A toxic cocktail

I’m awake and out of bed before 5am every day; it drives my wife mad.  I’m convinced my lazy gene was destroyed, along with my tumour, by the gallons of cancer drugs which were pumped into my body for nearly two years.

I did my best not to sleep when I was in hospital too. Each night I shut my eyes, wondering if I’d open them again in the morning. When I did sleep, I was terrorised by a recurring nightmare; another reason for not wanting to sleep.

The relief each morning when I woke, that I was alive and the nightmare couldn’t haunt me until the following evening, was instantly spoilt by the realisation I was in hospital, receiving cancer treatment.

Before my Hickman line was fitted, I’d watch as two nurses wearing gloves and protective  glasses prepared the toxic chemicals. Just the sight of them entering the room got my heart racing.

My body would stiffen and I’d look away as the tourniquet was tightened around my arm. If I was lucky they’d find a vein first time, and insert a needle.  This remained in place for hours, while a cocktail of drugs flowed into my body.

These drugs work by killing all the cells in my body, both good and bad.  Unlike most cancer treatments today, 20 years ago treatment was considerably more primitive which is why cancer treatment has such a awful reputation today.

I’d feel rough, dizzy and flu like. I’d sweat and the lymph nodes in my neck would swell. Ultimately I’d be sick for hours, as these drugs started killing everything in their path. Side effects which have been all but eliminated with today’s cleverly formulated, highly personalised treatment.

Though no fault of my own, I endured two years of this almost medieval, torturous treatment.  Again I stress treatment that is totally reformed and improved since my time.

So when I see people purchasing cigarettes, getting frustrated with staff for keeping them waiting, I feel entitled and well qualified to try and explain why what they’re doing is wrong.  Clearly smokers are either dumb or dyslexic, if they can’t read the message on the side of the box. “Warning, Smoking Kills” or “Smoking causes Cancer.”

The sight of people smoking makes me angry. Hopefully it makes you angry too. These people are wasting resources of the cash-strapped NHS, and your hard-earned taxes are being wasted treating patients with self-imposed health conditions.

I’ve received messages from cancer sufferers, inspired by my story; telling me they’re going to continue their cancer treatment. Hopefully I can now educate and encourage smokers to quit, before cancer makes the decision for them. This is my reason to leap out of bed every morning.

Chris Geiger is an ambassador for Bristol’s ‘Above & Beyond’ hospital charity. To contact him, visit www.ChrisGeiger.co.uk

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• chaswin

  Chris. You are not ‘entitled and well qualified to try and explain why what they’re doing is wrong’. People have the right to live their lives as they wish.
  Clearly smokers are neither ‘dumb or dyslexic’. They know the dangers of smoking and non-smokers know the dangers of most things in life.
  The messages on the side of the box should read “Warning Smoking CAN Kill” or “Smoking CAN cause Cancer.”

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_5G77ACAZUSRFUYLJA5PF7XMN6Q Nigel

  Chaswin
  You miss the point. Chris is dead right that most smokers have no idea about how awful having cancer would be, and wouldn’t start smoking if they knew. The choice to start smoking is made without being in possession of the full facts and before addiction to nicotine sets in.

• http://twitter.com/terryhsun Terry Sunshine

  Poor breeding causes cancer not smoking.
  Cancer cells are due to genetics.
  Smokers pay £10.2 billion into the treasury and that sustains the NHS.
  Non smokers are being subsidised by smoker in treatment via the NHS.
  As a smoker I would happily have the duty on tobacco used to pay private health insurance for smokers and for smokers not to be treated by the NHS. Smokers should not then pay N.I. and the non smokers would have to find the shortfall through their N.I.
  As a smoker of over 50 years and a non cancer sufferer I resent people with poor genetic stock using the NHS for treatment.

• philhandyman24-7

  I cannot believe just how pompous and pious you really are Chris. Why should it make you angry if someone buys a packet of fags or smokes? Why should you immediately think of a possible cost to the NHS?
  People have the frredom of choice as to whether they smoke or not, drink or not, eat kebabs or not etc so why should it make you angry?
  I don’t smoke but it doesn’t make me angry-why should it? If smokers, drinkers, foodaholics want to spend their money on their favoured delight then it is completely up to them!
  Financially Chris?. Let’s ban smoking altogether. Let’s make a legal product illegal and then let’s see what this government do when they are minus £11bn per annum. Your NHS would be in a poor state then!
  Live and let live Chris, your not the only one to sit looking at your own “Hickman Line”, you’re not the only one to spend God knows how long in hospital whilst your body is filled with poison to counteract the cancerous cells running rampant within, so get off your self righteous hobby horse and respect the choices of others. We can’t all be saints!

• DaveAtherton20

  Do you feel the same pangs of regret when people get their car keys out, possibly to cause an accident? Do you feel regretful when people buy a bottle of wine as to the effect it will have on their liver? What about down the butchers buying the Sunday joint should people feel remorse for inducing colon cancer?

  At least as a smoker you can have the pride that your habit directly pays for 10% of the NHS, and indirectly 20% with the jobs and industries associated round it. If not 5p on income tax.

• http://pulse.yahoo.com/_3ROPBMFAAPOSKU3RVFWJTJ4J4U Nicholas Sparks

  Chris Geigers column is excellent. He has done exactly what he set out to do – create awareness about cancer.

  I do not understand why people would smoke when they know it causes cancer.

  People who smoke clearly give little thought for the NHS, or their friends and family left behind.

  More of the same I say Chris !