"I heard James Whale talking to Steve Wright earlier this summer and wanted to offer support to your cause.

My dad died of kidney cancer a year ago in 2005. He was diagnosed on 9 June and survived just over two months before his death. He was one of the unlucky ones; it was his metastases that became symptomatic. On the day he died he had no symptoms of kidney cancer - not even a bit of blood in the urine! He had lung, liver and bone metastases when he was diagnosed – in fact it was the intractable pain in his thigh that was the reason he was taken into hospital for investigations.

I am a junior doctor training to be a GP and was shocked about how little information there was available about kidney cancer in the public forum and more specifically the limited information about renal cell carcinoma in basic medical textbooks - only a paragraph in the Bible according to medical students and junior doctors (Clinical Medicine by Kumar and Clarke). The local hospital was incredibly negative while the regional centre (Hull) were a lot more positive and offered a new immune therapy, but dad needed his leg sorting out first.

The bony met in his thigh bone was the original symptom yet it was not x-rayed until after he was diagnosed with cancer and I kicked up a fuss. Knowing my dad it was not the diagnosis that we were scared of, but the loss of his independence and dignity that petrified him. If his thighbone broke he would like as never walk again. The local hospitals were unable to do the operation to fix his leg and so Dad was transferred to the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham. Their care was fantastic and the surgeon had dealt with several people with kidney cancer and bone mets.

Dad maintained a degree of mobility after the operation in July last year, but the cancer was winning the battle. Dad spent his last days in St Catherine’s Hospice in Scarborough – I cannot sing their praises enough. The money that should be spent on his Christmas and birthday presents gets sent to the hospice, but I would like to help in a way more specific to kidney cancer. Dad was a teacher at a school in Scarborough until he became ill and his death appears to have hit the school very hard.
His memorial service was incredibly well attended by pupils that he taught many, many years ago, and lots of the kids ran 1.5 miles for cancer research earlier this year. I have told my step mum (another teacher) about the charity and she will be helping promote it around Scarborough. You will hopefully benefit from several school fundraisers in the future.

I live in Hampshire, as I joined the Navy several years ago. Any opportunity I get I will be promoting the James Whale Fund here too. Another part of the country covered!

Thank you for raising the profile of this silent cancer."

Katherine Boddy
Hampshire