‘Maggie’s supported me when I needed it’

WHEN Mike Charkow was diagnosed with cancer in his 20s, it came as a complete shock. The illness left him reeling as he endured tough treatment and struggled to deal with the impact on his life.

When the disease struck again, the diagnosis was almost too much to take, leaving him feeling guilty for burdening his family as he once more faced gruelling therapies to try to rid him of the disease.

But thanks to Maggie’s Cancer Caring Centre in Edinburgh, the tree surgeon found support to help him deal with his Hodgkin’s lymphoma. Mike would now like to see more patients getting the same help as they face up to a cancer diagnosis.

Scotland on Sunday and sister paper The Scotsman have joined up with Maggie’s for our annual campaign to try to ensure as many people as possible benefit from this vital support.

Mike was diagnosed with cancer for the first time in 2003 when he was 26 and in Japan, teaching and working on organic farms. “I wasn’t sleeping. I was getting hot sweats and I was very itchy all over. I also had a lump near my neck,” he said.

He saw a doctor in Tokyo who said it could be anything from muscle inflammation to cancer so he came home and saw his GP in Dumfries who referred him for tests. He was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system, and went on to have chemotherapy.

“It was quite a shock. I felt pretty numb and concerned. To start with, the chemotherapy didn’t really affect me but halfway through I wasn’t coping at all well. I was extremely nauseous and would feel pretty rough for a week afterwards and anxious prior to going.”

During months of treatment, Mike lived with his parents in Dumfries then later had radiotherapy in Edinburgh. The cancer went into remission and Mike trained as a tree surgeon. Then almost eight years after his first diagnosis came the devastating news that the cancer had returned and he needed more treatment.

“That was possibly even more shocking because I thought ‘that must be it, that’s all the treatment they have. I’d started working. I’d started to live and then I had to stop everything again.”

Now based in Edinburgh, he received the devastating news from his oncologist. “The room just went cold,” Mike recalled. “Everything just stopped and I felt really isolated.”

After leaving the hospital he went straight to Maggie’s, not knowing what else to do.

“Andy [Anderson, the head of Maggie’s Edinburgh] saw me and said ‘just go in that room. I’ll be there in two minutes’. I just broke down. I couldn’t do that in the hospital. I needed to release the pressure.”

Mike said it helped to speak to Maggie’s staff who offered a different type of support to that given by the clinicians.

“Andy gave me a space and chatted about what had happened and what was going to happen, and said Maggie’s would be there and would help as much as possible,” he said.

Mike went on to have high dose chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant to try to beat the disease for a second time.He still drops into Maggie’s to catch up with those who supported him and wishes it had been there first time round.

“The nurses were really helpful, but they have a million things to do,” he said.

“If there was a Maggie’s it would have helped, to have them explain things and help give me options and speak about what was on my mind.”

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