A Newcastle-born bestselling writer has spoken out about how what he thought was a bad stomach turned out to be a lethal form of cancer with left him with a "rugby-ball sized" tumour and loved ones planning his funeral.
Mike Craven - an ex-soldier who writes under the name MW Craven and has seen his Washington Poe novels hit the Sunday Times Bestsellers list - came back from the brink after almost dying of the disease aged just 35. Now, 54, he's discussed how close he came and the horrors of Burkitt lymphoma.
Growing up in Hazlerigg, Mike attended Gosforth High School before embarking on a career in the army. After 11 years, he joined the probation service and was living in Cumbria when he was diagnosed with cancer. He spent a harrowing six months as an in-patient at Newcastle's Royal Victoria Infirmary.
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"I started to have stomach ache on a Monday and I was admitted to hospital on the Friday – it was that quick,” he said. “I was treating it with Pepto Bismol - I thought it was a stomach problem and it would go away. I was lying on an examination bed, waiting for the doctor to come in. At that point, I noticed for the first time that the right-hand side of my abdomen was rock hard. That was the first time I thought, this is probably something quite serious.
"The doctor was saying we need to admit you tonight. I sort of knew it was cancer from that moment. I thought I’ve got a tumour. My father died of cancer quite young and I had it in the back of my mind. They opened me up and took out as much as they could. It was about the size of a rugby ball."
Despite that operation, Mike's tumour began to grow again and he was transferred to the RVI, where he underwent rounds of chemotherapy - and as he has recently found out - doctors expected he would die. He said: "After the first round [of chemotherapy] they said it’s not worked so we’re going to explore your palliative options. They said there’s just some tests we need to do to confirm what we already know. We’ll take a sliver of bone out of the hip to confirm it’s now in your bone marrow.
“I only found this out very recently but my family had been told I was going to die and they had started to plan my funeral. Apparently, it was going to be on a Monday."
In his novels, police officer Avison Fluke also suffered from Burkitt lymphoma. Mike added: "I wanted to write about my experiences. That’s why I gave Fluke the same illness as me, because I thought it would be quite an interesting plot."
He has also spoken out about how cancer research needs everyone's help. He said: "Recoveries like mine aren’t possible without the dedication of scientists who are relentlessly striving towards new discoveries and milestones month after month. This vital work needs our support."
Cancer Research UK's North East spokesperson Michaela Robinson-Tate added: "One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, but all of us can help beat it. As we mark our 20th anniversary, we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come thanks to supporters like Mike.
"From proving the link between smoking and cancer to laying the foundations for modern radiotherapy, our scientists have been at the forefront of cancer research for 120 years. And we’re not stopping now."
To find out more and support Cancer Research UK, visit cruk.org/donate.
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