eric byrne

Hi Lisa,Thank you for your reply.T o give you a wee bit more encouragement,I would like to share with you something that happened to me following the completion of my treatments in January 2009.I was off work recuperating from my surgery (upper right lobectomy),bored out of my head, home alone worrying about the "what ifs" ie what if the surgery is'nt a complete success, and what if the cancer returns? how will I cope?.These fears and a few others I have since forgotten whizzed around my over active brain,boy do I have such an imaginative brain.Anyway,I decided to look around for lung cancer survivors who are still around following the completion of their treatments.I first tried online,I was'nt very successful,mostly stats of the 5 years survival projections on lung cancer patients,not very encouraging at all.One day I picked up a popular evening paper in Glasgow called the Evening Times,and I chanced on a article about a guy called Robert Lowe who was starting up a lung cancer support group along with a LC nurse called Penny Downer,well I had a quiet chuckle to myself over the irony of a LC support group founded by a Lowe and Downer.However I read on,this Robert was dxd with SCLC in 1993 his doctor projected he had approx 2 months to live.Undeterred,Robert pleaded his case to have the best possible treatments that would give him a fighting chance of life.Robert was offered a extreme form of chemo that would require him to hopitalised for the duration of its administration,during which time he endured such an ordeal with the chemo his medical team had called his family to his bedside on more than one occassion as they believed he would not see the next day.To the astonishment of his medical team,Robert began to respond to his treatments and went on to make a full recovery.He soon returned to the normal life he had prior to his dx.In 2007 Robert was now dxd with NSCLC,again he went though his treatments and made a complete recovery.I was completely enthralled by his experience,I just had to meet up with him,and I did,I joined his LC support group in Stobhill Hospital. My meeting with Robert uncovered further pleasures for me,I discovered he was born and brought up in the same district of Glasgow as myself,we went to the same schools,despite Robert being 10 years my senior,we even shared many of the same teachers.The anecdotes we shared of our past lives,brought us such fun and laughter,lung cancer thoughts just left my mind.I like to say the elephant in the room has now got so small,I cannot even find the little blighter now.Robert became the UKs longest surviving duel LC patient (SCLC and NSCLC) he survived for just short of 20 years. I soon returned to my senior lecturer post in a College of Further Education in Glasgow.I entered my classroom that first day,my 3rd year students were being taught by a stand in colleague of mine,one of the students who first saw my entrance,smiled at me and enquired if I was just in for a visit.No, I replied,I am back to my task of teaching this class,just at that moment the students gave me such a round of applause,I can still hear it today.Still can bring a lump to my throat. Bye for now.

Good Morning Iginther,Welcome to LCSC,I am sorry to read of your dx,since my dx some seven years ago I have had the pleasure to meet up with and communicate with so many lung cancer survivors I have lost count.All the survivors I know,have a wide range of types of lung cancer and staging,many dxd at stage 4,and still here years after their dx.I know its a tough road at the outset of your cancer journey,not one for the faint hearted,but I can assure you with the support of family and friends and the passage of time it does get easier.Your confidence will grow that you will get through this.Looking forward to sharing future posts with you.I am sure you will find the natives here all friendly and supportive.

Good Morning bjacksontex,Welcome to LCSC,always a pleasure to meet up with new friends.Wishing you all the best for test results and a successful treatment plan from your medical team.Do keep us informed with your progress.Bye for now.

Good Morning Everyone, Well thats Summer gone we are now in Autumn,I will remember 2015 as the year summer in Scotland did'nt really happen,I never even had one barbecue,thank goodness I had holidays in Gran Canaria,Tenerife,and Holland this year with Malta coming up on the 15th of September.I have checked the weather forecast for the UK next week,seems York in England will have a decent bit of weather,so Liz and I are off on Sunday for a few days.By coincidence I was just speaking to our next door neighbours,Gerry and Sally,they will be in York also next week,so we are meeting up with them on Tuesday,they have booked a table in a recommended restaurant for us in the evening,so looking forward to sharing company with them. Liz and I have joined a Council gym this week,the place is really good,lots of apparatus to keep us in shape including a pool,sauna and steam room.We were both given a thorough health check then a planned workout programme,which will be augmented as our fitness levels improve.The gym costs £21 per month each,unfortunately we live in North Lanarkshire the gym is in South Lanarkshire,so we have "crossed the border" LOL,locals living there over 65 get their gym membership for £51 for the year,apparently it was completely free until recently,think I am going to write to my North Lanarkshire Councillor to complain. We had a wee bit of extra exercise yesterday,Liz had ordered a Ton of stone chips for her back garden,so the load with dropped off at the front of the house and had to be wheelbarrowed to the back garden,unfortunately,the coverage was insufficient,so we are going to order another Ton. I mentioned the TCAT committee I have joined recently,I should have mentioned that TCAT stands for Transforming Care After Treatment which is made of of 26 pilot projects taking place throughout Scotland within the NHS and in local authorities.They are all testing better ways of making sure that cancer patients and their carers get all the support they need,and the lessons learned from these pilots will be used to improve cancer care across the country.At the recent meeting of the committee,I have been attached directly to 3 projects currently running in the West of Scotland,so I will let you know more about the projects as my visits commence.If you are interested you can find out more about TCAT you can go online to www.macmillan.org.uk/tcat Bye for now friends.

Good Morning Everyone, Its just gone 5am here in Scotland,I woke up earlier and cannot get back to sleep,so here I am.I am still enjoying getting about in my new campervan,we look up the predicted weather forecast for the next few days and where ever there looks like a fine spell in the UK, then off we go.I just discovered last week the small town of Moffat in the Scottish Borders,Dumfries and Galloway to be more precise,the weather was lovely as was Moffit itself,set in beautiful scenery all around it ,the town itself well worth the visit,I was speaking to one of the locals one day,who just happened mention we missed a farmers day event the previous week,one of the highlights of which was Moffits main street is closed off to have sheep racing,locals knit woollen jockeys that are fitted to the sheeps backs and the sheep then race up and down the town centre.The church yard is also incorporated,they make up a race track for steeplechasing ie the sheep now run around the track which has small fences erected which they have to jump over,seems a lot of fun,I must try and visit next year. I think I mentioned previously I was invited to join a committee called TCAT,this group along with the MacMillan organisation have been given a role in identifying and monitoring projects all over Scotland in supporting cancer patients following the completion of their treatments.We have currently 26 projects up and running covering a wide range of client groups eg assistance in getting back to work,young people with cancer and many others.A grant of £5 million has been allocated by the government over the next few years,with the support of Napier Uni in Edinburgh who are monitoring its outcomes for value for money.I am visiting the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundations office in Glasgow this morning where they are hosting a TCAT committee meeting.Under discussion is current progress on the projects.The scheme has been up and running for approx 18 months,so I am still on a learning curve catching up with all thats been going on. I just opened up my emails just now to find a draft copy of an article for the Saga Magazine here in the UK,I was interviewed last week by a journalist for the magazine who wanted to include a short piece on my lung cancer story.The article is very well written mainly about current progress in the developements in lung cancer treatments for patients,I look forward to reading the published article. Talking about emails ,I had to cancel my broadband contract with Virgin Media in Airdrie,since they do not operate in the Newmains area of my new address,instead I had to take on SKY as my broadband provider.What I did'nt realise was my blueyonder email address is owned by Virgin Media and they had withdrawn it from me,they said they had lettered me giving me 90 days grace to have my email address changed,I never received that letter.However,my nephew is a computer graduate who teaches the subject in high school managed to re-instate me with my old email address to allow me to read all mails sent there post 14th Aug and set me up with a new email address.If any of you wish to have my new address please do send me a request and I will share it with you. Lastly,I have been invited to do a presentation at my nephews girlfriends high school in Dundee shortly,I have to have a pre meeting with selected staff to go over what I should include,probably a strong anti-smoking message along with a bit about my lung cancer journey.Nearly six am now,think I will go back to bed for a wee bit more shut eye,if I can.Bye for now.

Good Morning Everyone, I do hope you are all well and enjoying summer.Summer here in Scotland this year has been pretty dismal with regard to the weather,something to do with the jet stream passing over the south of England pulling in depressions over Scotland,so were it not for my wee trips to Europe this year I would'nt have got much of a sun tan here,I have also have a wee visit to Malta on the 15th of Sept to look forward to. I have been using my new motorhome recently,I travelled into England last week to spend some time in a holiday park in Northumberland,a site called Haggerston Castle,it was a lovely place,lots of things to do for kids,pony riding,playgrounds,swimming pools,you name it,it was there.Evening entertainment was available,cabaret type,the downside was the number of kids in attendance,bit too noisy for me,one would have thought the kids would have been off to bed about nine pm to give the adults a break but no,they were there right to the end about midnight.Probably the management were concerned about loss of drink profits if parents left early to bed the kids? Schools in Scotland return on Monday,my daughter Jennifer returns today,these are called service days,to prepare for the reopen on Monday.Jennifer enjoyed her holiday on Tenerife last week,I would just love to buy a house there,to escape a Scottish winter,well keep doing the lottery,I can always dream. As typical for Thrursdays,I am shortly off into Glasgow to meet up with my gym buddies to share a lunch in Wotherspoons,catching up with all the gossip,talking of lotteries,we do the Euromillions lottery together ,I buy the ticket each week with two lines then seal them in a envelope which I will write on it the winning numbers,to present the envelope the following week for the guys to open,the anticipation of a big win is always there,I have for various reasons 4 weeks of unopened envelopes to pass over to the guys today,I will let you know if we hit the jackpot LOL. Liz is off for a visit to Ayr today with one of here friends (Jeanette) they will have lunch in a lovely restaurant called Wildings ,it is just next to Donald Trumps Turnberry golf course,the restaurant is decked with photos of many famous golfers who have dined there during the British Open and other major tournaments.Liz used to own a house there and would rent it out to golf competitors for a tidy sum of money. I am having a telephone interview tomorrow with a journalist from Saga magazine,Saga is a major insurance company here aimed at the over 50's,they are also a big holiday firm.I think I should share with the journalist about me planning travel insurance with for my trip to the USA a couple of years ago,the firm advertise themselves as cancer friendly.I had to speak to one of their "medical experts" about my lung cancer,having answered all their questions I was advised that I fell "outside their perameters" and could not insure me but they could introduce me to one of their underwriters,whose fees start at £3000,needless to say I declined their kind offer,so much for being "cancer friendly.Incidentially I did find an alternative insurance company who only charged me about £110 for my 7 week trip to the USA. Got to go everyone,bye for now.

Good Morning Everyone, Hope you are all well,thought I would drop by since I have a wee bit of spare time on my hands.Off into Glasgow shortly to meet up with my gym buddies to share our weekly lunch date. I have been so busy recently,holidaying for a change,seems its all I do recently,not long back from my visit to Holland to see Andre Rieu in concert in Masstricht,it turned out be one of those memourable days we have occassionally in our lives,we met up with Liz'es friends Peter and Mary who hail from Newcastle in England,they by coincidence had booked the same concert.Peter had visited Masstricht before and led us to a super Irish restaurant where we enjoyed a brill steak lunch.The weather was really hot,we enjoyed a stroll though this lovely city,then onto the concert in the evening.Our seats were ideally placed in the square just 9 rows from the stage,what a performance,think I had been transported to heaven, Our package included a day trip to Amsterdam,which was really beautiful and yes we did visit the popular tourist destination there of the red light district,I have to say I was propositioned by one nice scantily dressed lady standing at her doorway,I jokingly declined excusing myself as being in company with Liz,no problem this attractive young lady said,your companion can come and join us LOL.Crossing the streets in Amsterdam is an experience,getting to the other side is quite an accomplishment is you get there without incident,the traffic,vehicles and cyclists are overwhelming.We did walk to the Ann Frank building,but were unable to enter since it was fully booked up throughout July.We also visited Antwerp in Belgium for a day,we wandered about the town centre enjoying the traffic free pedestrian cobbled streets,visiting the shops and open air cafes,I just loved the architecture of the buildings around,particularly the cathedral with the spire which was over 400 ft in height,I would certainly recommend Antwerp as a place to visit. As previously mentioned,Liz and I have bought a motorhome,its not huge,just two berth,but it meets all our needs,very modern,all sorts of accessories including a solar panel on the roof,so we can travel off road and be self sufficient with our energy needs.We had our first excursion last Friday through to Monday,we toured the North of England,including meeting up with our Newcastle friends we met in Maastricht,Peter and Mary,they were so welcoming at their home,we shared a traditional roast beef Sunday dinner with them,can life get any better.Well home now planning our next jaunt at the weekend.I am driving my daughter and her boyfriend to Edinburgh Airport at 7am on Monday morning,they are off to a weeks hols in Tenerife. Time to go guys,hope you are having some summer fun too,bye

Good Morning Everyone, Hope you are all well,thought I would drop by since I have a wee bit of spare time on my hands.Off into Glasgow shortly to meet up with my gym buddies to share our weekly lunch date. I have been so busy recently,holidaying for a change,seems its all I do recently,not long back from my visit to Holland to see Andre Rieu in concert in Masstricht,it turned out be one of those memourable days we have occassionally in our lives,we met up with Liz'es friends Peter and Mary who hail from Newcastle in England,they by coincidence had booked the same concert.Peter had visited Masstricht before and led us to a super Irish restaurant where we enjoyed a brill steak lunch.The weather was really hot,we enjoyed a stroll though this lovely city,then onto the concert in the evening.Our seats were ideally placed in the square just 9 rows from the stage,what a performance,think I had been transported to heaven, Our package included a day trip to Amsterdam,which was really beautiful and yes we did visit the popular tourist destination there of the red light district,I have to say I was propositioned by one nice scantily dressed lady standing at her doorway,I jokingly declined excusing myself as being in company with Liz,no problem this attractive young lady said,your companion can come and join us LOL.Crossing the streets in Amsterdam is an experience,getting to the other side is quite an accomplishment is you get there without incident,the traffic,vehicles and cyclists are overwhelming.We did walk to the Ann Frank building,but were unable to enter since it was fully booked up throughout July.We also visited Antwerp in Belgium for a day,we wandered about the town centre enjoying the traffic free pedestrian cobbled streets,visiting the shops and open air cafes,I just loved the architecture of the buildings around,particularly the cathedral with the spire which was over 400 ft in height,I would certainly recommend Antwerp as a place to visit. As previously mentioned,Liz and I have bought a motorhome,its not huge,just two berth,but it meets all our needs,very modern,all sorts of accessories including a solar panel on the roof,so we can travel off road and be self sufficient with our energy needs.We had our first excursion last Friday through to Monday,we toured the North of England,including meeting up with our Newcastle friends we met in Maastricht,Peter and Mary,they were so welcoming at their home,we shared a traditional roast beef Sunday dinner with them,can life get any better.Well home now planning our next jaunt at the weekend.I am driving my daughter and her boyfriend to Edinburgh Airport at 7am on Monday morning,they are off to a weeks hols in Tenerife. Time to go guys,hope you are having some summer fun too,bye

Hi Suzanne,Welcome to LCSC,always a pleasure to meet up with a new friend.Sorry to hear of your dx,best wishes for an excellent response with Xalkori.I look forward to sharing posts with you,I live in Bonnie Scotland,I live with my partner Liz in a place called Morningside,Newmains, Wishaw in North Lanarkshire,we are really enjoying our lives together.We have just bought a lovely motorhome yesterday,which we intend to use to travel about Scotland and the other parts of the UK,possibly when we gain a bit more confidence and experience we will cross the English Channel and travel through Europe,since Europe like the USA drive on the wrong side of the road LOL.I am off tomorrow to Maastrict in Holland to see a concert with Andre Rieu and his Johann Strauss Orchestra,its a wonderful setting in beautiful Square in the town,I am so looking forward to this event. Bye for now.

Good Morning Sylvia, Welcome to LCSC,phew,you have certainly been through the mill,what a story.Sorry to hear of all your BF problems,I think most of us here have also had their ups and downs. Your BFs multi-disciplinary medical team have now got to the stage of collating all the different strands of reports and evidence,they will now put to-gether an individual treatment plan that will provide the best outcomes for your BF.I have to go back nearly seven years to that point in time when I was going through the trauma of appointments,waiting for test results and what will happen next as my treatment plan is put into effect.I am a natural born worrier and certainly despite being a Scot,not a Braveheart,I worried about the chemo,will my hair all fall out?will it make me nauseaous,surgery - will it be excrutiatingly painful and leave me a breathless invalid?,what if all this dos'nt work?.these and I am sure a myriad of other worries filled my overactive brain. I cannot promise you that my experience would have been as for everyone,but I really sailed through the lot,my hair did'nt fall out,I did'nt get nauseaous,to say my surgery was painful would be a complete exaggeration,more an ache for a couple of weeks which inperceptively just faded away.Well here I am 7 years later,enjoying life to the full. A saying that gave me food for thought at the time was "Worry is like sitting in a rocking chair,it gives you something to do but it dos'nt get you anywhere".I know its difficult,but I found that as time passed and my treatments were completed,my anxieties began to subside. Please pass onto your BF my kindest regards,look after yourself too,dont be shy in asking friends and family for support when you need it.Please do keep us informed how things are progressing,we are here you support you,so you should never feel you are alone. Best Wishes.

Hi Donna,Thanks for your reply,I am sure I will manage to have a photo or two in costume of myself,only too happy to share them with everyone here.Busy day today,Yoga class this morning,then to the supermarket for groceries,bought a couple of tickets for the Euromillions lottery to be drawn tonight,its a rollover jackpot over £80 millions thats probably close to $150 million dollars where you live LOL.Liz has been harping at me to get on with the work required in her garden,I do believe one should'nt rush into things,however this afternoon I have cut out a large diameter circle in her front lawn,its looking really good so I might be allowed a wee Whyte and MacKays tonight.I will leave Liz to do all the plantings though.Another beautiful day in Scotland today,not that we have too many of them,tomorrow it seems to be cooler but at least dry.Talking of photos,I have a few of my holiday in Tenerife,if you would like to see them too,nothing special,just typical holiday snaps,Tenerife is'nt Paris or Rome. My daughter is off to Ghana next week for a three week stay.She is part of a group of teachers and pupils who will be visiting some schools there.She was in Malawi last and really enjoyed the experience. Thats Liz just arrived home must go now get the dinner prepared,chicken salad and a bottle of Gallo's Californian wine,White Zinfandel if I remember. Bye everyone.

Good Afternoon Everyone, I am just home from my holiday in Tenerife,today thankfully Scotland is having a wee heat spell,so the weather here remains very warm and sunny.I am actually sitting in the gazebo in Liz'es back garden typing this post,having a bit of shade here so I can read my laptop screen,how I enjoy summer weather. I was in Glasgow this morning meeting up with usual buddies for lunch and drinks,all non-alcoholic nowadays since the new strict drinks driving laws have come into force in Scotland now ,its so low the limit now you could'nt even risk a half pint shandy LOL.We so enjoy sharing each others company and the oppertunity to sort out all the worlds problems,and all the other gossip on whats going on in our lives.Saturday is my annual charity walk around the Isle of Millport for the Noreen Davis Hikers and Bikers,so called of course since you are allowed to walk or cycle around the island (11 miles).I am the official photographer,so I will be snapping away merrily as we circumnavigate the island,its fun being almost the only male walking with 400+ lovely ladies.We have for our bus a Circus theme,so we are all expected to turn up in costume,I picked up mine today,a Circusmaster one,got to whip up all these ladies into shape.Weather forecast is cooler but dry,hopefully the sun will break through. The following Saturday is my wee sister's 60th Birthday,outdoor party arranged in her back garden as from 2.00pm,you are all invited of course,directions provided on request.Plenty of drinks,eats and good banter guaranteed.Just praying for good weather for the barbie. Liz has resigned from her manager position at the nursing home effective from the 26th of June,crumbs,I will need to find her other employment,with her at home now she no doubt will restrict my comings and goings with my buddies,gymming,swimming and yoga-ing,not to mention my outdoor lawn bowling. Talking of Liz,she'll be home shortly,got to get the dinner prepared,set the table etc,I have got two hugh sirlion steaks tonight,so I am looking forward to an enjoyable dinner. Bye for now friends.

Sorry Guys,not for the first time it seems I have double clicked my post.Hopefully some kind moderator will delete one of the posts?

Good Morning Everyone, I hope you are all well,enjoying Spring,we do have some strange weather here in Scotland,April was super,sunny warm and rain free,I enjoyed getting on with garden chores planting and fence painting,even getting a bit of a tan on my peelie wallie Scottish body (thats very pale to you guys).The weather people have informed us that was the best April the UK has had since records began.What a disapointment May has been,I have lost quite a few of my new plantings to frost,this is more like February weather,whatever happened to Global Warming?.Anyway I am off to sunny Tenerife next Tuesday,suntan a certainty. I have moved permanently into Liz'es lovely house in Morningside,Newmains my daughter conversely has moved into my Airdrie home,everyone seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.I have at last talked Liz into getting broadband installed,so its more than likely I will be posting in here more often-was that a groan I heard?. I have mentioned here prior I think,to having joined a committee set up by the Government in partnership with MacMillan Nurses to fund to the tune of £5 million pounds over the next 5 years to support post cancer treatment patients. My first meeting was in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. .Our committee is made up entirely of a wide range of types of cancer survivors,hence my inclusion for a lung cancer representative,we arearged along with a similar Macmillan committee in deciding which individuals or groups proposals for funding support to post treatment cancer patients.Currently there are 26 different groups operating that have had their funding approved,our task is also to monitor their progress.I have been invited to meet the top managers of the committees in Glasgow this afternoon to discuss my first impressions of the workings of the committee.The good news is we are meeting in a Italian restaurant so I am looking forward to a lovely lunch.Sorry about the typo above "we are charged" as it should read,the system here dos'nt allow for space to correct it just types over your existing words. I must go now and get ready for my meet up,bye everyone,have a great day.

Good Morning Everyone, I hope you are all well,enjoying Spring,we do have some strange weather here in Scotland,April was super,sunny warm and rain free,I enjoyed getting on with garden chores planting and fence painting,even getting a bit of a tan on my peelie wallie Scottish body (thats very pale to you guys).The weather people have informed us that was the best April the UK has had since records began.What a disapointment May has been,I have lost quite a few of my new plantings to frost,this is more like February weather,whatever happened to Global Warming?.Anyway I am off to sunny Tenerife next Tuesday,suntan a certainty. I have moved permanently into Liz'es lovely house in Morningside,Newmains my daughter conversely has moved into my Airdrie home,everyone seems perfectly happy with the arrangement.I have at last talked Liz into getting broadband installed,so its more than likely I will be posting in here more often-was that a groan I heard?. I have mentioned here prior I think,to having joined a committee set up by the Government in partnership with MacMillan Nurses to fund to the tune of £5 million pounds over the next 5 years to support post cancer treatment patients. My first meeting was in Edinburgh a couple of weeks ago. .Our committee is made up entirely of a wide range of types of cancer survivors,hence my inclusion for a lung cancer representative,we arearged along with a similar Macmillan committee in deciding which individuals or groups proposals for funding support to post treatment cancer patients.Currently there are 26 different groups operating that have had their funding approved,our task is also to monitor their progress.I have been invited to meet the top managers of the committees in Glasgow this afternoon to discuss my first impressions of the workings of the committee.The good news is we are meeting in a Italian restaurant so I am looking forward to a lovely lunch.Sorry about the typo above "we are charged" as it should read,the system here dos'nt allow for space to correct it just types over your existing words. I must go now and get ready for my meet up,bye everyone,have a great day.

Hi Tom, Thank you for sharing such an insightful post of your cancer journey,I really enjoyed reading every word,we have much in common with regard to funding and research for more effective treatments.Congratulations on surviving 11 years,heres to many,many more.I live in Scotland and spend much of my time banging the drum in raising awareness of lung cancer issues.I have had lots of success,appearing on radio progs,newspapers and magazines,I even got to make a speech on my cancer journey to the MSPs in the Scottish Assembly.The fight goes on,I am confident there is a brighter future for everyone who is effected in some way by the blight of lung cancer. Best Wishes.

Hi Ginny, Welcome to LCSC,always a pleasure to meet up with new friends here.I wish you every success with your treatments,I was dxd with NSCLC (squamous) with local lymph node involvement in Oct 2008,I was given neo-adjuvant chemo to shrink the tumour in the airway to my upper right lung which if successful would allow me to have surgery to have the tumour removed.Well it worked so well that I had a upper right lobectomy in January 2009 and have received no further treatments since. I had the last of my 6 monthly check ups last Feb,my oncologist told me all my results were completely clear,he added,that he could say with confidence that I was cured,now go away,I dont expect to see you again,we shook hands and parted as friends. Today nearly seven years later,I am fully enjoying the life I had as prior to my dx,all my anxieties about re-occurance have melted away like April snow as the poets would say. I have since my dx met up with many long term survivors of lung cancer,one in particular was dxd with SCLC and some years later with NSCLC my friend Robert sadly passed away a couple of years ago cancer free,having survived 20 years.There is hope for us all,I am certainly going to follow in Roberts footsteps.

Good Morning Everyone, I am back at my home in Airdrie today,I am having my bathroom renovated completely,everything stripped back to the bare walls,floor and ceiling.My daughter now occupies my home,she has moved back to her boyfriend Chris's flat in Glasgow whilst the work is being carried out,hopefully it should be completed by the end of this week.Jennifer chose all the furnishings and fittings,including a bath panel which lights up the floor and a wall mirror that plays music would you believe?,I just get to pay for the work.Jennifers "rent" is definately going to be increased. Reading all the comments in facebook regarding Hope Summit 2015 made me envious about not being there this year,maybe next year?.I have booked some holidays this year,so off to Tenerife on June 2nd,then Andre Rieu in Masstright in July.We have friends who have booked an apartment in Benidorm for 4 weeks in October,so we plan to join them for one week,never been to Benidorm before,it seems to be not everyones cup of tea,as they say.Its busy and boisterous,not the place to take grannie,however I think I will enjoy all the goings on.Liz and I are thinking about missing out some of Scotlands winter in January,February and March,by renting a apartment on Tenerife,we did consider buying one there but are we a bit old for that idea?,we also have the problem of Liz'es two dogs,Jack and Harry to find homes for.Alternatively we also considered buying a motorhome and driving down to mainland Spain for the winter,we could take the dogs with us?. Well here in the UK the General Election has been surprisingly won by the Conservatives,your equivalent is Republicans I suppose,not the party of my choice,the even bigger surprise was the Scottish Nationalists winning 56 of the 59 seats in Scotland,my party Labour lost its traditional support for decades as the major party in Scotland being left with only 1 seat.Is Scotland heading for independance from the UK? if so, I am off permanently to Tenerife LOL. Time to go,I am going to leave the plumbers to get on with the work and visit my wee sister Dot in Glasgow,she is always fun to be with.I hope you all well and enjoying life,dont be shy in letting me know how things are going in your neck of the woods.Bye for now.

Hello Friends! Please see below a PDF of an article featuring me in Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation's Inspire Magazine where there is a wee mention of Lungevity! Hope you enjoy the read. To Read Click Here Eric

Big Hi to my old friend Snowflake,I am still waiting for the big yellow bus to reach Scotland. I am sorry to hear of your cancer prob,hey if anyone can take this on the chin and beat it, its you.Best wishes as your treatments progress,please keep us up to date.

Hi Debbie, Sorry about the time it has taken me to reply to your posts,I dont have the same access to the internet I used to have.I am a seven year survivor of NSCLC,fully restored to health following chemo and surgery in 2008/9.I have recounted my friends story here a couple of times over the few years I have been writing in the LCSC forums,I think it would be of benefit to you to share it again. Following the completion of my treatments for cancer in January 2009,I was searching for some kind of re-assurance that there were survivors of lung cancer out there somewhere,my initial search was not very successful it seems the internet was not really a good place to research LC survivor rates.One day I picked up a popular Glasgow evening newspaper called,"The Evening Times",in it, I chanced upon an article about a guy called Robert Lowe,he was about to start up a lung cancer support group with a lung cancer nurse called Penny Downer in a local hospital called Stobhill General.Well I did permit myself a smile over the irony of a lung cancer support group being founded persons called Lowe and Downer. Robert's story was fully described in the article,in 1993 he was dxd with SCLC,his prognosis was'nt good,two months, his doctors projected,Robert asked for the strongest chemo he could be prescribed to at least give him a chance at life.The regime chosen by his medical team required Robert to be hospitalised during his chemo administration,Robert's reaction to his chemo left him so poorly that on more than one occassion his family were called to his bedside as his Docs did'nt think he would see the next day.Remarkably,Roberts situation improved,and steadily he regained all his strength,enough to allow him to be discharged from hospital.Robert returned to full health and enjoyed living his life as he did prior to his dx.In 2003,he was then dxd with NSCLC, again he received treatments and went onto recover fully. I was absolutely astounded reading Roberts story,I just had to meet him and I did,I joined his lung cancer support group,also meeting up with Penny and many other lung cancer survivors.Remarkably,Robert and I shared many things in common,we were born and brought up in the same district in Glasgow- Springburn,we went to the same schools,despite Robert being ten years my senior we even shared many of the same school teachers.Meeting Robert was a real turning point in my life,I had found a new confidence that I can survive this disease,my mood improved I found a new life energy. I returned to my lecturing post in a Glasgow College of Further Education.I can share with you my first day back at work,after a absence of nearly six months,I entered my class,my third year students were having a lecture given by one of my colleagues,when I entered the classroom,there was a silence momentarily,until one student enquired if I had dropped by to visit. Well no, I replied,I am here now to take over this lecture,as my colleague left the room to allow me to continue,my class gave me a huge round of applause,gosh,even now I can hear it, it can still bring a lump to my throat. Robert went onto live for almost 20 years with lung cancer,apparently he became the UKs longest survivor of duel SCLC and NSCLC. Robert sadly, passed away a couple of years ago,cancer free.I have appreciated every minute I had spent in his company. I do of course wish you every bit of Roberts success with his cancer Debbie,I know its a hard road but I believe you have the strength and the courage to beat this. Best Wishes.

Hi Michele, Welcome to LCSC,its always a pleasure for me to up with a new friend.I am really sorry to hear of your domestic situation,however you are blessed with having five lovely children to share your life with,I wish everyone well.With regard to your dx,I was dxd in Oct 2008 with stage 2 NSCLC with lymph node involvement,I was given four cycles of neo adjuvant chemo (cisplatin and vinorelbine) followed up in Jan 2009 with a upper right lobectomy.I made a full recovery and returned to my college lecturer post soon after.I have since retired and living a full life enjoying every day I get.I suppose all lung cancer survivors have that little thought at the back of their minds about the possibility of their cancer returning from time to time,I can promise you that feeling slowly diminishes with the passage of time.Here I am now seven years past my dx,having the time of my life,one where I believed at the outset of my dx would not be possible. I wish you a recovery to full health and happiness.

Good Afternoon Everyone, Good to hear from you in replying to the Friday Air,thats more like it,keep up the good work.Weather here still cold,we had a little flurry of snow earlier this morning,but it did'nt last,its brightened up again the snow now melted.I was watching a TV prog last night from Boston USA,boy did they have some snow?,it made Scotland look positively tropical LOL. Well,just arrived at my Aidrie home to check the mail etc.My daughter Jennifer who is currently living in my home phoned me yesterday to mention a small leak in the kitchen ceiling,could I check it out.Well the bathroom is vertically above my kitchen so I removed the bath panel to reveal some dampness in the drywall below the bath seal,so I will have to spend a bit of time removing and replacing it,a stitch in time saves nine as they say,we dont want to encourage wet or dry rot. Liz and I have been sharing some good times over these last days,her son Paul with girlfriend Emma brought over their new baby boy Parker for a visit last Thursday,he was born early New Years Day,such a cutie,he has put on about 4 pounds now.Friday night we went out to a local hotel for a dinner dance,it was really super,a girl appeared as Diana Ross then reappeared later in the evening as Whitney Houston,the supporting group were excellent,well they did sing a lot of my favourite songs over the last few decades.Saturday evening we were invited a ten pin bowling night with one of her friends who belongs to a ramblers association,so there was about 20 of us for the occassion..I have now been going with Liz for a year now,I discovered soon after meeting her she is really good at ten pin bowling,she crushed me,beginners luck thought I,not so, as she demonstrated on Saturday coming in second overall,think I finished 17th out of twenty. The photographer Kelly arrived on time on Saturday for the photoshoot,she took loads of pics of Jennifer and I at home,since the weather despite the rain forecast was dry and bright Kelly took some further pics of Jennifer and I walking Dodger (her bichon frieze) through the woodlands surrounding my home.Kelly is going to send me a link to my email address to have a copy of all the pics she had taken,which was very kind of her. I just received a wee post from a friend in facebook mentioning an appearance of the Detect Cancer Early Campaign Story of Sir Alex Ferguson and myself which it seems has been taken up with the Scottish National Newspaper The Daily Record,I never knew anything about it.Just thought I would share the link with you here, http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/local-news/scottish-government-know-signs-lung-5230117 Got to go everyone,doggies await me,bye for now.

Good Afternoon Everyone, I do hope you are all keeping well,I have just dropped by my house to check out my mail and any online messages.Lovely day here in Scotland,temps around 7 degrees celcius,not sure what that means in English,somewhere around late 40s F I guess,so its not quite spring like yet,however the days are lengthening. Not long back from my holidays on the Canaries Island of Gran Canaria,we went to another of the groups Island called Tenerife last October,that island was just lovely,Gran Canaria is just a little down market from Tenerife,least Playa de Ingles resort was,we did discover a little Spanish coastal town on the other side of the island called Mogan,it was really beautiful,the architecture was very typically Spanish,each house frontage was just dripping with colourful displays of exotic flowers.I think I could well spend the winter months there,plenty of sun and temps in the 70s,oh well keep doing the lottery. I am still working at doing my lung cancer advocate work,I was invited to attend the 3rd anniversary celebrations of the Scottish governments campaign of Detect Cancer Early,this event was held in Edinburgh,it was fun,we had some interesting speakers giving a update on the progress that has been made with the campaign,lots of positives in responses from the Scottish population getting to their GPs for check ups for lung,prostate,bowel and breast cancers,so the campaign is justifying the monies thats being spent on it. I have been interviewed for the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation magazines Spring edition,they want my daughter and I to appear on the front cover no less,so I have a photo shoot tomorrow,the photographer lives in Blairgowrie in Perthshire,so she is not local,its a very beautiful part of Scotland,she suggested doing a outdoor photoshoot,weather permitting,forecast for my neck of the woods tomorrow is persistant rain,we shall see. I am part of a group called cancer buddies network,who are all survivors of a wide range of cancers,we chat online,we have met up in the past before,so another meet up is overdue,we are in the first steps of arranging a visit to Dublin in the Spring or Early Summer,this should be fun,you are all invited. Must dash,I have to get back to Newmains (Liz'es house) to take her two dogs out for their walkies,I have left them in the kitchen,whilst I slipped out to my yoga class and my wee visit home,just hoping they have been good and not left me a mess to clean up. Bye for now.

Good Morning Everyone, Lovely sunny blue skies here in Airdrie this morning,temps hovering around freezing,however,Saturday sees me jetting off to the Canaries for a week,I am escaping the Scottish winter by visiting Gran Canaria with Liz.It would be just lovely to find a apartment to buy there and skip out Scottish winters in a more permanent basis,maybe my Lottery ticket will come up this week LOL. I have just dropped Liz off at Airdrie Station,she is off to a meeting with her employers in Edinburgh today,meanwhile I am off to Glasgow to meet up with my gym buddies for our weekly lunch date in the Admiral Pub,one of the highlights of my week,I really enjoy the banter,good humour and sorting out all the ills in the world,gosh if we could only rule the world,what a better place it would be for everyone LOL. I hope you are all doing well and enjoying life,bye for now.