Crawford Scott Inglis
Glasgow, Glasgow
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I've been married to Emily since August 1994 and we have one son, Callum, who was born in July 2000. I was born and brought up in the west of Scotland and got into cycling initially threw my Dad who has always been a "roadie". I started getting into it a bit more seriously as I got older and participated in several triathlons of various distances. I also commute to work and enjoy both mountain & road cycling. I work as a police officer in Glasgow and my wife is cabin crew.
Cancer Overview:
General Cancer Type: Lymphoma - Non Hodgkins
Specific Cancer Type: Sclerosing medial stinal large cell B cell high grade NHL
Treatment Summary:
I was at work on 30th August 2000 when I began to suffer a very slight pain in my chest. My son had only been born about 7 weeks earlier and everything had been a bit mad at home, so initialy I didn't pay too much attention. I was fit, non smoker, occasional drinker. I had cycled to my work that day as usual and felt fine other than the pain in my chest. It came on about 6pm and by 10pm I couldn't move or breath properly! I drove to hospital and was admitted immediatly. I had a "rub" sound coming from my chest, but all x rays etc were clear. 3 days later the CT scan showed a lump in the middle of my chest which required a biopsy to diagnose what it was. The Doc's guessed however that it was a thymoma which is no real big deal and definatly not the wee c! I was lucky, another radiographer saw my scan and disagreed with the diagnosis and sped up the biopsy. The biopsy took place on 20th Sept 2000 & I got the result and shock of my life on the 22nd Sept. I had a "sclerosing medial stinal large cell b cell high grade non hodgkins lymphoma". It was limited to my chest and there was no bone marrow involvement. I started 6 shots of CHOP chemo on a 3 week cycle with vincristine lumber punctures with chemo's 2 5 inclusive. I also had my stem cells harvested after chemo 4. By chemo 3 I was told I was chemo responsive and the Doc's were hopefull that we had won the fight. My chemo was consolidated with 20 sessions of radiotherapy at the tumour site. Treatment finished in May 2001. On 11th July 2001 I was getting ready to got to France on holiday to watch the Tour de France. I had been working hard on my fitness, but I was finding it tough and not improving much. I also had a real cough after exercise and first thing in the morning. I went for a check up at the hospital and an x ray showed the tumour was back for a second shot at me. Because it had come back so quickly and was already so big, the doc's decided surgery was necessary to give the chemo a chance. On 13th Aug 2001 I underwent the knife and the removed the upper lobe of my left lung where the tumour had grown from. It had also grown threw my phrenic nerve, which controls the diagphram, and into the pericardium around my heart. Surgery was a laugh.......NOT!!! I then recived several IVE chemo sessions then one BIG BEAM chemo. I was neutropenic with every session and required a stem cell recovery with the last chemo. I got out of hospital on 13 Nov 2001 and have no plans to go back other than for check ups! I started back at my work as a cop on 18th March 2002, my birthday, & I have been fully operational since 1st May 2002! I didn't suffer with many infections during my chemo. The bigest thing I've learned? The Doc's and nurses always give you the worst case scenario as far as chemo sickness/pain etc goes & it never turns out that bad and even more importantly, BE POSITIVE! I've seen it with my own eyes......WILL POWER AND POSITIVE ATTITUDE CAN MAKE ALL THE DIFFRENCE!
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