A dad said he hasn't sat down properly since going to hospital with bloating eight years ago.
Workaholic and avid cycler Glyn Salmon, 63, first noticed problems 30 years ago when he had bowel polyps removed after finding blood in his stool. The Greasby man's doctor said he'd be pleased to know the polyps weren't cancerous, but just the word 'cancer' scared him.
Glyn, a former member of Tranmere Rovers' coaching staff, said: "The word 'cancer' had never crossed my mind, and when he mentioned, the actual fear that came over me was just unbelievable. "I just didn't realise. I just thought it was like a wart removal if truth be told, because I was so young and so full of life and into my sport. I'd just never never dreamt of it, even though I was having blood in my poo."
READ MORE: Woman cries hysterically in road as yob jumps on car and smashes windscreen
Twenty years later, he had blood in his stool again. This time, during work, Glyn was hit by sudden bloating so bad he was admitted to hospital. He spent the next week there undergoing tests, but they couldn't find a cause. But with events two decades before echoing in his head, Glyn couldn't rest.
At a follow-up appointment two weeks later, he told the consultant he was still passing blood and suggested a colonoscopy, which hadn't happened during his hospital stay. Using a small camera to look inside Glyn's bowels, they found more polyps, most of them small.
One stood out on the screen. It was too big to remove without anaesthetic. Affecting roughly one in four people over 50, most polyps won't become cancerous, according to the NHS. But the risk is high enough for doctors to recommend getting them treated. That reignited the fear in Glyn, "that fear of loss, that fear of not seeing your family again."
When Glyn got a letter inviting him to an appointment at Clatterbridge Cancer Centre, he something was wrong. He said: "I didn't want to tell my wife. She had an occasion and I didn't want to spoil that for her. If she knew, it would spoil her day.
"I let her have that few hours of real pleasure with her friends before telling her what's going on. Knowing afterwards was not going to make any difference to the outcome."
Glyn was diagnosed with bowel cancer, the fourth most common in the UK. Roughly half of the 16,800 people diagnosed each year live 10 or more years after diagnosis, according to Cancer Research UK. But it would require surgery, chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
He tried to stay positive, but telling his family upset him. Glyn said: "I didn't actually realise what it meant to them until I saw them and told them. Just seeing the emotion in their eyes and the fear that I might not be here, that was the most upsetting thing."
He felt isolated by what he faced with his diagnosis and treatment, but walking into Clatterbridge where other people were being treated for different cancers, he felt less alone. Glyn said: "I still talk to people that I met in radiotherapy waiting rooms to this day. It really was so uplifting to know that you're not on your own."
Six weeks of chemo and radiotherapy was followed by two years of tests every three months to make sure the cancer was gone. The last of the three-monthly scans and blood tests came back clear, leaving just an internal examination to do.
Glyn said: "You know when when somebody's feeling your pain. The doctor's shoulders just sank and he said, 'Glyn, I'm so sorry, I found something on your anus, I need to get you into theatre as soon as possible so we can have a look and take a biopsy'."
He had his wife with him this time as the doctor told him he had anal cancer and would need to have his anus and part of his bowel removed, his anus sewed up, and a permanent stoma.
Glyn said: "I was flat. I actually thought I'd come through and I felt so good. There weren't any signs this time. There wasn't any bloating and there wasn't any poo in my blood. I felt great because I was exercising again, and then he finds this."
The 11-hour operation included a plastic surgeon and a greater risk of death than Glyn had faced before. He said: "My biggest concern again was my kids and my wife. I was just so worried about them. How would they take it? How would they deal with it?
"Because I knew I'd be looked after, I knew that I would have so much TLC from people, from the NHS, from Macmillan. But I had to face my children again and tell them that I've got cancer again. That was just horrible."
His last thoughts going into surgery was his faith he'll see his family again if he doesn't come through, and a text from a member of his cycling club, saying, "you've been through it before mate, you'll do it again and you'll soon be back with us".
When Glyn woke up, he thought he was at a party. He said: "When I woke up in recovery, there were so many people around me and all I could see was faces and I was like, 'Aw that was some party, wasn't it?'"
Glyn survived, but the surgery had weakened his pelvic floor so much, it caused a hernia with part of his bowel pushing through the muscle tissue. It required another surgery, this time with Glyn cut open instead of the surgeon using a keyhole technique.
Surgeries and treatments have left Glyn with chronic nerve pain in his pelvis, which has been difficulty to treat and has prevented him from sitting for the last eight years. He stands or lies down instead, using a commode to join his family at the dinner table as a seat with no hole is too painful to use. And he bought a recumbent bike so he could cycle while leaning back.
He described the freedom it brought as fabulous. It even allowed him to achieve his dream of riding over the Stelvio Pass in Italy, which he'd postponed due to cancer. The second highest paved mountain pass in the Alps, the zig zag path is regularly featured in the Giro d'Italia bike race.
Glyn completed it in three and a half hours, raising £4,000 for Maggie's Wirral, a charity offers support and advice to people with cancer, their family and their friends.
He lost the ability to cycle a year ago when the pain and painkillers became too much to bear. It had kept his mind and body active when treatment for his pelvic pain was suspended during covid, but now he has to cope without his saving grace.
Glyn gets through with the support of Maggie's and the hope he'll find a solution. He said: "Even though things have got worse and I can't exercise anymore, I still live with the hope that my consultant will find something that will work. Even if it only works for a couple of days, to get that peace from unrelenting pain would be worth its weight in gold."
Despite his own struggles, Glyn worries how bad things could have been if his cancerous polyp had been allowed to grow. And he wonders how things would have been if he'd found the initial bowel cancer sooner.
The NHS offers bowel screening to everyone aged 60 to 74, and is expanding this to people aged 50 to 59. Glyn, who is a patient representative of Cheshire and Merseyside Cancer Alliance", urged people to stay aware of symptoms, take up tests when they're offered, and seek a second opinion if you feel something is wrong.
He said: "It's really important that when these tests are put in front of people, they use them. They're free and they've got the potential to save your life."
Receive newsletters with the latest news, sport and what's on updates from the Liverpool ECHO by signing up here
READ NEXT:
