Report transcript in: Singing through cancer

Please Report the Errrors?

Hello,

my name is

Anne Dyer,

and uh I've been asked to recount my

uh treatment for cancer,

which now happened

seven years ago,

Um,

What was my world like before I was diagnosed?

Well,

I was busy at work.

Uh,

I worked in a college,

a tertiary college for theological students.

Uh,

I was a lecturer,

a librarian,

archivist,

um.

I was busy getting on with all sorts of

things from from BA through to PhDs.

Uh,

sudden,

uh,

diagnosis

in a sense was sudden,

but it was due to a mammogram.

Uh,

that I went to regularly as normally called every 3 years.

And so I went along to

the adjustment centre,

I think it was,

uh,

at Doncaster Royal Infirmary.

Uh,

and that appointment in July 2018

suddenly led to me being called back.

It's puzzled,

bewildered a little,

um.

I went back,

I think I was on my own.

I waited around seeing others in worse circumstances from what I could perceive

mine was.

But,

uh,

having had yet another,

uh,

mammogram,

I thought,

well,

maybe it just didn't work the first time.

Um,

I was pulled into a diagnostic room suddenly with no explanation,

laid down and given a dose of,

um,

local anaesthetic and then given a biopsy,

just like that,

without any explanation.

I guess what it was,

and didn't tell me.

Uh,

that was a bit.

Odd and shocking.

Um,

could have been done better.

In preparation for whatever it was.

But uh my

initial thoughts for the next question.

Uh,

our emotions of what

the results brought was,

yeah,

I was startled,

um.

Shots going to the

2nd appointment,

as I said,

it was bewildering,

nervous.

Uh,

anybody's going to be like that.

Um,

another meeting,

uh,

happened with my daughter

and to as well.

Um,

she came down from Durham and um,

She was reassured that it wasn't a genetic inheritable thing.

It was a separate sort of breast cancer.

I've forgotten offhand what salt,

but it was a simple one and in a sense,

I had a very light

case of breast cancer.

It was all a bit of a rush and I was quite

amazed really that NHS managed to rush it into uh

within 3 weeks I was in hospital and out again.

Uh,

the events,

well,

um,

what happened on the journey.

A friend took me in that morning,

um,

7 o'clock we had to be there.

In the morning,

uh,

I didn't get seen till 6 p.m.

later that day.

That was the boring part,

waiting,

not eating,

not having anything really,

um.

Without any explanations of really why things were delayed,

and then anaesthetist came in to explain

that would happen and

uh eventually I went into that pre-op room,

got the anaesthetic.

Unfortunately there was a nurse with me to to sort of keep chatting

and keep me occupied.

Um,

The an

anaesthetist wasn't exactly sympathetic,

he just got on with his job and got me in.

Another conveyor belt effort.

So,

um,

I came out of that,

uh,

experience,

uh,

woke up rather weird,

uh,

feeling as though I was switched off on my right side,

my left side,

sorry,

the operation I was on my right side.

Now I'd had a history of hemiplegic migraine,

and this,

this event had triggered one.

So they kept me in overnight and that was the worst night of,

I think,

almost my life,

um,

because it was so,

so hot

and difficult to get through that night,

not being able to lie down one way or the other one.

Anyway,

by morning I could move again,

making myself move

and um.

Got through to the bathroom,

got through to a a breakfast,

sort of,

and my son came and got me.

So,

um,

A while later,

they called me back in and said no,

they hadn't got everything out

because the initial um biopsy had indicated there was about um

1 centimetre 13 millimetres

long

bit of tumour.

Um,

What they had got out didn't prove to be

cancerous as far as that measurement was concerned,

so they presumed they'd left them in.

Which wasn't a good start,

so we had a separate operation in October,

6th of August,

1st of October,

and this was now in work time because,

well,

it was work time anyway,

but at least the first one was within the holidays.

And now I was interrupting term time right at the beginning of an academic year,

which wasn't helpful.

Anyway,

um,

I got through that one,

And again got home and

Went back to work

um within a week or so anyway.

Um,

radiotherapy started in November.

At at least very late November,

I think,

through to the 21st of December.

And that meant time out

of work again

during those three weeks because it was very awkward

to get into Sheffield and back out to work

within the same day.

I managed it depending on when the appointments were,

but they were haphazard.

That wasn't a good thing.

Uh,

but what was a good thing was Firefly.

The charity Firefly was wonderful answer for travelling to and fro Sheffield.

Yes,

I got a tour of Doncaster at the same time.

Um,

taking people home because I was one of the last to get off each trip.

Uh,

what kept me going?

Well,

I had,

um,

Christian music in my ears most of the time.

That's what kept me focused away from myself,

uh,

and,

and looking to God really as my Christian faith of

all my life has proved faithful.

God has proved faithful.

And indeed the second operation was maybe not necessary as friends had said,

because they'd been praying that there wouldn't be anything left to get

out and indeed the doctors couldn't find anything much to get out.

So,

uh,

answer to prayer there.

And in the

event of the radiotherapy,

it was Christmas time.

So,

uh,

the music going in my ears uh in my uh from my phone was uh carols

of different nature,

modern as well as old.

So in the actual firefly,

um,

trips,

we would,

we'd have carols sometimes,

um,

keeping people's peer as it were,

keeping

them positive.

Even on the radiotherapy table,

they let me have

the music

going,

um,

everybody could hear it then because it wasn't available in my ears,

had to be out loud,

which was fun.

Um,

But on the 4th day before I finished

radiotherapy series,

uh,

my husband had a major stroke.

And I hope I was responsible for that because he was worried about me,

but um.

They moved him into DRI and Firefly again were brilliant.

They came and met me at

the A&E department so that I could go from there and

leave Colin was another friend,

um,

to cope

with A&E and then I went back there.

And from the start,

the uh the nurses were very good.

The nurses treated us uh

with sympathy and understanding.

Um,

They also trained us to do exercises on our

arms and shoulders and and um

I still sort of do that.

It's habit forming.

Um if you do something 40 times apparently it makes a habit.

where are we now?

Well,

uh,

it's now 7 years later.

But in the meantime,

about a year later,

I think they had a sort of group therapy invitation

to us at the Captain Catherine's base on Tickhill Road.

That was good.

Um,

meeting others in similar or worse conditions,

uh,

because I was still aching.

I was still hurting around my

right breast and arm,

and apparently that's lymph gland problems.

Um.

There was not much you could do about it,

take a paracetamol,

apparently.

I think there must be more uh investigations into

that and how to cope with that better.

Some had it worse than I did,

swollen arms,

uh,

all sorts of things.

So,

uh,

on the whole,

the care was good from the Jasmine centre,

and they invited us back anytime we were worried and I did go back once or twice,

um,

to,

to.

See to something

that had got inspected or

whatever it was.

So,

um,

I think my whole journey was one that was kept positive by my faith.

And uh

singing,

and listening to songs of praise uh

kept me

away from pity parties.

If I were getting into that sort of a misery zone,

I would soon have to remonstrate with myself and get back onto

that positive angle.

Keeping positive is a big weapon in cancer treatment.

Um,

did we get any other support?

Yes,

my,

uh,

church was a major,

uh,

friends there as family as well.

But,

uh,

other charities then Firefly have mentioned,

they're brilliant,

um.

The

breast cancer uh app

was useful occasionally too.

We could find out things,

better diet,

better,

um.

Understanding of what was going on,

I phoned them once or so.

Um,

so that was useful.

I know I'd advocate that for anybody.

There's group therapy sessions could have been more often,

I think post radiotherapy in the immediate time,

not just

several months later.

Um,

how do you make it easy for people to respond to calls for checks like mammograms?

Well,

I think you have to preempt

fear.

And

cancer has got this,

this reputation for a big C,

and it's

terrifying to some people to think of it.

And yet 1 in 2 people apparently now get some form of cancer in their life.

And that means that every family in this country,

if not the world,

are being affected

by cancer.

Uh,

there are different stages and different um

levels of intensity of it,

uh,

different organs,

etc.

react differently.

And

understanding of that needs to be made known.

Now I'm a researcher by

profession,

so I had researched it

and asked questions.

A lot of people don't ask questions.

They don't even want to face up to the possibility,

and that's the difficulty.

So if they're listening to things like

my story.

Be assured that people do care and do get you through things.

The surgeons,

the nurses

there for you

and they will help you get through.

Um,

GPs too for that matter,

should be able to sense when

something's necessary to,

to uh send you to the Jasmine centre or wherever for treatment.

So hearing about people who've got through positively is a good move.

Um,

that could be done through advertising on TV or on websites,

possibly like this one,

telling people what's involved,

reassuring them

that it's not the end of the world.

Um,

sometimes it does,

and how to prepare for that.

Macmillan

does have a possibility that they did call on me.

They did say that do we need any advice,

um,

on finances,

on work,

um,

allowances and that sort of thing,

because not every workplace knows

what it should do or shouldn't do

regarding a cancer,

um,

situation.

So,

um,

information,

education.

Uh,

but also testimonies that are positive

can help us through.

So all together,

it's a test of my.

Resilience,

I guess,

um,

but with friends and family around me,

that worked positively,

especially with the church

and faith,

um,

and there is of us in the scriptures that says that we should

comfort with the comfort with which we have been comforted.

That's in 2 Corinthians 1,

and that's what I aim to do

in reading this,

uh,

story to you.

Thank you for listening.

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Posted By

Author

Luzwelmans

Post date

30/08/2025