On a road to self-destruction – before being diagnosed with cancer
Bradford man, James Barraclough was on a road to self destruction before his cancer diagnosis.
Facing redundancy and a relationship breakdown and struggling to pay his mortgage, he began to depend upon alcohol and smoking to see him through the day.
“I knew I was drinking and smoking too much and I did think about stomach cancer, but I didn’t seem to be able to do anything about it,” he remembers.
It was January ten years ago when he had been out drinking and had a curry from a local takeaway. He went to work but felt tired and couldn’t stop vomiting. He googled his symptoms and up popped oesophageal cancer. He called his GP for an appointment and they asked to see him straight away.
The GP examined him and pressed on his stomach. She was sufficiently concerned to call an ambulance to take him to Bradford Royal Infirmary where they carried out an endoscopy.
James, who had a rare cancer of the eardrum when he was 19, was asked to call someone who could sit with him to hear the news from his tests.
The liver specialist told him he had cirrhosis of the liver, and they wanted to take a biopsy to check out an ulcer. He was asked to stay in hospital until the results came back.
Again, he was asked to contact a loved one to hear the news with him. The specialist told them the biopsy had revealed he had cancer and that the prognosis wasn’t good. Because of complications with the liver, which they usually expected to see in someone much older, it would be difficult to remove the oesophageal cancer – a cancer found anywhere in the gullet.
“The specialist told me I would be lucky to be around in six months. I felt so angry I said I would still be around to attend his funeral.”
A multi disciplinary team meeting ordered a laparoscopy as a further additional check. When James came round from the procedure he was told his liver was fine, and they were pretty sure they could remove the cancer.
“I never got any answers about the earlier diagnosis. A nurse said she thought they had made a mistake on the results, but the specialist never came back to talk to me,” added James.
Following a round of chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, James was finally admitted for life saving surgery.
“I stopped drinking and smoking and did everything I was supposed to do. I wanted to prove to myself that my life was not finished.
“I’d been a functioning alcoholic. I looked like I was functioning like normal – going to work, driving my car – but I needed vodka to keep going. Looking back, I lost everything, apart from my life due to getting myself checked out. I had a beautiful missis, a family and job but I had a problem with drink. Cancer didn’t stop me, I stopped myself.”
Now James has completely turned his life around. He still has contact with his children and has turned his love for cats into his way of life. He keeps and breeds pedigree British Blue and Maine Coon cats and attends cat shows around the country.
“I’ve got through this all. I’ve not had a drink or cigarette for nine years, I’m as fit as I can be and I eat a healthy diet. I feel brilliant,” he told me.
James wants to use his experience to benefit others and has volunteered as a Cancer Champion to run information stalls to help raise awareness of cancer and promote the importance of attending screening appointments.