Our very own valued trustee and fellow pseudomyxoma survivor, Steve “Bumper” Treweeks, shares with us his new found poetry skills – fantastic stuff!!
“The Lodger”
“You’ve got Cancer” I heard the consultant say.
“You’ve got Cancer” he said, and my world turned grey.
“You’ve got Cancer” he said, surely that can’t be right, I eat well, don’t drink or smoke ; exercise; sleep at night.
“You CAN’T have Cancer!” She said, full of tears “You’re so fit and healthy, you’ve been running for years!”
“YOU’VE got Cancer?” my friends say, aghast. “They’re wrong, they’re mistaken, it’ll certainly pass”
“But you look so well, you cannot be sick.” But looks can deceive, and illness can trick.
“Cancer of the appendix? Surely there’s no such thing!” But radical surgery’s required to win.
To beat back the sickness.
To give me some time
For smelling the roses;
For drinking the wine.
It’s Pseudomyxoma Peritonei The rarest of Cancers – A sentence to die?
With every scan It may soon return Our nerves are all frayed – emotions are burned.
Now three strikes I’m down and still I fight on, With surgery & chemo – It still has not won.
I shall not lay down! I will not give up!
Despite all my fears I’ll refill my cup.
To live every day like it is my last
Love strong and laugh loud, this spectres not passed.
Though still NED (regardless of ‘mets’),
My running still keeps me ahead – place your bets!
I’d not bet against me, for as a good fiend once said:
“When you’re put in a box, they’d best screw down the lid”.
It’s a matter of time, though I struggle each day,
It’s a fight I can’t win, though I battle to stay.
I let fitness support me, let my body fight back,
If it’s just fighting Cancer then it extends the track.
I’ve got Cancer, I know, but it won’t make me frown…
I’ve a life to be lived, and this WON’T bring me down.
“You’ve got Cancer” they’ll tell me when again it recurs
Though that may be in months, it may not be for years.
It keeps trying to get me so when the next instance comes,
I’ll just look at them calmly,
Smile… and say…
“Bring it on!”.
© S.Treweeks 2014
Written during Bumper’s ongoing cancer battle, April 3rd, 2007 to August 2014 and onwards… Steve has suggested that if you like this poem enough to share, how about considering a little donation to Pseudomyxoma Survivor?
NED – No Evidence of Disease
‘Mets’ – metastasis