Tommy was diagnosed with bladder cancer just before his 60th birthday. Now, thanks to a Cancer Research UK trial, he’s enjoying playing football with his grandson. “It was March 2012 when I first noticed some blood in my pee.
I decided to go to the doctor the next day to get checked out. He did some tests and decided to send me to the hospital for a scan and a cystoscopy where they use a camera to look at your bladder. The tests showed that I had a tumour in my bladder.
The first thing I thought was: ‘What?!’ I was terrified, to begin with, but then I decided I had to just get on with it. “My treatment involved chemotherapy as well as surgery to remove the tumour. But the cancer had spread into the muscle tissue, so it was worse than they first thought.
” Tommy took part in the TUXEDO clinical trial funded by Cancer Research UK. He remembers, “I decided I’d do it in about 10 seconds.” The trial involved having chemotherapy every week, along with radiotherapy five days a week for seven weeks.
“It was April 2013 when the doctor told me the good news that the treatment had been successful and that my cancer was gone. I was over the moon. “I knew nothing about clinical trials before I joined one.
Now I realise how important they are. They’re needed to test new treatments, new drugs, and new drug combinations. Without them we wouldn’t be able to make any progress; things would just stand still.
“I’m so grateful to have been given the opportunity to joi.