Thinking about…

I recenty came across two brilliant books about survival, the first about why certain people survive traumatic incidents and the second about how people survive survival.

As in survival is about why certain people are more likely to survive being on a small, cramped life raft, whilst others just jump in and get eaten by sharks.

And once somebody has survived something like this, how are they then able to learn how to deal with their survival and make a life for themselves after a traumatic challenge to their life.

I was thinking about this the other day with a friend in response to my cancer diagnosis. I went from someone who was very active. Cycling, walking, and doing strength based exercises, building exercise into my working day by bringing a Brompton bike with me every time I got the train, no matter how far the distance was that I had to cycle, at the other end. I once turned up soaked from head to toe and wearing my favourite light blue suit at a national conference where I was the guest speaker. I had ten minutes to attempt to dry myself off and then l had to deliver my speech whilst trying not to drip water onto my lap top.

Now why is this relevant to cancer and survival? So the number of people who have a similar experience to me and go from believing that they are are well, to finding out overnight that they have stage 4 cancer, of those people many don’t seem to survive for very long. This is particularly true once they have been given a rough estimate of how long they are expected to live.

But that wasn’t me. I think I was expected to live for about eight weeks after my operation which included removing my large Bowel and attaching a stoma bag to my abdomen (It’s taken more than three years but I think I’ve just about got the hang of it now). However about 10 weeks post operation I was back cycling. At this early point in my quest for survival I gave myself two goals. Firstly to stay fit and secondly to be here dancing with my youngest granddaughter at her 18th birthday party.

I knew right from the start that I could not fight the cancer (fighting takes up too much energy).

Also i could not grieve, as this would benefit the cancer and not me.

What I needed to do was become a cancer surviver. This means accepting my cancer for what it is, an Alien body that is unwittingly trying to kill me. It also means listening to everyone around and saying no as often as I say yes and it means taking everyone with me on my cancer journey enabling us all to remain positive.

Jim Thomas

September 2025