Well its now slightly over 2 years since I was diagnosed with lung cancer incidentally whilst undergoing lung surgery. My diagnosis was stage 4, Non Small Cell Lung Cancer with Bronchioalveolar features to be exact. A terminal prognosis with even the best of current treatments.

Needless to say as a 30 year old non-smoker this came as quiet a blow. I was given 12-24 months to live with the immediate commencement of chemotherapy, or under a year without treatment.

Anyway that was then, this is now. I avoided systemic chemo for over 14 months as my cancer was luckily relatively slow growing. I did however try Tarceva for 3 months which is an oral targeted therapy but to no avail.

So for the 1st year since I was diagnosed I decided to live life like it was my final year on earth. This involved visiting no less than 14 countries on 9 separate overseas holidays!! All this between CT scans to ensure things were not getting too out of hand. It was easily one of the best years of my life..

However after 14 months the lesions (of which there are approx 20 throughout both lungs) had grown to a size which I personally considered required more attention. This was after trying multiple natural "remedies" and even embarking on a futile trip to China..My oncologist never pushed me for chemo and I am sure he was relieved when I finally accepted a trial of docetaxel and a experimental Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor inhibitor now called Axitinib. This commenced 18th December 2006 and I soon realised that chemo is one of the most difficult things to cope with. It never affected me so much physically although I did lose my hair, it was the mental drain that hit me the most. However after 6 cycles luckily without interruption there was stable disease with quite pronounced central necrosis and cavitation of many of the previously solid lesions.

Its now almost a year since I commenced chemo and targeted therapy and things are still stable with some lesions no longer identifiable on my CT scans. This I believe is due to the VEGF drug that I am presently on stopping bloody flow to tumours. It is amazing to me how effective some of these new targeted drugs can be with minimal toxicity to the rest of the body. This means that for all of us that are diagnosed no longer is systemic chemo the only option, what a relief I hear you all say.

I still have 3 weekly blood tests and 6 weekly CT scans but in between this I spend my time once again travelling the globe and have recently completed my 48th country.

So although for many people diagnosed with this horrible disease at end stage, which includes myself, it doesn't necessarily mean that you cannot continue living life to the full. Many of you can still travel, go on holidays with family and friends and life a relatively normal life.

Things I have done to keep myself well have included daily walks and rigorous yoga along with a low calorie intake diet (I eat what I want but just not so much of it). I still indulge with coffees, meat and the occasional binge, being only 32 years old I cannot give it all up.

So what I would like people to take away with them when reading this is simple, if you are diagnosed with lung cancer continue to try and enjoy your life to the full and ensure that you are fully informed and constantly ask about current and new treatments/trials as this can mean a longer and less treatment heavy life. Make sure you have good support around you such as partners, family and good friends and a good medical team as these people can make the bad days times more tolerable.

Also never give up, ever! I can assure you this is one of the hardest things to do but without hope there is no chance. The mind plays a crucial role in this horrible disease I am sure of that!

Regards

Matt