And this doctor even said, look, you're young, you should go to a, a cancer treatment center, get yourself into a good facility because you're young and get this dealt with it. So he was even telling me not to go there, you know? So, luckily enough, a friend of mine, his girlfriend at the time, which his wife now, but she is a nurse in MSK, which is like one of the biggest cancer treatment facilities in America. They're known for being one of the best, you know.

So she got me an appointment in there. And the day I walked in, I remember walking in, I was like walking into the future. The way the place was, it was like a five-star hotel. And I get in there, and it was a doctor called Dr. Crakeola. Dr. Crakiole, she was brilliant. I get in there, her and a nurse are in the room. She comes in, and she's all business, but she's in a common way.

She's all business. She knows what she's talking about. And straight away, she's like, gives a look. So she has a look in your neck. she goes through your scans she's after going through all this and she said right well this is what we think you have but we like to do all our testing in-house

would you let me take a biopsy and I'm going yeah yeah work away and she's like like I mean right now can I take a biopsy right now and I go what do you mean? She's like well I'm just going to clip a bit of your tumour and are you screaming through blood

and I said well obviously I don't like it you know but look go ahead because otherwise you're waiting weeks to get in and do all these things so I'm like yeah go ahead do what you got to do so she numbs your throat snips a bit out, a little bit of blood, nothing major, and then they're able to test that in there,

in MSK, and they've better test than, what I was led to believe is they've better test than than kind of anywhere in the world. So they're able to get right down into exactly what type of cancer this is. And it was a cancer called HPV positive.

So we all have, not we all, about 90-something percent of us have HPV, the virus in your body, human papillone of virus or whatever. So I never knew I had anything. I didn't know I had this image. system just you know it is what it is and um she she was able to test that and she was able to say

that's what it is that stems from the human papillomavirus HB i think it's called HB positive 16 i think is the name of it and that that then turned into a scream of cell carcinoma uh is what it was that's the cancer we were looking at so she had a very good treatment plan for it they actually had a clinical trial on at the time and when you're in MSK they constantly have clinical trials, which is brilliant because the way a clinical trial works is if they use treatments, A, B, C, and D to get rid of something. On the next trial, they'll only use A, B, and C, and C, and see if it'll still have the same effect as A, B, C, and D if you get me. So they kind are trying to knock down the amount of treatment you keep having to do to treat the same sort

of cancers. And then obviously they collect all the data on it and they can see what works with what type of people and what type of cancer. So this one, the, Typical treatment for me, for my type of cancer, would have been seven weeks of radiation, which is 35 days, so five days at a weekend off, I did, 35 days of that, and three two-day sessions of chemotherapy. So the trial of that would have been three weeks of radiation, so 15 treatments, and it would have been two sessions, two-day sessions of chemotherapy, significantly knocking down the amount of treatment you to do and really helping you, you know, your body recover after and whatnot.

The very little side effects from this sort of treatment. So I got stuck into that. We got going on it. I remember starting. I remember the first day going over, I drove in. When you go in this big machine, you're in there for about 10 minutes. It's going around your body. And, you know, the folks is here.

Oh, by the way, at the time, it was the tonsil. that was the original part of the cancer so that's where we were starting on it had spread to two lymph nodes one was the hard one that they felt and on a subsequent scan they found a smaller one just down below so it was starting to spread

so what was the... Can I ask you a quick question what was the time frame from when you initially got that results that like definitively you have cancer to you actually being in that treatment centre I would have been it would have been about a month from so it would have been about seven eight weeks from when I've done my

very first went in and they said it was an infection it would have been about a month from when they knew it was cancer because then they planned it out about three weeks to a month I said they were they milled pretty quick oh this hospital is you know you if I went

in there on a Monday with something they'd have you booked in the following week yeah for for it's brilliant it really takes the nerves out of it you know and the anxiety of it but um so yeah it doesn't really give you like I know obviously

it can't but like you don't really have much time to process what's really going on in your life? No, you don't. You just start like straight in there. You know what it is? Well, my mind anyway and I hope a lot of people get like that

is my mind goes into battle mode. You know, it's like me against the cancer. I'm like, my doctor's telling me they need to do something. I'm like, yeah, do it. Straight away, let's go in there now. Let's get it done. Even the surgeries and all that

when you're going in. The first ones you do, you're like, you're like, oh my God, I've got to go in here and now. They're going to open me up. Now I'm like, get in there. Get in there. Open it up. getting out of me do what you got to do, you know?

And then I'll deal with the side effects after, and I'll deal with the physical therapy after, and I'll deal with getting back to normal, but you do what you've got to do. So, yeah, it had gone down to the tree. It was in tree. It was in the non-thal, the lymph node, and then it started to get into another lymph node.

So when I went to that day to do the treatment day, they basically just, it's a laser beam, you're just inside this big machine, you're strapped. You have to get strapped to the table. So leading up to the radiation, you have to go in and do a, what's the name of it? It's like when you're getting, you're basically getting set up for radiation. And it's like a trial. So you go into the same sort of machine, but you don't get any radiation.

But they put, they put this mold on your head. So I had this plastic. It's like a big square sheet of plastic that's hot. It's kind of melted. Obviously, warm enough that you can, you can take it, not too hot. So it's kind of, it's a little bit harder, but it's melted. It's, it's, it's malatable if you get me. It's going to, you put it on your head, and then they, they have you down on a table,

and they start pressing it all the way around your head. And then it, it gets harder as it cools, and then you have this mold of your head. So when you go in and lie in the radiation machine, they put this mold on you, and there's four bolts. So they bolts your head to the table. So if you're claustrophobic, this isn't for you, you know. So they bolt your head to the, yeah, and then they put your head on you. then they put you into this machine, like a tube, tube radiation machine, they put you in there.

And then this laser being essentially comes down. And they have it marked exactly where it's to go. So the mold is obviously so you can't move your head and you can't move your body. And then the laser beam is able to hit exactly where it needs to hit without causing damage to sell to good sales in the area. So that's essentially what happened. So I remember the first day I went in and I did that. And, you know, I had already done my mold. went there from my very first day of radiation and I went to work that day.

I drove in there after work and then I drove out and left. You don't even notice it. You don't feel it. But what happens with radiation is it keeps adding on. So it's like getting sunburned on day one and then getting sunburned again on day two. And then by the end of the week, you're going to really feel that sunburn. You know what I mean? So that's kind of what it's like, it's like constantly getting sunburnt in the same spot.

And over time, you'll start to notice it. in that machine that they do the radiation, the doctor can actually read. It's like he can do a scan in it as well and he can kind of see what way it's going, what way the treatment's going. So it did me first week of radiation and then I had to do chemotherapy. So chemotherapy was obviously new to me. I went in there and they're like, they have loads of water and all there for you. They want you to keep urinate.

They're like, you got to get it through your kidneys and everything. So I'm on a mission then to drink as much water as I can and get this thing out of my system. nearly breaking records in there for the amount of water or drink to get it out of me. But that was on the first one. Come the second day of doing that radio, that chemotherapy, it's like you're on heroin.

You really are, you're, you're kind of out of it. And come the very third session at the end, you're a different person altogether. So the day you go in, you're fresh, but,

you know, after, after it's doing its job and, and really taking it out of it, you'll, you really do feel it. And it's really like you're on heroin at that point. Is there different types of chemo?

There is. There is. There's all different. Like, for instance, that one I did then was called cisplatin. That was the name of it. And the one I'm doing now, it's called Paxletel, I think is the name of it. There's two. There's two of them on right now. And one is a chemo. One's in eunotherapy. So they put the boat up them into your body at the same time. I think it's called Paxletel or begins with a C. There's another. one. But there's loads of different types. So like women with breast cancer do a different one. Yes, yes, yeah. And is

there different types of, in terms of the chemos, there are different types of like how much it takes out of you? True. Yeah. Like this one now, like the side effects to the one I did before, it really just had me felt like I was dying. Like I had

between that and the radiation and the neck I couldn't eat. So when you after, after a week of doing it, you can't eat anymore. So, you're between not eating and on that, you're not getting a nutrients into you. And you're going through, you're doing these drugs that are designed to essentially kill you

if they kept on going. Yeah. So, you know, the side effects of that was just really, that was the worst. It just feels like you're dying. But this side effects of this one is bad acne. So it really goes to sign that the drug is working is if you get bad acne. And I did, as soon as I did it just there like two months ago,

I got raw red face. The face is still red, but it's not. You know, you ever see a teenage when you went to school and you had the big white postules all over the head? That's what I was like straight away within it within two weeks of starting this. Now, I use a good cleanser that the doctor gives you in. I moisturize it all the time trying to heal it. But all over the face, you get that. You lose your hair.

You get the acne all over your chest and arms and your back. So that's there. But the doctor's delighted with that because he's like, this is great. this means it's working. My oncologist is loving the fact that the body's going through this because he can see that it's working. And then on the scan I just did lately, it showed that it knocked it down by over 50%.

So, you know, everybody's happy with it. Is it a real like powerful reframe the fact that, okay, the fact that you're getting all these side effects that are probably uncomfortable and painful, but they're also, it's the same thing that you would deem as a negative is actually a positive because it's helping to get an outcome that you want. And that's what I say on the page,

turn a negative into a positive. I'm like, bring it on, you know, I'd rather see that. And I'd rather get the side effects now. Because the immunotherapy I was on for a bit a year and a half there. I didn't really get any side effects from that. It was grand. I would go into work in the morning, doing me work.

I'd head in, doing my immunotherapy. I could go back to work that afternoon if I wanted to, you know? I didn't feel anything really. The odd time, a little bit tired that was about it. And that concerned me because I'm like, well, if I'm feeling this good, what, like, is the cancer still comfortable in there? You know, like, well, obviously,

it's great that you don't feel that bad, but you're still in your head thinking, what ways the cancer feeling? Is that just, is that just like living the life in there? So then did you not, did you get the all clear and then the cancer came back? So what happened was I did the, I did the 35 days of the radiation. Initially I was supposed to do the 15. And this, I was on the trial. Now, the trial at that point for the initial part of three years ago, the trial was just a shorter version of the standard of care. And the standard of care, the standard the care was the seven weeks, the trial was three weeks. After three weeks, they test you, after two weeks, sorry, they test you for a thing called

epoxy. And I can't remember if you have to have it or you don't have to have it. I just remember I had the correct result to be on the trial and stay on the trial. It just makes it harder for the cancer to survive or something like that. So I had tested the right way for that, that was good. But I think I went in on the Wednesday and the Friday, my doctor calls me, me ready. I just said, listen, I know you think you're only doing the three weeks,

but we have to continue your own for the seven weeks. Now, at this point, I am shattered. I'm defeated. It's like the first time going through anything like this. I am feeling like, thank God it's only three weeks because I wouldn't be, I said it to my missus in the hospital. Thank God it's only three weeks. I wouldn't be able for seven weeks, right?

I, in my head, fully believed I would not be out for seven weeks because that's how bad it started to get. But he said, you have to do it at seven weeks. He said, we're not getting results. He said it's extremely rare what's happening to you, but we're not getting the results that we need. For such a common cancer, I was getting the extremely rare side of things.

And it happened a couple of times. I'll feel you in a bit more. So he was like, you're going to have to do it. And I was just defeated at that point. Like, no way. But anyway, what happens is you lift yourself up and say, you know what, I've got to do it. And that's it.

There's not what you can do. It's either don't do it and let the cancer take out or keep on going and get it done. but that weekend then I was so I was two weeks in that weekend I was downstairs in my living room and I said to them I'm going up to bed it was about half nine on the Saturday night and my mother was here my auntie and my uncle had called in my mrs was here the fore of them and little I was in bed and I went up and I got into bed myself and I woke up about a half an hour later and it felt like a cup of tea was kind of pouring out of me now that's what I felt like a cup of tea was kind of pouring out of me now that's what I felt

like and I was like what is that so it was dark in the room but I was wearing a white t-shirt so I got up and I looked and I could just see all these stains on my t-shirt blood stains you know you can see the dark shade I go what is that so I got up and I turned the light on there was blood just gushing out my mouth just everywhere I'm not so I called downstairs went into the bathroom where my blood was just pouring into the sink and I called downstairs so they all come up obviously getting a freight sting made way I am turns out the when you're getting the radiation it can destroy the um it can destroy like stuff in its path essentially and it was after it was after affecting the artery in my neck so what happened is the artery got weaker so they don't i don't think

they know if it was the artery getting weaker or the tumor that was pressing on it and some way that it stopped that it like it ripped it so the artery basically started pumping blood out of me my neck um so i got rushed into hospital and what I thought was just going in and getting something sewed up, whatever. He ended up, they put me in an induced coma for a few days, and then they sent me into,

because I could drown essentially in the blood, because where it was. So when I went to end, the doctor was like, he filled me in with all this jargon. This is a different hospital altogether. You're not going into your cancer hospital now. You're going into the emergency room.

So he filled me in with all this doctor jargon, and he said, did you get all that? And I said, no. He goes, what part is it? None of it. I don't know what you said there. say it in layman's term so i know what you're saying and he said basically your blood is going to keep filling up and we need to clear that airway and we need to protect your airway so that it

you essentially don't drown in your own blood you know so they did that and the the mad thing another rare thing to happen when they did that is they they knock you out and they basically paralyzed you know when you're going into surgery but i wasn't fully knocked out but i was paralyzed You ever see that movie where they do the heart surgery and your man's awake for it, that kind of thing? That happened to me, right? But I was about... Could you not be vocal?

You wouldn't have been able to be vocal. No. You can't do anything. You're lying there and they're talking. I was in the surgery room and I remember there was a woman and two men and they were in the room and they had me move my head this way and that way and they're stuffing stuff down my neck. And it's like I'm choking, I can't read,

but they and I'm screaming at the top of my voice when nothing's coming out like I'm screaming and I'm trying to say I'm still awake I'm still awake I'm still awake and I was choking you know because they're putting the stuff in or whatever it was horrible but then I must have just knocked out then I just so eventually then so then I woke up and I was in this was in New Jersey I woke up and I was in New York

and next to my cancer hospital I was in there I was in the ICU in what's the name of the hospital? I can't remember the name of it now, but it was in the hospital next to it anyway, a big hospital in there. And it was in there for a few days and they

had to go in and embellized the artery, which is basically block the artery or tie it in and not. Whatever way do it, they block it up. But they went in the first time and they did it and it's a big surgery and whatnot. They got the, I remember waking up and I had this patch on me growing,

like a big plaster. I thought it was just something from up here that fell down there. But turns out, so my wife says, no, they open you up in your groin to go into your artery there. And then they go all the way up with like a fishing rod, all the way up through into where they need to go. And they did it and they embolized it.

But I was sitting there in the hospital bed, still feeling absolutely horrible. And my brother was over at the time. And the wife's in the room. And I could feel like fluid poisoning, is what it felt like. And I was lying on the bed. And I just said, don't feel.

Now at this point you're weak as a kitten as well. You're like, you're not yourself at all. And I was like, I don't feel right. It all fair right. And next minute, I just got sick and it was just blood that came out. I was like jelly. It was disgust. And I never forget the smell of it.

It was horrible. It was turning out. The blood was still dripping down. And it was going into my stomach. My stomach was trying to like digest it or whatever way it was working. So then when I got sick, it was just a whole thing. So my missus, she lost it. She went because she was trying to tell them that there was something got.

I got the fright of their knife. Oh, I remember Andrew's face. He was just, it was in shock, complete shock. So my missus was like, she went down and she said to them, there's something still going on here. And the guy was like, oh, well, they still kind of bleed when this happens

and whatnot the doctor was. And she said, no way, look at him with blood. And he's like, it is a bit much blood in fairness. So he went and got the head guy. And it took hours like, and the head guy comes down. And he's like, oh, yeah, that is a lot. of blood there is there is still a lot of blood there basically they had to go in again and i wasn't able for

it because when you get it done and you're finished they took the thing out and they go to you basically get sick and they have this big tube in your mouth and you have to get sick and they pull it and you can feel it inside your chest just pulling out like right because it's like a rib tube and you feel oh it's horrible and all this blood coming out and everything it was just disgusted they take into a room on your own as well. Nobody's allowed in there, such as you and a doctor, and they just do it. So they were like, you have to do it again. And I said that it misses, at this

point, I'm so weak. I said, I don't think I can do this anymore. Like, this is, I just want to go asleep and I don't want to wake up. That was my mindset. And it's the only time I think I've ever felt like that through this whole thing. Yeah, I just felt like, put me asleep and let me go asleep. Because I was going to say to you, like,

the pressure to probably even, like, just stay positive for their friends and family. Oh. At that point, I wasn't. At that point, I was, I was arguing with everyone. I had doctors and not, like, I couldn't talk. I had this chewed me now at the time.

So I was writing stuff down. I mean, this has kept, like, all the pages. I was writing stuff down, giving out to everybody to get this started, you know? You're just, you're just not yourself, you know? So, um, they had to go back in again. And I remember I was sitting there, just everybody left the room, was only me and the Mrs. and she turned around. She was upset and she said, you have to do this with a six-month-old at home.

you know, she filled me in with a few home truths. And that just spurred me on where I just something clicked. And I was like, you're dead right. You're dead right. I got to do this. So it just hit me head there. I was like, nobody can do this for you. Like nobody is able to do this for you.

Only you are. So you have to do it. So I was like, what's the point in bitching a moan about it? Let's get it done. So I said them, okay, you can go in again.

So they went in again. They went up. The embellis some more. It was only on the way. It was like it was another rare occurrence that whatever way this artery was gone. It was feeding the tumour as well. And the doctor had said, I could have this a little bit wrong, but the doctor said,

whatever way that was working was something they hadn't seen before. So, luckily enough on the way out, the guy that was doing it noticed something on the way out, and he was able to go up in there, and he found exactly what he needed to find. So he's able to embellise exactly what he needed to emboise, and he got out of there,

and then it worked. It was like a new man then after that. They took it out. I remember the second time they've taken the tube out of me mouth, because they're always protecting the airway so they have this big, nearly like a vacuum hose down your throat, you know? And he pulled it out and there was no blood.

There was nothing. There was like night and day from what I had gone through. And I remember thinking, right, that's good. That's a good one. We're after getting that now. And then I got transferred from there over to MSK, which is the cancer hospital. That's where you want to be when you're getting this.

And straight away, because I had a week off now from treatment, because I was at them in the ICU. Straight away, they were all over me again when I got there. They want to go straight back into radiation, straight back into chemo. And again, your week is a kitten at this point. But the cancer is not stopping. That cancer is going to keep on grown.

So you just have to go, all right, and do it. So I spent about eight days, I think eight days in total between the two of them. I'm not 100% sure, but it was in around eight days between the two of them that I was in before I got to come home again, you know? And that was only two weeks into it all. so it was quite the journey

there must be at this stage like every time they say again again okay more chemo more chemo more chemo more chemo more chemo there must be this oh like this oh yeah like every week

and then it's like okay then acceptance has to come into play and then it's like it's like you said on one of your videos and I really loved it was like you said like you know you had this kind of push and pull between you know I'm gonna

kick the shit out of cancer or I'm going to be motivated to beat this thing versus them other days where it's like allow yourself to feel sorry for yourself and trying to kind of balance them too which you're probably trying to balance them to every single day it's like I'm yeah yeah definitely definitely you're 100% it's um you know it is a bit of tug of war

a tug of war here like uh but me right now my mindset is really solid like right now but wasn't always like that so you do you do get the days you do I did get the days where I just like, oh, why me? What is this? You know, and I have to get up out of bed. And I have to do this and I have to do that.

It's just like, I don't want to do anything. Like, what's the point? But then the other time, the other side of the day, you do get that way. You're like, oh, no, no. I get to do this and I'm going to do this to kill this off. And I'm going to, like, I'm in the best hospital around. I'm so fortunate to be there. Like, there's so much stuff that I count me blessings for.

Like, one is the fact that I moved here in the first place. And because I honestly think of I was at home with the cancer I have. The way it spread, I think I'd be dead by now. You know, I honestly believe that if I was back at home, not saying anyone else getting treated back home. I'm just saying the way, the way when mine was going. It's your personal experience. Yeah.

It doesn't mean anyone back home is going to get bad treatment. I'm not saying that. I don't even, I just think how quick they were over here. to tree and the facilities that they have, they were able to find these things a little bit sooner. And they were able to deal with them, you know, that the facility itself is just,

it's just for cancer. It's just for cancer treatment. So even the people deal with me are only dealing with that type of cancer. They're not dealing with all cancers. So they kind of have seen everything at this point, you know. And this is one of the questions that I was going to ask in, you've you've you've you've you've almost touched on it there a lot anyway and it was especially for

anyone who was listening to this who but who might be newly diagnosed because there will be people listening to this who'll be like I wouldn't listen to that because this will resume what yeah and it was basically to ask you about like practical practical tips and advice you would have for people who are the kind of newly diagnosed yeah oh yeah for someone that's newly diagnosed you know the first thing is is really you got it you got to look at at your diet as well. That's a big thing in this. I'm not saying sugar causes it or sugar doesn't cause it, but

cut it out. Cut alcohol out. Cut the sugar out. Start eating healthy. You know what I mean? Over over there, I don't know how quick they are. I seem to get the impression out in Ireland or a little bit longer on getting lads in and getting people in and dealing with. So really

in the meantime, you have to do your own you have to help your body out itself. You know what I mean? You're bit of exercise, you're a bit of eating right and all that. But all of that stuff is kind of more preventative. So if you're at the main recently, recently diagnosed with it, you're going to have to get into those hospitals straight away. You're going to have to, you know, be your own advocate to get these trades straight away. Because the long as you leave things, cancer just keeps on. It keeps on growing. It's not going to stop for you, you know?

How quickly were you to like accept that like, all right, this is, this is what it is. and get into that kind of action mode with it. Oh, yeah. I remember, well, those first two weeks were a little bit all overplace because in your mind you kind of don't believe that you have it. Yeah, well, I was going to say, were you in any kind of denial about it? It wasn't really denial. It was kind of like, you know, when you're, you know,

when something bad happens, like, oh, that wouldn't happen to me kind of thing. Like in your head, I got up, like, something happens and you see it in the newspaper, like, oh, that's up to happen then. That would never happen down here, kind of. it's kind of in your head where like, oh, that wouldn't, it's not going to happen to me. You just think like that for the start. And then you start getting hit with the realization that no, no, this is, this is you. Like, this is something you have to deal with.

And I think when it, when it first happened, my, you know, your initial thought is why me, what's going on of a young child. I'm only at the time I was 35. I'm like, how is this happening to me? You know, with everything going on, this should be happening to me. You've always looked after yourself. You've been fit. You've been active.

Yeah, that's the thing. Well, that's the thing because it is, it's basically stemmed from an infection that I didn't even know I ever had. I never, I never knew I had it. It's an infection that was in my body. And then when you leave it, it can turn into, you know, turn into cancer cells. Basically what, with HPV, your body just clears it out. People, like 90, I think it's 96% of people in the world or something. If I have the numbers, right, I have HPV in their body.

You know what I mean? it's like having to work on your finger or that type of virus. So if you have that, if you have that, your immune system was going to clear it out. And that's what happens. But the analogy that was used for me, basically one of those cells can camp up somewhere. You don't even know you have it.

And then all of a sudden, I could have had this for 20 years. All of a sudden it decides to come out and it starts to go with a cancer. And you didn't even know that you had the thing to start off with. You know what I mean? Is it a good that you had that intuition to be like, right, this, this, this actually doesn't, like, because you know, a way lots of people put off going to a hospital or going to the doctor? Oh, yeah.

Big Irish thing. Yeah, it really is, isn't it? It's, but it's like, that's probably nothing. I'll just leave it. And we wait until we definitely know something's wrong. Oh, yeah. Well, I wouldn't, I wouldn't have went back into that E&T. Only for the lad beside me, his two brothers had it.

I wouldn't have went back in there. I went on Google because I said to my missus said, how's that infection, like a day or two, went to it? I said, oh, yeah, it looks like it's getting a bit better, but it's still there. And I went on Google and just seeing that that is normal. At the time, I remember reading it and it was like, because the tonsil is a gland,

something to do with a gland there anyway, that it can stay swollen even after the infection clears up. I said to me, said, all right, that's Grant. And only for the guy beside me, his brother had the exact same cancer. I had. Because it's actually, it's, it's, it's exploding around the world, this type of cancer as well. So he had, he was going through the same treatment, the exact same thing. And he was in his 50s. And this lad, the lad next to me was like, you better go get that looked at, you know, you better go just make sure. And I was like, you know what? You're right. I have good health insurance. I'll just go in. It's not going to cost me anything.

I'll just go in and, and, and, and make sure that we're on the same page with the doctor. So luckily enough, she just said, go, to the NT and then it just stem from there you know. And what's the action plan now? What needs to happen right now or in the next coming weeks and months for you to be... So, I'll fill you in a bit more than after. So when I went through the seven

weeks of the treatment, during that, towards the end of that, I wasn't eating anymore. I had to get a feeding show in. So basically, go in, I had to go back into the hospital again for about, I was in there for again for about eight days. What should have been a one day thing? I was supposed to go in, they slice you in the middle of your stomach and they put

this tube right into your into where your food would go essentially bypassing your throat and then they give you these liquids like they're really like milk cartons and you pour it in you to drink about eight of them a day I could only ever get I think the max I got down was seven down there and at the start when you start doing it you're getting sick all the time because you're putting it in your body's not able for it it's just full of vitamins and nutrients but when I went in to get this done here's another rare rare rarity that happened to me the doctor you called me a special patient because the amount of stuff that went wrong with my treatment. So I went in to get this done and they, you go in there that morning, they do it, they open you up,

they put the tube in and everything else. You wake up and you have a tube in their stomach just hanging out. And that's it. Later on that night or the next day, I can't remember what it was. I was in the room, in my hospital room and I just felt I was like vibrating in the bed. I just felt. I was like vibrating in the bed. just felt, I didn't, I felt nauseous and I was vibrate. I didn't know what was going on. And it gradually kept getting worse. And I'm like, what is happening here? So I said to the doctor, there's something wrong.

Eventually, I'm rattling in the bed, like proper rattling. So they knew something was up. So my dad came in to visit me. He was over at the time. He comes in to visit me. He walks into the room. There's like three or four doctors around me, nurses around me. I'm vibrating on the bed.

He nearly had a heart attack. Turns out, when they were doing the feeding show, some bacteria from my stomach got into my blood system so it started to give me an infection and I was basically had a blood infection and I was rattling in the bed with that so they have to they had to keep coming in if mad they keep coming in to take a blood out

they take a blood culture someone that knows about this stuff but know a lot more than me they're basically taking the blood out and they keep testing it with all these antibiotics and in the meantime they're giving you an antibiotic that they think will work through a drip so they they found one anyway that was working on my blood, but I had to stay there and be monitored for a bit longer. So that's why I ended up in there for like a week again,

when I should only been there for a day. And they found the one that works and then they're able to put that into tablet form and then they send you home with that, and then you clear up the infection, you know? So that happened. And then I kept on going with me treatment anyway. Every day you're still going down for your treatment. But it's crazy in a hospital for anyone that gets,

for anyone that has to get stuck in a hospital, there's a thing called sundown syndrome i believe is the name of it i was in there i must have got now i'm in the same room i'm looking at the same wall and i still have it in my head the same wall the wallpaper the tv up at the corner the desk beside me the chair there small chair at the end of it i still know exactly what was in that room because i was there for you know eight days i know exactly how the whole thing looks but after so many days of being in there you can nearly drive herself insane So I was in there and I was grand I remember watching Seinfeld on the iPad

I'm watching friends on the iPad trying to watch good stuff you know I think you even watched Saip by the bell while I was in there as well I had that on and stuff from your childhood anything to keep you happy you know Yeah And it got to the point where I just couldn't be in there

All of a sudden one day I was like I can't be in here anymore Now in my head I was going to get up out of that bed With tubes and all hanging me walk down Get one of them yellow taxis in the middle of New York And drop me straight back to New Jersey Jersey. So I was, I was, I just, I just, something took over me and I couldn't be in there. It was like a panic attack that was set, setting in my mind, because I was just looking at the same walls. And I never experienced anything like that before, you know, so the, yeah, I, I said it

to the doctor, I need to go. And I remember, I rang me misses and I said, get the car, get in here, pick me up, I'm out of here now. I'm leaving. And she's like, what are you talking about? You're getting treated in there. You have to start. No, I can't be in there anymore. I want to get, I want to go home. I need to be out there, you know. You're just so worked up and, you know, your body is all over the place. And she was like, no way, no way. So she was calling the family. Everybody was up the walls, thinking on the leave, so they got in anyway.

And she specifically came in and didn't bring the car with her. She got the train in. She wouldn't bring the car. But it didn't bother me. I would have went down and jumped in one of them cabs and been on the way home. I would have ripped everything out. So I told the nurses and everything that there's something going on, I have to get out here.

I had to get out and do treatment and it turns out this day I have to do a longer day of radiation kind of like where you do a little mini scan on you while you're doing it and it would happen to be this day that I have to get into this claustrophobic machine on this day so I'm in there for about 15 minutes

to look you want some music and I said put some Dermer Kennedy on there with you and they're looking around for who Darren McKennedy is and I'm sitting in the machine it gets to about 10 minutes and I go get me out there I have to get out I was having a panic it's like. So I got up to the room.

I got up to me room and just start bawling crying the room. I don't know what was going on. I'm vibrating on the bed. I'm crying. I'm like, I don't know what's happening here. I need to be able to it's building now. And the nurse comes in and she goes, look,

we're heading neck. Head and neck cancers are very, very hard to go through because, you know, they limit you being able to eat, being able to talk. You know, they kind of, like, if you had it in your leg, you can still eat, you can still talk. You kind of, you still have a bit of socializing in you. this was just awful, you know, it was horrible. And they're constantly down your neck.

Nobody likes anyone going into their mountain down our knee. So the dami, I think it was called an Atavan, like a Xanax or something. They basically, me mate to doctor, he said it's like a happy pill. They gave me me one of them. And I knocked out on the bed. And I woke up and I was like a new man. I went down, hopped in the machine, done me 15 minutes, went back up. Doctor says, yeah, you're good, you can go.

We got your, we got your antibiotic in a tablet form. for you and everything. I went there, left there with two big bags of drugs that they give you to treat you. And my auntie came in there and my aunt and my uncle and picked me up and I went home, which I was, you know, it was like a, it was like a big win for me mentally and physically

and everything. I got to go home to me on bed. Because each time I go in there, I hadn't seen my son in those days. I never brought him in. So that was killing me. My missus and my sisters and everyone was showing me pictures or videos and I just couldn't handle it. I couldn't handle seeing him because he was, he's only six months.

These are the times when you're meant to be with them all the time and showing them everything, you know? Well, that's the thing. It's not just physically draining on you. It's emotionally draining on you. Oh, the emotional side of it is something else. Yeah, that really, that wiped me out. But then when I got home, it was like, you know,

you have got a care in the world. You get to see him. You get to sit down with him. And he doesn't know what's going on. He's so young, he's never going to remember that. But you remember it, you know? Like, it's hard as a man to leave your missus there with child on her own. spending for herself kind of but luckily enough i have i have very very very very good family and

very very good friends and all so uh she was well well well looked after in a sense you know but she was a trooper too so can i ask a question on off the back of that do you think that like your view or perspective on life has changed from going through all this oh without a doubt you ever want to realize how short life is going through something like that you ever want to want to you're ever worrying about these little things that are, like, I, like, I'm a fecker for if I'm driving the car and someone cut you off or something and you're like, what are you

know, the littlest things I don't care about anymore. Probably annoys the wife as well sometimes because I just don't care about these little things. It's like, but it's family and it's good friends. It's stuff like that that I care about now. And, you know, we all, I've said this before, we all have an expiry date. I got to realize that mine, I got to realize that I have won a lot sooner than a lot of people because, you know, before that, I was living forever in the head, you know, I wasn't going anywhere.

So now it's like every day I wake up is a good day, you know, every day I can get up out of bed and I go and do anything. If I can get out, go down, get in the car, drive out, it's a good day already because I can do that because my level of how low things can go has dropped dramatically, you know? I have been in the position where I couldn't pick up my child. where I couldn't get out of bed, where I was sick all day, you know, where because of this, where I just, I was no use to anyone. You feel like a hindrance to people at that point. So me being able to get up and get down and make me eggs and a bit of toast and go for a walk and play at me soon.

It's such a, it's such a simple concept. But like when, when you have your health, it's like it's the one thing that you just take for granted. And it's like all these little things that you can do, like getting up and having breakfast and going for a walk. all these things, you do take them for granted. 100%. And I remember being in that, one of the biggest things, because they're,

because I hit you with radiation here, in their neck and your, what happens is all your taste buds and all go. Like, they're completely gone. So after two weeks, you can't really taste anything. Then you can't eat anything.

You know, you're not, you're not, even getting water down your throat is, like, is a task, you know? So, when all your taste buds and all are gone, And you can't, you can't taste any. It's, you get all the, I was getting all these cravings in the hospital.

One of them was I wanted a big carvery, a big carvery back home. I was just like, I want that. The other one was like Chinese, I wanted to have a Chinese. But, and I love cheesecake. I love cheesecake, right? Oh yeah. And then in the hospital, I had menu, they bring up a menu and you pick your meals throughout the day, but I couldn't eat anything.

I used to get a slice of cheesecake up to the room and I'd sit there and smell it. Because if I was to eat it, it just was like two paste in your mouth. or something. It was like, you know, it was like just a paste because your mouth was so dry as well. So we weren't able to, you weren't able to appreciate anything like that. But then after, after get through it all and after you're finished with all that, your taste buds are still gone. And some people lose their taste for a long time, you know. Now, luckily enough with me, my taste buds came back within a few months after finishing.

Because everything I put in my mouth after finishing treatment tasted like salt. So the doctor said that's a good sign They're like that means your taste buds are coming back So everyone out there's two ways it goes People either taste the salt or people either taste the sweet One or the other That's how your taste buds start to come back And eventually then mine would come back

And you know, I love a slice of pizza From down the road there It's a New Jersey pizza And I just felt like I was eating salt And then you know You kind of judge it on that Well later it's a bit better and a bit better And now now I can taste everything again

Thank God because I thought I was going to lose that. And I love me food. So that would have been the worst thing that could have happened. And that's exactly it as well. It's like people take for granted even something small like that is like the fact that you're able to taste this and enjoy this and didn't appreciate it. Oh, yeah. It's all these little small things as well.

You also talked about we all have our kind of a deadline. And I know you used to spoke about that on a video. Like have you found any kind of like peace or acceptance in, you know, facing your own. mortality to a degree because I know something we don't like to think about or talk about like I know myself I'd bury my head in the sand and be like yeah nobody nobody wants

to think about it nobody wants to think about it's not a nice thing to think of but yeah because I've kind of faced it so much over the last three years every time I'm going for a scan it's nearly like you're going in to find out you're dying soon or not you know you're like okay what's going to happen here like and the the amount of times I've gone in there and the doctor's being like

I'm so sorry Thomas you know because the scan didn't go right or something. And when they say it, I think you're like, oh my God, I'm dead. You know, I'm dead. But that's what these people do for a living and they're very good at it. They know they're going to, you know,

do their best to get you out of that situation. But yeah, I definitely realized, like, you know, the simple as is, how short life is. And it's such a simple concept that not everybody grasps. I definitely have grasped that now. And I really just, you know, I want to be around for as long as I can.

but but what with those days even a bit short I want to make sure all of those days count no point being here as long as you can but you're not doing anything you know in your own personal way how do you think you can make them days count more more than you might have done before now don't get me wrong you need your rest

especially I'm going through what I'm going through now you definitely need a rest and that could seem like a wasted day but it's not a rest is sometimes as good as an exercise you know what I mean you need you need especially anyone going through, I'm talking to a good few people online and they feel guilty about having a rest. I'm like,

do not feel guilty about having a rest. Your body now is using every bit of its energy to kill those cancer cells. So go up every morning, tell yourself you're going to kill the cancer cells and let your energy go towards that because as soon as you're better, you don't want to waste any days.

So I find now that one of the big things is travel. I love to go travel. So me and the misses are constantly looking at like different things to do, different places to go. And I want to see as much as the world as possible, right? That's, that's going to,

I think that's nearly the first thing for anyone going through an illness or, you know, or realizing debt, they can be on debt store at any day, is wanting to see the world of it, you know? So that's one of my biggest things, is kind of looking for different ideas

of where to go. The other thing is, is it, and it's simple, it's just not being pissed off at things that are not worth your time. You're right? Like, so I notice now that even if I have to wait for,

like if I put something a piece of toast in and it tells you on the timer you know one minute and 30 seconds or something like there's one minute and 30 seconds I'm wasting now waiting for this toast to heat up that's my mindset now it's like I don't like to waste that you know I'm like these all count because at the end of your life you'd love for all those wasted minutes to be added on and say you know what there you go go and do something with that so it's kind of just as simple as that and just being a happier person you know I definitely knows I'm a much happy person and much it i was always kind of happy and all but i had a bit of an i think i have a bit of an aggressive streak in me too

where just like would get you know young man getting pissed off over stupid things i don't really feel like i get like that i feel like i i i'd kind of i've put that to the side and i said if you said what is that worth your time is that work being pissed off of and that kind of thing and then my little lad's getting he's getting older so i'm kind of it when he's a baby obviously you can't do too much with them you can just you know go for your walks and and whatnot. But now he's getting a bit older. I just love to do stuff with him.

I love watching him now. He started doing a soccer camp on a Saturday morning. And I love that. I love seeing him out there doing it. And I can't wait to do more stuff with him, you know. So it's really that. It's really, you know, a couple of things, bit of travel, not getting pissed off as much with people.

Helping people too. Like talking to people now is like, it's like I'm out to find a whole new lease of life with just being able to talk to people about this stuff. people that are going through it and just being able to help them. Because when you go through at the start, you don't know what you're expected. You are just thinking of death. You're just thinking, oh, my God, I'm dead here, like of cancer.

But no, it doesn't have to mean that. It might just be a life-changing situation for you that you realize how short life is, but you get through it. You know, you might just only have to have a bit of surgery and get through it. So I like talking to people now and seeing where their mindset, seeing if I can help them change their mindset. And I'll probably start looking more into that in the future as well. maybe do some counseling course or something that helps me talk to people because I hope when

I'm talking to them that I'm not feeding them crap you know I hope I'm giving them my what I think would work or whatever but I hope it's not detrimental to their situation or whatever you know that's why I wanted to get you on as well because when you made that page I was like you that makes perfect sense to make that page and to document what you're going through and how that can help other people who are going through similar thing and you can see it's authentic you know I don't know, mean, you, like, you on social media, what's, what's fake and what's real, you know what I mean? Yeah.

What made you, what sparked the idea to do that then? So after going through the first initial treatment, the seven weeks, way back when, and then, this is kind of a bit of a longer story now, but I, I knew even then, everybody was always asking me how you are, how you're doing, which is, you know, great. And some people don't want to keep reaching out, even though you want to know how you're doing every day. So at the time, I was like, I could set up a page, but I had no energy. I was, I had no energy. I looked in a bad way. I didn't look at all. Like, you know, it just wasn't healthy. I was, I just, there was no time to do that at the time. It was constantly fighting, constantly

fighting this battle, you know, just constantly trying to get better. No energy to, to maintain a page. Then when I, when I finished with that treatment, I felt like everybody knew about it. was a go fund me, everybody chipped in. I had this whole... How did you feel about that, by the way? I was shocked to see it out there, but it was a massive, massive help. Because not that I didn't have the money,

like, I had the money there to help, like, to get through my stuff, but it was nice to not have to use all your savings and stuff to get through cancer. You get me, so even with good health insurance, cancer, like, I'm probably up to a half a million with the amount of treatments I've gone through, but luckily enough, the health insurance covers most of it.

So I was able to use that for a lot of that, which was great. It was great. You know what I mean? It really was a massive help. And I, you know, and I'm thankful to everyone, you know, at the time I had let everyone know. But yeah, you're thankful to everyone. The amount of people that chipped in, the amount of people that sent your messages, the awareness have brought to the situation and the amount of good vibes.

I honestly think the good vibes help you through all that as well. You know, people send your messages, you get through it. Like you do it. You read that registers and you're like, I will get through this. I am going to get better. know so it really was good but um what was they saying there the yeah yeah so that at the time when i i had finished up to seven weeks and then i started to go through it and everybody's asking you and i'm talking everyone so kind of like was around them but it wasn't

going through anything at that point i was kind on my journey to get better so i was working out at the time came born was helping me out i was working out it was doing me a few extra as a home and i got myself in like i was getting myself in good and Nick, I felt great again, you know. It was one of the things the doctor said me at the very start. He said, you'll never be the same, but you'll be about, he said, we'll get you to 90%. And I said to it in my head, the way I took that was, well, I don't feel like I'm 100% right

now anyway. So even if I get to 90%, I feel like that's going to be more than what I am now. So that was my mindset. I'm going to make myself better than I am. Like, I'm going to get myself worked up, get my energy back, get strong, and be a better version of what I am right now. That just straight away, that was how I said I'd do it. So I did. I started to work out, start to eat right, started to work out with Keen and doing me workouts here and going for me runs and whatnot and feeling good. And this is a mad story as well. I was feeling this

little, there's a thing called the Ropathy you get when you do chemo. It's like, I don't know if you know about it. It's kind of, it's like your nerves in your, it can be anywhere. Like so nerves in your hands, kind of, my hands go dead a little bit and things like that. So the chemo kind of can cause a bit of neuropity. So when I went in, I was going in for a checkup with my radiologist. And I said, them, look, getting a bit of the neuropity in my hand. And he said, let's do a scan. Make sure there's no tumor on your spine.

Now, they say all this stuff like it's so blazee. Like, you know, let's just make sure. And I'm like, hold on a minute. What? You know? So you get, it's like getting a kick in the gut. Like, you know, even though there, even though he's like, let's just make sure. I'm like, now I've got a week before this scan.

of worrying. If I tell the misses, she's going to be up the walls worried. So he was like, just make sure there's nothing there. Like, Ferdie Blasai. And I'm like, yeah, yeah, okay, let's do that. All right.

Anyway, worried to death then over that for a week, you know. So anyway, I wouldn't do the scan. And they do the scan around the spine. And it comes back clear, except they notice a spot in my lung. A little tiny spot in my lung. And I see, I was going to Las Vegas for a stag party. and I never read the scans

and on the way to the airport like an idiot I read the scan and I seen the spot in my lung now my mind was racing I'm calling the hospital from security line and everything like check checked it oh it was horrible

so eventually they get back to me just for a bit apart of plane and the doctor says no look lots of people have the little spot in their lung you're in construction and you know could be from reading in a bit of dust the cup he from anything.

He said, oh, we did, it's so small. All we do is we, we, we just check it on the next scan. And I'm like, oh, thank God, you know. So I get on the plane, the Vegas. I have a great time in Vegas with the lads at the stag party and all that, right? Now, I get back from Las Vegas and I'm in work. I get back to say Monday. I'm in work.

I'm in Friday afternoon. I'm in work. And I can feel this stabbing pain and me back. And it got gradually worse throughout the day. And I'm like, what is going on? here, you know, and I'm trying to work away. I get home. The missus is here. Her ma's over here at the time as well.

I'm downstairs in the sit room and I says to her, back is at me and it kept getting worse and she works on Saturday. She goes tomorrow, which would be Saturday, if you're still feeling like this, you got to drive yourself over to the hospital and find out what this is.

So I was like, all right, so I got up Saturday morning and it was like there was a couple of knives in me back. It felt that bad. I'm like, what is happening here now? And all I'm thinking is the scan and everything else. So I drive over to the hospital and I go in and they do a scan on me anyway. They're doing scans and ultrasounds and all this.

And they don't, they're like, you can't see anything that we cause in this pain. But by the way, you have a couple of nodules in your lungs. And I go, what? And he's like, yeah, there's a couple of nodules in the door. I said, I thought there was just one there. And he goes, no, no, I've got a few of them there. So I go. And he goes, I don't really small, but you should bring it up to your cancer hospital.

And now at this point, I felt like just driving off a cliff in the car. Oh, my God, no. So I get it. I get this scan in a disc and I go home. And they couldn't find out what the pain was. They're like, we don't know what the pain is. We can't find anything. Now, my missus gets home from work and she sees this little tiny dot on the rib cage.

Long story short, it turns out it was shingles. I know you never had, you don't get shingles really, like when you're young and hell. the analysis. But if you go through, if you go through chemo, it's common to get shingles out there because your immune systems have to take in a beat.

So anything that can will, will come out. And she noticed a little spot and only for her friend in college had shingles. She knew what it was. She goes, I think that's shingles. So I called up one of them,

you know, Zocu docs or whatever on the, on the video calls. And he was like, yeah, that looks like it could be shingles. So he gave me an antiviral. and then I got to my primary care then on the Monday and they're like, yeah, you have shingles

and the thing came out like horrible like all around the back like it's a horrible experience and very painful you know that kind of way, it's just very painful so from the shingles it was kind of a good thing because then they noticed these nodules

so it brought it out of me back guy and kind of pushed into the yeah like her as bad as getting shingles is it actually made me notice that I've got more nodules in my lungs and that this has to be seriously looked at. So it kind of sped up the process of monitoring what was going on. So I went in anyway. And I hadn't seen the last conversation I had had with my oncologist was you're doing great now. I don't want to see you for a long time. And I remember that day feeling absolutely great. And then six months later or whatever it is,

seven or eight months later, I'm going back in to drop a disc off with the scan. I remember driving up to the hospital that time. I hadn't been there in months. And I'm like, from going there every day, to have not been in there once. It's a surreal feeling when you get in there, you know? And I'm like, oh, what am I doing back here? Like, so I dropped the scan off. They looked at it, get a call during the week, and it's from him. He said, look, I want to monitor it.

The way to do it is they, so if they've no data on it, they have to collect data on it. So what they do is they're looking at that scan on day one. And then they say, right, we're going to scan you again in two months and see where you're at. So two months came, boy, and they hadn't really grown. they were still there, hadn't really grown and the doctor said, this would have been in 2020, just around June or July of

2023. He said, I want to, because you're young, I want to see what this is early. So he said, they haven't really grown, which would have kind of told them it's cancer cell. So he said, I'm going to book you in for a biopsy. Now, they were so small

in me, but there was a few of them. The way they biopsy it is they just put a way they would normally biopsy it, if it was bigger, they put a long needle in right into where it is. They'd have like an ultrasound or whatever way they're viewing it on their screen. They put the long needle in and they take the cells out. That's how they biopsy this one when I did in the trove. They put a needle in and you can see it on the screen and you cluck a few cells from it.

And then they test it. So he said because you can't do that one with this because they're so small, which is catch 22. Now you've got to go for bigger operation because the nodules are so small as opposed to having bigger nodules and been able to use the needle. They got to go in, they got to open you up. Now, how they do it is, so I went into the surgeon on the lung and he explains it to you. Your lung is like a sack.

If you're like people's lungs collapse, you know, then they can expand again. But if your lung collapses, they, it goes like a sack and it's just like a spongy sack. And he said they're going to basically deflate my lung. He's going to go in through my rib tage. It's going to open intro one rib cage with a, like a camera and another rib cage with like a little plucker kind of device. So they open up two spots in the ribs and one in the back. And they went in and after flattening the lung, like after deflating it, they can feel the little modules in it. Like feeling the bag with little stones in it, you know?

So they're going around and they can feel it. So he's able to pluck them out. Luckily enough, they were most of them around the surface. So he plucks those ones out And then they take them off for testing And this is another rarity to happen to me What's supposed to happen is You're supposed to be done by the following day

And they have a tube So when they expand your lung They put a tube in between your ribcage And your lung, right? So it goes in through your ribcage And what that does is If your lung is Because it's like a sponge with a sack

When you breathe in air the air has got to stay in your lung. But when they open that sack, when you breathe in air, it comes out. And that bit of air comes out between the rib cage and the lung. So they have a little chew-up

that goes from your, in that space between your rib cage and your lung, and it comes out. So I had this little chew-up that was coming out and it was going on to a monitoring device. Now, the following day, you're supposed to kind of,

your lung supposed to heal within a day or two. And then that means that the lung has sealed up again. You're not going to get, air trapped in between your rib and your lung cage because if you get air trapped in between your rib and your lung has expanded your lung will collapse again

because the air will just keep getting bigger and bigger in the gap so my one didn't heal for about three weeks just my look so whatever way it was caught whatever way it was they thought it'd be done a day or two and I was in there and each morning they'd come in to check it still there next day still there And when you're in the hospital, you're in the room. Now, luckily enough, I was all right at this time.

I'd have my book, I'd have me, my iPad. You know, I had a roommate who was nuts, and I talked to him a little bit. You know, they say, well, the American lap. And then they have, the way the floor is, big square, they have, like, it's nearly like a walking lap that you can do. Sure I be breaking records in there just walking around because I was grand only for, you know, it's grand only for having this. And I was in there for, like, because I was in there for nearly two weeks.

And then eventually they said, right, we're going to let you. go home because you're in here that long and they had a little device, like a little filter so air can go out but it couldn't come in. So they had that on me. I had pictures. I'll send you some pictures and stuff with this stuff. So it's hanging out

yet. Now I'd be lying in bed and over the night if the air didn't come out of that so I woke up in the morning and I moved a certain way, you'd just hear this big whee-oh! It's like a whistle and then if the misses be laughing at it like it'd go up in the morning and I'm

and you just hear, and then it was letting the air out. So eventually one day, it wasn't letting the air out. You get a bit of a panic. I drove into the city, but turns out the lung at the heel. So you go and they basically rip it out. And that's what they do with the feeding tube as well. Once I try to eat it again, they wait for you and not to use the feeding tube for two weeks, and then they rip it out.

And it's just no, no big fancy surgery, just rip it out and that pain of it. but um so they done that anyway and the surgery was done they found out tested the cancer cells it was squeamacel carcinoma after spread into the lungs so now you have a thing called metastatic cancer because it's spread um so they got to check you all over and whatnot and then I went on a treatment called immunotherapy

it's ketruda ketruda is out about 10 years I think uh it's developed by a company called Merck big pharmaceutical company and it's it's working wonders for people. It, like, I went on that. I've been on that since September, 2023, and I just stopped, I just stopped there at towards the end of the summer.

So I was on a for around a year. And that's, and that involves radiation, but not chemo. Is that correct? No radiation with that one. I didn't do any more radiation at that point. And no more radiation at that point. Only the radiation on the throat.

And, but then when I started to get through it, it's really a case of seeing does it work or not you know and I was on a trial so the trial what I was saying earlier about they have treatments A, B, C and D that they hit you with and then they try and limit it down

well what this was Ketruido was used in conjunction with chemotherapies and radiations and all that so the trial for this was just using Ketruda and what the Ketruda did it basically

I think it highlights the cancer cells is like a foreign entity in your body and your immune system attacks it then. Immune system's like, oh, let's get this out of here. So I think it's a PDL1 protein. I'm not an expert on the ketrude, so someone might know more, but it's some sort of protein that they know you have it. So you have to have a score between zero and 100 when they test your cells. So some people don't have it.

I don't think they can use Ketrude if you don't have it or else they have to use it with something else. But if you do have that, have a score between zero and 100. it means you have the protein for it and the ketruda should work. I had a score at 3, which is very, very low. But he said to me, it doesn't really matter that it's low. It just matters that you have it. So it just matters that your immune system can see that there's a protein in there.

It doesn't matter if you have a score from like at 99. I don't know what way it works. If it works better, they have our score. But he said it doesn't really matter. It's as long as you have a score. That's basically. So I started on it. And initially you start on it and I do a scan and the tumours are grown.

But it's called pseudo progression. Basically what it is, just if anyone's going through it and they do it a first scan and they get a fright because it's grown. Basically, you're pseudo progression is your immune system now is starting to attack these cells. So they swell. They're swelling because it's getting, you know, it's getting hit. So you want to see it going down on the next scan. So on the next scan, we start seeing them going down and then down and down and down. Now, through all of that, there was one nodule that stayed the same size, which had me concerned.

Doctor wasn't too concerned because he said he's been dealing with this so long. He's seen this for years, and basically what can happen is it could be immune cells in there. It could be scar tissue, you know, it could be anything. It doesn't necessarily mean it's cancer cells. So we kept on going with it. And this one nodule that stayed the same size, just, during last summer, it started to grow again.

So it started to grow a little bit, which is, you know, you're like, oh crap. But the immunotherapy had wiped out so much of it. So I'm grateful for that.

Just unfortunately, it didn't work all the way on me, you know. Now, some people are on immunotherapy for years. Some people are on it and it clears up their whole cancer.

Some people are on it, and it doesn't work. You know, it's, again, it's cancer. You never know, you know? So this thing cleaned up so much of it.

But it did, one of them did start to grow. So it just, point there was two nodules left. One of them had never shrank and it started to grow again. The other one had shrank in half. So they thought at this point, that's a dead, like a dead pieces of meat essentially. So the first one that never shrank, that started to grow again. And they were like, okay, we got to do something with that. So what the plan was, radiation. So I don't know if you remember just there during the summer. I went back on radiation again. So I did the bit of

radiation. I did 15 days of it. And that worked great to start to shrink it. When I finished that, I done a follow-up scan and the other nodule that had shrank in half started to grow again, which can happen. It can be a case that your body becomes nearly immune to the Q. True at that point, you know, it's able to fight back a bit. So the cancer cells start to grow again. So that's what happened for this one. That's why I'm going through what I'm going through. Now, so what happened is with that starting to grow again, they were like, okay, you just did radiation. You can't do it again for six months.

You know, it increases the chance of side effects. So say you had a 5% chance of side effects with one dose of radiation, that bumps up to 10 or 15% with the second dose, which in their world is huge and can be, it can cause you a lot of problems, that 5% or 10% difference, you know? So they're like, what we're going to do is we're going to try it on this chemotherapy immunotherapy combo.

And it's been working great for people after doing ketrude it. So I was like, all right, do what you got to do. Now the side effects with that are the acne I told you about, neuropity, hair loss, all this typical kind of cancer treatment side effects. So I started on that then in the start of December. The point that that was what had happened was when the other one started to grow again, the second one, sorry, I'm kind of jumping all over, but I forgot to tell you, when the other one started to grow again, I had actually at the same time started to notice my breathing was different

so when I'd take a deep breath it was like sucking air through a straw and I said that to me doctor and he said well there's nothing on your scan this other one has grown a little bit but there's nothing showing anything that would cause that so I went to Ireland

and there was in Ireland there for two weeks and when I got back I went back in and they were going to just monitor this one to see if it grew again if it was grown even more he said it could be still pseudo progression So when I got back here, I went into do treatment with the Kit Trude. And I talked to the doctor.

He came down to him. I said, listen, I'm still having that breathing issue where it's like sucking air through a straw. And he said, let me hear you. So you heard it and goes, I'm going to send you to a pulmonologist. I wanted to see a pulmonologist because we don't see anything here in a scan. So the pulmonologist did a scan on it. And she's seeing that the tumor that they were talking about that started to grow. there was a part of it that was pushing on this tiny little airway.

And it was causing me that when I breathe in, it was causing me to feel like I was sucking air through a straw. It was giving me like a 70% reduction in the airflow in there. So she communicated with my doctor. They found out what was going on. He goes, right, well, then we got to sort this out soon. So they said, let's put them on chemotherapy for until February and see if it stops that tumor from growing.

The whole point was to stop it grown. but he said he's been getting good results with this that's actually been knocking cancer helmet. So they did that. And within a couple of weeks, I noticed me breathing started to get better. I didn't feel the thing anymore. And I said it to him and he goes,

that's a great sign. And I knew it was a great sign because it's a physical sign. You know, I can physically feel that. I'm stuck in the area and it's not getting obstructed. So I was like, okay, this is, in my head, I'm like, this is going all right. So we went in. We got another scan and it showed just recently,

just last week or two weeks ago, that it had knocked it down by over half. So when all this kicked off again, I was feeling fine, but I always get asked about the journey. I always get asked about, you know, the processes and, you know, and do you mind if I put someone in contact with you?

Just from my own personal page, why if I put someone in contact with you? So I said to myself, you know what? The first week I started back on the chemo therapy, I said, I'll document it a bit and, you know, might help someone,

even it helps one person to kind of say, just because you got cancer it's not the end of the world you get to, look what I've been through. I've been through so many different three years fighting this now.

You know, you can get through it. So I just said I'd start documenting it and start doing it. And it's actually helped even the lads and all because they're like, this is great because you don't have to keep bothering you,

asking you how it is. You're kind of, you're giving the updates. And people are seeing like the real side of cancer treatment. You know, I didn't really know much about that before. I just thought you get cancer.

You know, you go for treatment. Then you either get better or you don't. you know and that was all it was i didn't think too much of it i've dealt with cancer in the family a couple of times and things like that but you still you don't know too much about it you just know that you go in you get poison putting everybody to try and kill it and you're hoping it works that sometimes it doesn't um but that's kind of where i was so i was trying to show a different side to it where you know i'm still going to work right now i'm working from home thank god i'm not i'm not

going into the site too how was how was work being with you sure all this should last three years my work is great my work is great um luckily enough when i moved there i start studying engineering and i got uh you know i'm an electrician by trade we start studying engineering and um i got a job with a very good company uh six years ago and i got a job as a p m with a project manager with them so a lot of my 95% my work is done on a computer um so i'm not if i was still electrician still in the field, I definitely would have been taking a lot more time off than I have. So the fact that I'm able to sit at my desk and, you know, read up my contracts, doing me work, you know, sending me changes, all that stuff. It's handy for me to be able to work from home. I have the whole office set up

a home where I can do that on. But if I was still like lug and conduit and wire and all around, I wouldn't be able physically for that. And work is great, you know. My boss, I get on very well me boss and some of my bosses and whatnot. I get on very well with them. And I get my work done. So they leave me to it, you know? That's good because it still means that you still have purpose throughout today. Exactly.

You're still bringing it a wage at the end of the week and all. You know what I mean? Because the first time I actually took six months off, I had to. You know, I wasn't able to do anything at that point. So luckily enough, this time, I have not take any time off. Thank God. And hopefully, knock on wood, that should be. or why it stays.

And I imagine them, them little moments when, like, even, you know, you can notice that you can breed properly again. Like, they must be massive winds or massive. Oh, massive. Massive.

When that happened, I was saying to horror and all, you know, I feel myself, breathing a bit better. You know, and then you're kind of questioning yourself, am I feeling that or, you know?

And then after a day or two, like, no, no, definitely, definitely feeling that now. And then she'd say, oh, I can hear you breathing a bit better there, you know, because she could hear the wisdom. in it. So she's there and I was

incident. So then we told me, doctor, he was delighted because up until the last scan that I had, all the previous scans in the last while have just been crap. You know what I mean? And not not like your dying crap, but just like I wish they were better.

Yeah, where this one was like great. You know what I mean? This is a big win for me now. So that that was nice to get that. It was nice to see it. That it, that did what you're going through is worth it in the end. You know that kind of way?

Yeah. And then obviously that boost and then starting the page. And I presume that's obviously, like even though it's helping other people as well, it's obviously probably helping you as well, just being able to. I didn't even think it would help. I didn't know that. I didn't know that side of it. I was like, I'm just going to tell people my story.

Well, yeah, it's after giving me, I don't know, like a mental boost where I'm like, it's nice to get the story out there and it's nice to let people know what's going on it's nice to talk about it and it just spurs me on more you know just in my head I'm doing little things that like like I was saying earlier

or last night I said one that I do I get up and I tell the cancers that you're dead I'm going to kill you like you're gone soon and it's just such a it's a stupid little thing but it's just something that makes me feel about it actually so you know Niverr was looking at that when I was looking at that video I actually

went to like because I always put things back to research and stuff like that. I was looking up any research on this and stuff like that. And you know, there was there was one study where it was like just basically talking about, I don't know if I can find it now. But it was basically but it just in terms of that reinforcing positive self-talk and stuff like that,

that it can help with kind of your well-being and like just even resilience going through that and reduces stress, reduces depression, reduces anxiety, which can all help. Obviously you build an up like stronger resistance to do these things. Yeah, that's what I think

that's it. I think that will do because you always hear people, you know, put it out there, put it in the universe and, yeah, and like some people will think that's woo-woo. I don't think it is woo-woo. I think there's loads of kind of science to back that up in terms of like what you've reinforced what you say, you know. Yeah, 100%. And

that's it, really. I just want that out there. Like my mindset is not going to think another way, you know. My mindset is pretty solid that I'm going to be cancer free soon. But also then it also helps the people that are also going through cancer seeing your reaction to it. Yeah, yeah, definitely. Yeah, I've got so many positive messages, so many messages from people going through it and that are, you know, they're getting up to me and saying, you know, you're so positive.

But you should be too. I know, I know you're going, I know you're going through it. But you got to keep positive because the better you feel, the better you feel like the better in mentally that you're going to get through it. I think the cancer cells hate that. I think they know what's going on. I think the cancer cells are in there, they're comfortable in there, especially like I was saying when I was doing the key true of that, and I didn't really know it's any side effects. I was thinking to myself, they're getting too comfortable in there. Like, they're comfortable in there. I don't want them comfortable. Like bring on the pain, bring on the crap, because it's only short term. With the cancer cells will only last short term. They're weak. They're going to just, they're going to be gone at the first sign of discomfort. You know what I mean? They don't want to be there. They want to be just camped up and just, feeding off you and growing. They don't want this discomfort.

Any sort of discomfort will cause apoptosis in them and they just start killing themselves. So you want to just make it as uncomfortable as possible for them and every time you feel uncomfortable, just now that they're feeling worse. That's where I look at it, you know? And I suppose two last questions that I wanted to ask you

and I suppose that just leads on to what you've just been touching on and I was just like for people who are listening, who are going through their own battles that are similar to this or in their own kind kind of way like what message would you have for them people going through their own battles so obviously everybody's battles different so people can be in different stages and it's easy for me to say you know keep positive and blah blah but what if you're in what if you're in a battle where you can't

get out of you know um for anyone in the in the in a stage which is it's grim but if you're in a stage where they're kind of saying you're not getting out of it and you're kind of you know get your finances and order that kind of talk. You know, I can only say, like, do what you can to look back at your life and be as proud of what you've done as you can. You know what I mean? Don't look at this stuff you missed out on,

but look at the stuff you did do and make yourself, like you accomplish things without even known as an accomplishment, you know what I mean? So look back yourself. Did you have that kind of stage where you were looking back on regret of things you hadn't done rather than appreciation for the things

that you did do. Yeah, yeah, definitely. I looked back and I was like, I don't know if it was regret was the wrong word, but it was things I wanted to do. Yeah. So it was kind of like, because look, you can't do everything,

right? Let's be honest, you can't do everything. You see these lads on Instagram and they, they're in the Bahamas and they're sipping on cocktails, live life like me. And like, you probably got paid to be there.

Like, the normal Joe soap has got to go to work on a Monday morning, got to get paid on a Friday, and they got to plan around what they can afford. So you got to do things within your meaning. but you've got to enjoy them as well. You know, you got to... So the simplest form of enjoying things for me now,

which you know my family and all, I've got a very, very good, very big family between my immediate family, the cousins, second cousins, and these uncles, I've got them everywhere. They're all over, you know, we're everywhere, put it that way.

So I've got such a good... I have so many good memories with all of them over all the years. I mean, mates as well, I've got a big group of friends. I've so many good, funny memories. with all them over the years. And then I started my own family.

And now I've got some great memories with me, Mrs. And me, me, her, and Tommy, we've done some traveling. You know, last year we went over to Italy. We traveled around Italy to three of us. You know,

we went to Disney World last year, but I got to bring Tommy, which that was a big one. I was like, when I was fighting, I was like, in my head, I was like, I'm never going to get to bring Tommy

to Disney World when you're, thinking like that. But no, we got to bring them down to Disney World, which is huge for the kid, you know? So there was things like that. And I bring him to Ireland.

he gets to see all his cousins and family and friends. Things like that are the big achievements for me, that we get to do all that stuff. So they're big wins for me. And then right now I'm not really living with many regrets. I'm living with looking into the future and what I want to do. You know what I mean? Like there's just place that want to go.

Like I'm dying to go over and see Japan. I'm dying to see Australia. You know, we're looking at, I'm dying to do Greece for the missus is half Greek. So I'm dying to do Greece with the misses. And they're little things. You can do that. You can book that flight in the morning if you wanted, right?

Let's be honest. But your things are in the way. Life is there. So you've got to do your things. You know, Tommy's got to school and whatnot. So these are things that we look towards and we plan. So I wouldn't say right now I have any regrets. Excitement and gratitude for what you do.

Yeah. Exactly. And appreciate what I do have. Because I have a lot. I have a lot. You know, I've been very fortunate. Not just people with cancer. or just people in general always

make that mistake of not. But I made that mistake. I'm sure we all did. I would think, oh, I should have done this and should have done that. And I'm looking at someone up the street going, have a better life than me and all. You know, you don't need to think like that.

Everybody's different. Everybody's going through their own troubles. That lad I was looking at up the street going, he's a better life than me. He probably, he could be suffering with anxiety. He could be suffering with something. He could be suffering with anything. And it just is a facade that his life to me looks great.

and he might be saying the same thing about me. He might go, that lad's life looks amazing. So I don't think you need to regret the things. I think you just need to look at the future and try and enjoy them. But to go back to the point of the people that are in that situation,

that kind of, so there's, like I was saying, there's a bit different stages of cancer. So it's kind of like one advice for one person, it's not going to work for the next. But anyone that's going through it,

and there are, there are some people there that, they're coming to, you know, they're really stuck in a situation where that could be the really possible outcome. For any of those people, you know, I would advise them. There's not much you could advise them,

but I advise them to look back in their life with more appreciation and know that they got dealt with bad hand, but they try and handle it in the best way they can and enjoy whatever days they have. And if there's days where they are healthy and go for walking, all, enjoy those days. And if it's the days where they got to rest, you know, rest, don't be.

don't feel guilty about it. There are other people that are going through starting their journey. It's like we live, and I've said this on my Instagram, we live in a time now where there's so many options available for treatments of all different types of cancers. There's so many options available. We're living in a time now where AI is being introduced to treat cancers, to get involved, not to treat them, but to get involved in it.

AI is only going to get smarter. I'm not an AI expert by any means. but I know that it's going to start helping as a medical industry. I know they're already using it. You'll probably see it on your Instagrams and on your Facebooks and all that. There's stories where they're reading through scans

and they're picking up on things and they're noticing cancers five years before a doctor would notice it. Because with a scan, a scan will only show you. A scan will only show you. I think it's up to two millimeters of a nodule is what a scan will show you.

So anything below that, it can't really see. It can't see that there's cancer there. Now, my thought process on the whole AI thing is, is that's going to constantly keep reading and memorizing scans. So if you get one person and he's been healthy all the way up until the age of 25, and say he's had three scans before 25, which isn't going to be a lot of people,

but like in the percentage, if you work out of the total population, there'll be a lot of people. But percentage-wise, it's not a lot of people. The view of three, a guy in a three healthy scans, and next minute he has cancer. So they're going to put those scans into, you know, AI or whatever. And it's going to pick up the common denominator that led them to the point where Neri has cancer.

It's going to go, well, this is here, what the human eye can't see. That might be able to see. So I'm very optimistic about the future when it comes to healthcare. I only hope they use it to cure rather than try and build a subscription-based model of patients, if you get me. because they are, they are on the stock market, they want to make money. So what I'd say to people

is starting out on their journey is don't, it is definitely a worry in time and you're well entitled to worry, but cancer feeds on stress as well. So try and look at the positives. You're not getting this 20 years ago where it was a debt sentence.

They're getting into 2025. There's a lot of options out there. There's a lot of treatments. There's even stuff as we see with, a lot of people sent me, Mel Gibson, talking to Joe Rogan the other day on his, on his podcast, that stuff is all an option.

It doesn't mean it's going to work for everyone, you know, a lot of people putting it down. It's not going to work for everyone, but it might work for you. It might work for someone. So there's so many more options available to us now that are less invasive as less invasive as they were before. So realize that,

realize that you're in a time now where you could be cured of this. They're starting to use the word survivors now of cancer. As it used to be like you have cancer, you kind of, you know, Oh, you had cancer, he weighed five years. Now they're using these words where you are a survivor of cancer. You know what I mean? Like my doctor has said cured a few times in this,

where he never would say that before, you know? So I believe we're getting to the point to a turning point where cancers are going to start getting cured. And if you're only getting it now, you're in a good time to get it, a good time for a bad situation, in a good time to get it. You know what I mean?

There's a lot of options there for you now. So try not be as stressed. do you think that optimism is you know something that's essential to get through them difficult moments without it doubt without a doubt I remember a couple years ago I don't know if I read the study or someone read the study

that even something simple like watching watching comedies watching comedies there was a study on that that it helped your body fight cancer cells right now you'd have to find a study

I was going through it at the time and someone said that so I was hopping off sign fit and friends and any comedy I could think of. But there's that. There's another study I seen the other day where if you listen to Beethoven Fifth Symphony, that it's not 25%. Now, I haven't looked at these studies.

I don't know what way they're doing it, but I've seen a video on sound waves and what it was doing to cancer cells. So maybe that is what they're talking about. I'm not 100%, but I now listen to a bit of Beethoven at the odd time, and I'll do that. I'll do anything I can because, I think anyone can get cancer and I think anyone can get rid of cancer. I think anything can cure cancer, but it doesn't mean that it's all going to work on everybody.

But I do think there's a cure for you. Like you're your specific body. I do think there's something out there that gets rid of it for you. And it's just finding it. Like what I'm going through now, I've already gone through chemo, through radiation, through immunotherapy. Now I'm on a chemo and, you know, combination, you have to hit it with everything you can and hopefully one sticks. you know. Makes sense.

And then I suppose the last question I'll have for you. So like that's advice you're given to people who who are going through cancer who have been diagnosed. What about for friends and family? Like you just touched on. So obviously you probably know like I'm a big advocate now, something, a big realisation to me over, you know, the last eight years of doing this job is that, you know,

relationships are the most important thing. But in terms of health, I think, you know, social connection, social relationships, your friends, your friends, your family, your community, I think, like, that's, that's it. That's, and as corny as it is, that's the key to everything. And, you know, you, you have such support in terms of your family, in terms of your friends. You know, for people who, you know, have a close loved one or, you know, a best friend going through cancer, what kind of advice would you have for them people?

For people that, you know, the easiest thing is being there for them, which are you are going to be there for them. And then you get into what can you do for them? Yeah. Because a lot of people feel helpless, right? A lot of people feel helpless. The biggest thing I think you could do, depending on your relationship with the person.

But if you're close friends with them and if they haven't got a lot of people or whatnot, is if they need help, like if they need help, like a day when they need a rest and you need to get stuff done, that would be like if someone could come in and take a bit of the weight off your shoulders for that stuff and help you out with whether it's your paperwork, whether it's talking to a doctor for you, where it's understanding what the doctor's saying,

getting your meds, little things like that, which is normal stuff, you know, you'd help it if anyone was secure kind of like, oh, do you need it? And that kind of thing.

But it's, there's not a lot you can do for someone like that. It really is you that is fighting this battle. The only thing, the easiest thing you can do for someone is make them comfortable. Make them as comfortable as possible to fight this,

make them whatever that part, because obviously everyone's, different, but make that person be able to use all their energy on fighting this disease because you need every ounce of energy you have to fight it. So if you can just help them out and whatever they need to do, that their energy is solely focused on getting better and keeping them positive, you know, let them know. Some people don't want to hear a study though of how this person be cancer. Some people don't want. So you have to kind of read the room as well. Yeah. You know, keep them positive within reason, show them that, you know,

Mary in England is after beating the same cancer by doing this. Show them them. If they don't want to listen to it, that could just be the time where they're just not having it right there. But the next day, they could be, what did that, how did Mary beat that in England? You know what I mean?

What did she do? And it could be all about it, which is like me too, because I was getting so many studies. And I was like, will he's ever off with the studies of the thing? You know, and the amount of measures I got, oh, well, this lad beat it from that.

Oh, this lad went on an all-juice diet. This dad went on that. Like, I get it. There's, there, it, it, it can be very inundating all this stuff. It can be very, uh, overwhelming. You're like, okay, I get it that these people beat it. But it can also be very, very annoying. You know, you're like, I just thought, I, I'm trying to get through this.

I don't, I don't have all. You know what the worst thing is when people give you a half, half advice. They go, there's a study here that this guy kind of did this. All right. If you're going to give it to me, give it to me with exactly what he did and what you think guys should do. Don't just give me the thing where I now got to read 100 pages and I got to you know what I mean? You know what I'm saying? It's like they're giving it to you and they're like, well, I'm giving you the resource and you figure it out. I'm like, I get that, but I have enough

going on on my plate right now. So I take a lot of that with a pinch of salt at the moment and I advise anyone, that's probably the best advice is take stuff with a pinch of salt. Just get comfortable. Listen to your doctors. Do your own bit of research on on your Instagrams and your YouTube's and everything else, see what's working for people, and see if you want to try it, because I do that too. I look at something and go, geez, I can try that.

That's not going to be too much of a hindrance, and I'll try things, you know? Like, don't get me wrong. I had all that stuff that Mel Gibson was talking about. I had all that before he even started talking about it, because you read up on this stuff. There's a doctor called Dr. Macas, M-A-K-I-S, and he has a sub-stack,

and I signed up, I think it was about $60 for the year. But he's very against conventional methods for treating cancer. Now, he's also, he also says, you should do what your doctor's saying. He's not saying, don't do anything. Your doctor's saying, he's saying, but you can add all this stuff in. So, like another doctor will come along and say, get your diet right, only fruit and veg. It's like you're following the, you're, you're following the medical advice while also trying to find things along the, the way that is also going to even increase percent to improve the outcome. Exactly. And that's what I'm doing. You're using as many methods as you can. And you're seeing.

if it, you're seeing what, what's going to do because I, I take other stuff on the side. I won't get into it now, but I take other stuff on the side that I've, that I've just looked at, I've seen what it's done,

I've read a few studies on it and whatnot, and I said, right, different types of vitamins and different things, you know what I mean? Like, you got your CBD, has your turkey tail. You got all these different things that you can add in.

And this doctor has actually given me a protocol. It's like, do your, do your chemotherapy, but here's another thing to do on the site. and if anyone wants to know what I'm doing on the site as well feel free to reach out and I'll send you the protocol I'm doing

but it's your decision you want to do these things or not you know what I mean? I made this decision but I'm adding that in as another form, another weapon to fight this stuff. That's what I'm doing.

So I'm just trying to get rid of this. I want my next pet scan to show absolutely nothing and then I'm going to grow the hair back and go nuts during the summer. That's what I'm doing. I suppose then the last question I'll ask you

because it's just popped into my head when you were talking so like do you think do you think that you're with all the with all the times in and out of in and out of these hospitals I'd say you're absolutely sick of hospitals

but like you're doing this as a father and you know having your wife rather than maybe if this happened 10 years earlier as a single man do you think that was the kind of motivation that helped you to go through all this kind of basically paying to

to get you without a doubt without a doubt the two of them the two of them are the most important things in the world

to me Heidi and Tommy so I would go through all of this 10 times over if it meant I was going

to be here for as long as I can with them it's a hundred percent you know it's a I think if I was single

not that you wouldn't have anything to fight for I know what I'm like and I know my mentality is like I still want to be around

because even before I ever got cancer I used to complain to me head that life is too short because I love life. I've a very, very good life. I've just always felt that life is great. You know, I've had that attitude for a long time. Don't get me wrong when you go through your breakups or your arguing with your mate or something. Yeah, you know, life can be

shitty then, but I've, for the most part, I've had a very good mindset when it comes to life and I love it, you know. I love being from Ray. I absolutely love that. I love that I can walk down to town or down the beach and you know everyone and you, you know, don't be wrong. You've had your fall in out with lads over the years on the football pitch or down the rock but even after all that you you see these lads now and everybody's mates you know everybody's friends and i love that i love being able to go home grab a cup of tea down finbys go for walk along the beach see people it's it's it's it's just such a good feeling it's such a good town to be from such good people and i love all that but having a wife and a child spursion to to you know to to to fight as hard as you can

the harder never thought you could before, you know? So, like, I want to grow old with me, Mrs. you know, I'm very in love with my missus, and I want to grow old with her and watch Tommy grow up and please God have another one or two kids if we can, you know? That's the way that, that's the way we kind of think. So, yeah, look, I love that. All right, I'm going to wrap this up,

but Tommy, thank you for your time today. Make sure, if you're listening to this, make sure you follow the Instagram page, Tommy's Cancer Journey. And if you want to support the podcast or share the episode, So do it on social media, do it on Facebook, do it on Instagram. The best way to help grow the podcast and continue to bring valuable conversations like this one we had today with Tommy

is by sharing on social media. Tommy, again, thank you so much for today. Thank you for sharing your story. I have no doubt it's going to make a big difference on other people going through a similar experience. Thanks for watching. If you like that episode and you want to see more content like this, make sure you're subscribed and I'll see you on the next one.