Sadly Mike is not well at the moment. Having had an incident over a year ago he had a further incident recently and ended up in hospital. He is home and doing things but has withdrawn from hockey for the time being. John Lees, our Secretary, is keeping in touch on behalf of all of us.
In the meantime: Mike has asked not to contact him with well-wishing (well-intended but too many of us thus doing his head in); John Lees is passing on our combined support. Please hold back from emailing "PRESIDENT@", instead use secretary@ or sixtiesplus@ for any matters arising.
Mike's own input
25th Feb
Hi all. Just had an update on my cancer. Brill not but not worse so far. Summary of my meeting with Dr Lord 21st Feb 2024
The MRI Scan result, from 18th February, indicated a significant growth of the primary tumour. Not what I wanted to hear! This is apparently about 4 times as large as it seemed in October! This does not match with my symptoms. Discussion centred around possible causes and the treatment options. My glioblastoma is a wild kind and part of my DNA gene is the protein MGMT. This can cause a pseudo reading on the first scan after chemo and radiotherapy. It may mean that the tumour has grown but Dr Lord stated that she sees at least one ‘false scan’ per week, particularly in the early days. I agreed that I will start a second chemo regimen of Temozolomide on 29th Feb. This will be monitored for two months. I will get another MRI in about 8 weeks. If it is real significant tumour growth the treatment will change and does not look good. If the latest MRI indicates that it was a ‘false scan’ then chemo continues as planned. The tumour cannot be shrunk nor operated on only stay stable hopefully for as long as possible.
I cannot drive again really unless I live for at least two more years! There no I reason I cannot prepare for being able to fly by the end of April/May should things go well over the next two months and the tumour has not proved to have grown significantly or created other problems. I am also hoping to be able to take my family away about around then. I am hoping to get back to golf next week, even for a few holes. Just the lack of having a car needs to be got around.
I am certainly not going to be stopping ‘living my life’. So will take a wait and see approach, hoping for the best, and keep building my strength back as much as possible.
Staying positive.
Mike
12th Jan
"Up date - Doing pretty well with treatment so far. Good energy and appetite. Hair loss a bit but I went no 1 all over! I look like a bouncer in Coconut Grove. Exercising every day and getting out and about. Susan, kids, family and pals been great. A wee chemo rest this weekend since my platelets were a bit low from Friday, but then back to radiotherapy and chemo on Monday. Last fortnight of radiation and chemo. MRI set set for week beginning 12 Feb then we see if the tumours have stopped growing or not when we will meet with the consultant on 21st Feb! Should get a letter. I think that no matter what the MRI shows I will be put on the six month course of chemo anyway. Still terminal and inoperable but we had a great Christmas, have set some targets and generally just getting on with living. Certainly not doing to become a zombie until I get really bad! Mike"
18th Nov
"As a great many of you now know I had a life changing experience on 17th September. Instead of heading up for dinner at my daughters, my son in law found me in my chair having had a seizure. I was rushed to AE and then into ICO, incubated for two days and had several scans. I was in hospital, various wards, for a further 13 days. Tenerife, the Octoberfest Tour, and my Golfing Holiday to Turkey as well as driving all cancelled.
"My daughter was with me upon discharge, I have an inoperable Brain Tumour and terminal diagnosis, no cancer anywhere else so it is a primary source. The only options I had the time were to undergo an extremely risky, possibly paralysing biopsy, or wait till a second MRI could be done to try to find a less problematic region of the brain to look at. Unfortunately, the main tumour site was in the Motor Cortex Strip, and this would gradually cause me real cognitive difficulties as the disease progressed. I opted for quality of life rather than length of life.
"The 2nd MRI result came back, the tumours have increased in size significantly and they are still non-operable and terminal. However, the main tumour site had grown closer to the edge the brain and I was offered the option of a biopsy again. Since my cognitive functions and the aphasic condition were worsening, although my walking, talking etc was not affected much, I decided to go for the biopsy.
"I was taken in to Ninewells on Tuesday 14th and operated on Wednesday morning. You can imagine everything I had going through my head, and still have, however the biopsy was extremely successful, and they hopefully have enough brain tissue to have a DNA analysis done to determine what type of Glioma this is and whether there is any treatment possible.
"The surgical team decided to use new AI, Ultra-Sound and Laser Scanning technology rather than the ‘metal box and X-ray’ method to assist the surgeon. This has been trialled for other non-operable cancer sites, but I am this the first person in Scotland to get this.
"I will get feedback from the biopsy on 4th December, worst case the tumour is non-cancerous and will just grow and I might not get past Christmas, best case there will be some sort of treatment available, and I will stay positive and at least get to back to golf, perhaps not hockey though.
"Thanks for all the best wishes."
Mike (Sir)
