PAT JORDAN (58), a retired Co Wexford farmer, had a growth on his chest for almost four years before he went to the doctor. Luckily, he was treated in time and was cured. He tells his story.
"Over the years during the fine summers, when the sun seemed to shine all the time, I wouldn't wear my shirt all week until Mass on Sunday. Four years ago, I got a growth on my chest, around the breast area. It started as a brown shadow, then it got larger and changed colour. After about two years it went from brown to black and then a scab formed and it became raised up. However, it was not sore."
"I used to take no notice of it, except after a shower - it used to bleed when I rubbed it with the towel and that got worse over time.
"One night my wife, Catherine, and I were going to a dinner dance. When we got there I noticed that my shirt was destroyed in blood and I had to go home and change it. The next morning I went to the doctor and within 35 minutes he had it removed and sent it to the lab.
"He told me to come back to get the stitches out in two weeks' time. When I went back the wound had not healed. He told me what it was then. What frightened me so much was that my mother died from cancer and my brother who was 47-year-old had also died from cancer. I got a huge fright when the doctor told me he had already made an appointment for me in St Luke's in Dublin for the next morning.
"That night I did not sleep, I couldn't eat and I cried all the time. Catherine tried to console me but she failed. When I got to the hospital the consultant examined it and said if I was to have a cancer this was the one to have since it was curable. If I had waited for two more years he said it would have been full blown cancer and it would have been difficult to save me.
"Then I had radium treatment and the area fell out about the size of the top of a glass. It grew back and there is only a slight mark there now.