Cramlington man welcomes new cancer scanner

The house husband has undergone four scans with the PET CT scanner, one in London and the last three in Newcastle after the North of England Cancer Network brought a scanner to Newcastle's Freeman Hospital.

"I am delighted we now have a PET CT scanner in Newcastle as it is a major benefit for patients," said Gary.

"Most people who have the scan will be having treatment, or coming to the end of it, so it would be very physically demanding to travel to London. Many of the patients are older than me also, so it puts a huge strain on them."

Gary was diagnosed with cancer in summer 2007. He had become concerned when he was feeling short of breath which he later found was due to the tumour pressing against his lungs.

His wife Lindsey, 30, was pregnant with their third child, Joshua-James, now one, brother to Emma-Mai, two, and Katie-Jane, four, when they were given the news. He said: "I was fit as a fiddle and ran four miles a day. I never thought anything like this would happen to me."

After his gruelling treatment, doctors at Wansbeck General Hospital referred Gary to Newcastle's RVI, who in turn sent him for a PET CT scan in June last year to determine whether there were still cancerous cells present in his tumour and whether he would need further treatment.

At this time there was no PET CT scanner in Tyneside and Gary needed to travel to London to have the scan.

Gary made the gruelling journey down to the capital on the train and had the scan in a clinic in London.

He had to have an injection, then wait one hour before the scan itself, which only takes half an hour. When he received the results they showed low- grade activity in his chest area.

He said: "The results were good but going to London was unbelievable. Chemotherapy and radiotherapy are so mentally and physically draining, it was such hard work to hop on a train and do the return journey in one day.

"You can't eat for six hours before the scan so I was running on empty. It took me weeks to get over it."

After three months doctors referred him for another PET CT scan and this time he had it done locally.

The scan again showed minimal activity in the tumour and Gary went on to have two more scans, one with similar results. The most recent in March was completely negative.

He said: "In my case, the PET CT scan enabled the hospital to monitor the activity in my chest over a period of time. Without this, I might have been given further gruelling treatment that I didn't need.

"I have very young children and my illness has put such a strain on our family. My wife had to care for me and our children as I wasn't able to care for them like usual."He said: "It has been a few weeks since the last scan and I feel so much better. I am going running again and getting back to my old self.

"But I don't take anything for granted any more. I will take each week, or month or year as it comes."