In June 2023 I was diagnosed with Stage 4 Stomach Cancer. I had laparoscopy surgery to determine the extent of the tumour. Following this, I commenced an intensive course chemotherapy which ended in November 2023. It didn't successfully reduce the tumour in size so I was unable to have surgery to remove the tumour.

I then had Chemoradiotherapy at St James in early 2024, again this was unsuccessful. My last CT scan showed that the tumour had grown almost 2cms.

22/08/24: An update from my discussion with my consultant yesterday. I have decided that I am not going ahead with more chemotherapy. I am feeling relatively okay at the moment and I don’t fancy having to live with the awful side effects for little or no gain. I will just have regular CT scans.

They can’t give me an idea of life expectancy because everyone is different but the average life expectancy of someone with Stage 4 stomach cancer is 18 months and I have probably already past that so we’ll just have to wait and see - #TickTock!

Best wishes

Paul.