Support Paul Thompsons Cancer Journey

Hello,

My name is Paul Thompson, I was born in Swanage back in the early 70's and I've lived and worked locally all of my live. I'm very enthusiastic and passionate for Swanage and it's beautiful community. I devote a lot of my own time to support the town and events that happen throughout the year. Over 16 years ago I set up a community group on social media that brings happiness to over 18,000 people daily. This group raises awareness of Swanage issues, has highlighted countless events and actives both in and around Swanage, and the list of people this group has helped is endless, everything from lost pets, lost items, charity fund raisers, missing people, church events, shows etc. This has been entirely funded by myself, both financially and with time.

Additionally outside of my actual day to day job, I also offer voluntary support for the local radio station by presenting various shows, which hopefully people enjoy listening to. I've been doing this for over 2 years, and I know it's touched so many hearts.

So moving towards the end of 2024 I was diagnosed with life threatening stage 3B bowel cancer, specifically of the descending colon. In mid January this year I had surgery to remove a large portion of my bowel and the malignant cancerous tumour. The operation lasted over 7 hours and was considered a success in the sense that the tumour was removed.

As a result of a section of my bowel being removed I've ended up with a colostomy, for those of you that don't know, a colostomy is a surgical procedure that creates an opening in the abdominal wall, called a stoma, which allows my bodies waste to pass through. The intentions are for the stoma to be temporary, which will require a second operation to reverse the colostomy, and although originally it was suggested this time frame maybe 3 months, it's now apparent it will be for a minimum of a year, if not longer.

Although the tumour was removed, some of the cancerous cells - " lymph nodes" have spread outside of the tumour area, so I will be undertaking a 3 month course of chemotherapy, along with another operation as mentioned above.

Now as you can imagine all of this came as a large shock to me, as personally I hadn't shown any symptoms of having advanced cancer, and I'm thankful that a simple blood test picked up a temporary iron deficiency, known as anemia, which resulted in me having an endoscopy (look inside my body) along with various "Computered Tomography" & "Magnetic Resonance Imaging" scans , and thus the discovery of my stage 3B malignant growth.

So why have I started a Go Fund Me account, well the simple answer is money, and lack of. Despite being unfit for work and various applications have been made to get help with basic living and travel costs etc, nothing is forthcoming. My most recent application for government help was declined, and although the NHS have said I'm entitled to it, I understand that only 40 to 45% of first time applications are successful. Thus I have to reapply by raising a "Mandatory Reconsideration Notice", which takes a month, followed by an appeal to a tribunal, which can take multiple months. Speaking to various people within the NHS and various cancer related charities, this is again apparently normal. Which leaves lots of applicants like myself with nothing for months. Some people say "but you'll get SSP (Statutory sick pay)" and yes I do, which I'm very grateful to receive via my employer. But it's actually a lot less than people would imagine, on average about 70% less.

Despite all of the negatives being thrown at me, my outlook in life is remaining positive, but it's not easy, especially knowing that chemotherapy will obviously require me to take more time off work, more travel costs and everything else associated with that.

Now I know we all like to think that health comes first, and it does, but sadly money is the biggest factor in day to day living. I was one of these people that thought support was easy and readily available to everyone, but I've learnt a very quick lesson, and that lesson is that it's not. Most of the "support" that is mentioned takes around 3 months to process. The NHS is a wonderful system, but the real costs to yourself personally and your friends and family are beyond acceptance.

Now I know everyone is experiencing "adversity", and I've only just been keeping my head above water myself, but this experience really is something else. I like many others don't choose to get this disease, but the prospect and realization of what the future brings for myself, is worrying.

Thank you for taking the time to read this, I truly appreciate it, and no matter how much or how little you can offer to support me during this extremely difficult period of my life, I really am grateful for any help I receive. I've learnt that cancer impacts all areas of life and everyone around it.

Kindest regards,

Paul x