Support after Skin Cancer & Life Changing Surgery

Hi, my name is Don and I'm fundraising to enable support for myself after suffering serious illness and three years of hell since May 2020.

My reasons for asking for help are the following:

I was diagnosed with Hidradenitis Supperativa in May 2020, this is a very uncomfortable and painful condition. Which resulted in a referral to Guy's Hospital and the specialist Dermatology Centre at the end of 2020. Numerous medications were tried before and after referral and nothing seemed to improve the condition and I have been unable to work since my initial diagnosis.

The condition continued to deteriorate and in 2021 a larger lesion developed on my bottom in June 2021 and a biopsy was taken, this came back benign. Further medicines from Anti-Biotics and steroids were tried with no success and I had had a year and a half of being unable to sit down properly and constant seepage from the lesions and sores that had developed.

At the start of 2022 I had some new lesions start to develop around my left groin and hip. After getting worse I took a photo and sent it to my Dermatologist. He requested another biopsy to be taken and this was done in June 2022.

I had a video call with my Dermatologist at the beginning of July and he informed me that the biopsy result was a form of Skin Cancer, Squamous cell carcinoma, SCC for short. This resulted in a quick referral to the Plastics team at Lister Hospital, Stevenage.

Everything moved quickly, I met the consultant in August, futher Byopsies were taken, including my lymph nodes. I was advised that the best process would be to have the Cancer removed followed by Radiotheraphy, the Lymph nodes in my left groin would also be removed as well as a hernia being corrected at the same time. Surgery was set for the 12th September 2022.

When I went in I was scheduled early for Surgery, after being put under I awoke 8 hours later in recovery and was told the initial surgery was successful, skin grafting would follow later.

After weeks in a Hospital bed, the skin grafting was carried out by my Consultant and this was a success. I was discharged home on the 25th October and received District Nurse support daily dressing my wounds until December. Everything was looking positive.

After a review with my Oncologist Radiotherapy was started in January 2023 and consisted of 30 days of treatment each week day. My skin finally broke down after the penultimate session and after getting through my last session it wouls require further daily visits from the Nurse.

Radiotherapy isn't the most pleasant treatment and it had a major impact on my skin, breaking down and destroying the graft on my hip. At this point you are living through daily pain levels which are difficult to manage.

I also had a PET scan which highlighted a concern in my right groin. In May 2023 I was admitted back to Lister for the a biopsy of my right groin and to have my wound on my hip cleaned due to infection.

This surgery impacted me, I had been able to shuffle about without crutches before this treatment, now I was unable to walk again, this was difficult to take mentally but you have to battle through these setbacks.

After discussions with my Consultant it was agreed that I would have further surgery to rectify my open hip wound and clean out some new infections on my bottom from HS.

I was admitted on the 21st June and the surgery was aborted and another thorough clean was performed due to continued infection. I remained in hospital on Anti-Biotics to clear the infection.

On the 19th July I had what is hopefully my last surgery session to reconstruct my left leg and hip, this was going to be done by taking from skin from my left leg and replacing this on my hip. In total I was total I was under for another 7 hours due to the complexity and the fact the lots of dead tissue had to be removed from my hip and leg, killed of by the radiotherapy.

I was finally discharged on August 10th and have required support from my Wife and Family as I'm unable to do many basic tasks that would be simple to a fully healthy person.

I'm waiting on results of a further PET scan, hopefully that will prove to be clear at the end of September and I can focus on recovering and get well. As I need to learn how to walk again and build up the strength as the top of my left leg was cleaned and rebuilt. I won't use the graphic photos that the Consultant showed me, but it is amazing what these special people can do nowadays.

I hope you can donate after reading my story.

Many thanks for reading.

Don