walking with sarcoma - making memories

Hi, my name is Rob Metcalfe and I was 29 when I was diagnosed with Pleural Synovial Sarcoma. It was May 2018 and after a few months of feeling groggy and thinking something wasn’t right, I went to my GP. He sent me for an X-ray and the next day I was told I had a pneumothorax (lung collapse) and an unidentifiable object in my top lobe of the left lung. Fast forward to June and I had surgery to fix the pneumothorax and was told that the object was likely a cyst that would disappear on its own. By the August I had recovered well from the surgery but still had chest pain, back to my GP I went. He sent me for another chest X-ray and the following day I had a CT scan to get a better look at the object. Unfortunately the object had doubled in size and they thought it maybe a benign tumour. I returned to work at Entre-prises Uk, a climbing wall manufacturer, but was struggling by the day as the pain worsened and kept getting hit by waves of tiredness. On September 18th I had a CT guided biopsy, I was told that the specimen was being sent to a Sarcoma specialist for them to have look at the results. On October 12th I had an appointment with a surgeon about removing the tumour but in this appointment he told me that I had Synovial Sarcoma, a very rare cancer of the soft tissue. I finished work at the beginning on November to start treatment. I under went 25 sessions of radiotherapy from November to December and then on January 30th 2019 I had major lung surgery to remove my tumour, along with ribs, muscle, nerves and part of my left top lobe. This unfortunately isn’t the end of my cancer story. There were two other lesions found in my Pleura adjacent to my pericardium (next to and behind my heart) in the October which they were going to biopsy and or remove during surgery but they couldn’t get to them due to complications. The next step is to have them biopsied as again, there have been some changes and one of the lesions is still getting bigger. At this point I’m not going to speculate at the outcome of the biopsy, but one way or another I will be treated with chemotherapy, radiotherapy and or surgery to remove the lesions. In the mean time the plan is to focus on my family and work on planning my trip to Everest base camp, a dream I have had for a very long time. So Everest Base camp! My plan is to raise the funds for the trip by means of this GoFundMe page. The money will go towards flights, the Trek, accommodation and gear that I will need for the trip. The trek will last around 13 days from Lukla to Everest Base camp and then back. I will be doing this trek as it is life goal and also to raise money for Sarcoma UK.I’m going to be honest and realistic with you. There may come a point that it may not be possible for me to achieve this dream due to health reasons, but if that situation arises, all money raised in this GoFundMe page will be donated directly to Sarcoma UK. If you would like to follow my progress on Instagram please search @walkingwithsarcoma and my FB page is Zeds Blog - Walking With Sarcoma.Thank you for reading my story, a story that hasn’t finished just yet, but hopefully one that will end with me stood at the base of the worlds highest mountain.