Apr 6, 2013
The Guardian 6 April 2013 Receiving a cancer diagnosis, and with it, at times, a harsh prognosis, is inevitably a strange and disorientating experience. It poses awkward challenges for everyone concerned – doctors, patients, loved ones. There is in the end no one “right” way to breach news of this kind, which in any case… Read more
Dec 11, 2012
The Guardian, 11 December Figures released by the Office for National Statistics confirm that more people are recovering from, or living longer with, cancer. Welcoming the news, Mike Hobday of Macmillan Cancer Support observed that for many patients, “cancer is now a long-term condition rather than an acute disease”. And there’s the rub. Surviving, it… Read more
Aug 26, 2012
For a long time I was perplexed by the phenomenon of “survivor’s guilt”. While I recognised it as a reality, a terrible affliction, and I could see its logic, to me that logic seemed perverse and alien. I couldn’t get inside it. Now five years after being diagnosed with multiple myeloma (cancer of the bone… Read more
Jul 27, 2011
The Guardian, 27 July [A longer version of this article will appear in the August issue of Red Pepper.] Now entering my fifth year of living with multiple myeloma, a haematological cancer, I reflect back on a roller-coaster ride of symptoms, treatments and side effects. Whatever else this experience has been, it’s been an education…. Read more
Feb 19, 2011
The Guardian 19 February 2011 As a long-term patient at St Bartholomew’s hospital in London I read this week’s news of cuts with trepidation. In order to meet the government’s £20bn NHS “savings” target, the trust that runs Barts and the Royal London in Whitechapel is to cut 635 jobs, including 258 nursing posts –… Read more
Dec 1, 2010
Red Pepper, December-January, 2010-2011 Politicians of all stripes feel obliged to genuflect before the altar of cancer, so it’s not surprising that the government has made strenuous efforts to cast itself as a defender of cancer patients. Some of its measures are genuinely beneficial. Innovative bowel screening procedures will save thousands of lives and extra… Read more
Nov 6, 2010
The Guardian, 6 November The cuts will hit cancer patients hard. We need NHS staff to take action against them. Please note: a longer, more detailed version of this article will appear in the December issue of Red Pepper. Politicians, it seems, feel obliged to genuflect before the altar of cancer, so it’s not surprising that… Read more
Mar 23, 2010
The following article was written in February for the Barts Hospital website. During the three years I’ve been in treatment at Barts for multiple myeloma, I’ve given thanks many times to the NHS and the people who built and sustain it. Since I grew up in the United States and still have close friends and… Read more
Oct 1, 2009
CONTENDING FOR THE LIVING Red Pepper, October-November 2009 Obituaries routinely inform us that so-and-so has died “after a brave battle against cancer”. I’m waiting for the day I get to read one that says so-and-so has died “after a pathetically feeble battle against cancer… ” One thing I’ve come to appreciate since I was diagnosed… Read more
