Vital part of the road to recovery

Mar 19 2008 by David Higgerson, Liverpool Daily Post

David Higgerson meets the people for whom an unassuming centre is helping them cope with cancer

WHEN Darren Williams talks about his experience of cancer, he calmly recounts a gruelling course of chemotherapy which was so strong that his heart needed “shocking” back into action.

Then, with the look of horror still present on the faces of those around him, he follows up his shock statement with perhaps the most unexpected sentence ever: “Cancer is the best thing that ever happened to me.”

That look of horror switches to one of bewilderment before Dean adds: “It meant I found this place, and I love coming here.”

“Here” is the Liverpool Cancer Support Centre, an unassuming two-storey red-brick building set slightly back from Aigburth Road.

The 33-year-old is one of hundreds who use the centre every year as part of their road back to recovery.

“I developed lymphoma and spent two years undergoing chemotherapy, and they did have to shock me on the table once because the chemo was that strong,” says Darren.

“I got told I was in remission last year and hopefully everything is ok now. But discovering this place was fantastic. My blood nurse recommended it and coming here changed everything for me.

“There is a sense of community here. People can come here and talk about what they are going through, and become stronger from each other.

“It’s so important to have something like this because you can feel as though you’re the only person fighting cancer, and hearing other peoples’ stories helps keep you positive.”

In fact, many of the people visiting the centre know Darren not just for his remarkable story, but for his cooking – he runs the kitchen once a week.

And Darren’s opinion of the centre is a popular one. Running for around 20 years now, and assisted with funding from local health bodies, it is described as an advocacy service for people with cancer, their families and their friends.

After a nomadic early existence, it settled into its current premises on Aigburth Road, and is home to a number of support groups for different types of cancer. It also offers a range of complimentary therapies aimed at helping people feel better about themselves while battling, or recovering from, cancer.

Joan Elmer is the project worker who runs the centre. She had breast cancer, which she has successfully beaten, and believes one of the centre’s strengths is that it is about as far removed from a hospital as you can get.

She said: “When people are diagnosed with cancer, the first priority is to get them on to some sort of treatment programme to help them beat it.

“But it can also effect many people in many other ways, and that is when hospitals refer people to us.

“By the time people are done with the treatment against the cancer they are fighting, they can be sick of the sight of the hospital, for no other reason than the fact the treatment is so gruelling.

“It can also be quite an isolating experience. People around you will try their best, but they won’t fully understand what you are going through. At the same time, carers have to be strong all the time for the person they are trying to look after, but they too need someone to talk to, someone to go through things with.

“That’s where we come in.

“The users here have helped create an atmosphere which is warm and welcoming, and time and time again we are told how much it helps just to talk to other people going through the same thing as they did.

“Being positive is such an important thing, and having somewhere where you can relax and talk things through can make such a powerful difference.

“One of the hardest things can be coming through the door for the first time. In many ways, cancer is such a private thing, and many people can find it hard to talk. But the support that is available, often from people who know exactly what you are going through, can make such a difference.

“That’s why people like Darren want to try and help as much as they can, and his story in itself is an inspiration.”

The statistics for cancer in Merseyside make for very bleak reading, with cases of some cancers expected to double by 2020 – modern, unhealthy lifestyles in many cases being to blame.

According to regional cancer experts, the number of cases of cancer diagnosed in the North West annually is expected to rise by 37% between now and 2018, from 35,470 to 48,690.

Breast cancer cases are expected to increase by 54.2%, colorectal cancer by 31%, oesophageal cancer by 49%, and skin cancer cases will more than double.

Liverpool is expected to be among the worst places hit in the North West by the increase in cancer cases, as its general death rate is already higher than the rest of the region.

The city’s high mortality rate means that, currently, an extra 350 people die of cancer each year when compared to the national average.

The users of the Cancer Support Centre – which is due to be renamed Sunflowers, quite a fitting name given the positive outlook the place maintains – are the faces behind those statistics, proof that cancer is utterly indiscriminate about who it affects.

Take Dirk Van Vuuren, a former fireman who was travelling around the world when he began to have “strange sensations.”

It turned out to be a brain tumour. He doesn’t know how long he has to live.

Dirk, 43, from Garston, says: “One of the hardest things to try and understand is that when talking about the future, I don’t know if I will be part of it. It’s very hard to explain to other people how that feels.

“They never tell you how long you’ve got left in those terms, but I was diagnosed in July 2006 and people talked about six months. One of the hardest things to deal with was the reaction from some people.

“One person said ‘well, at least you’ve not been hit by a bus.’ How do you deal with that?

“I don’t think anyone can fully understand what you go through. As well as MRI and CAT scans, a biopsy had to be performed on my head to understand the state of the tumour. That meant them drilling into my head.

“It was the worst experience of my life, and impossible to describe to people who haven’t been through it.”

Despite gruelling treatment which doctors said would mean Dirk probably wouldn’t be able to become a father, on February 29 he celebrated the birth of his baby boy Jack with partner Julie.

“The important thing to remember is that more people are surviving and great things, like Dirk’s son, do happen,” says Joan

“People are being diagnosed sooner, and people are more likely to be diagnosed than in the past, and that has an effect on the figures.

“People always say it’s good to talk. With cancer, it’s true, and it’s an incredibly powerful tool to use, too.”

davidhiggerson