SURVIVING MY SHOCKING DIAGNOSIS

As a young man, I overcame non-Hodgkin lymphoma. Twenty-six years later, I faced a terrifying new challenge

- Garry Maddox

It’s late June 2019, and I have no indication of what’s ahead. Family life and work as a senior writer for a newspaper in Sydney, Australia, are going well, and I’m enjoying training for a triathlon in Lausanne, Switzerland, in September. Since taking up the sport six years ago, I’ve come to love getting outdoors to swim, run or cycle nearly every morning

I book in to see my doctor about a lump under my left arm. He thinks it’s a harmless cyst. I get back to work and training. In early July a second lump emerges on the left side of my chest. The GP thinks it’s another cyst but, because it’s more noticeable and I’ll be overseas soon, I ask to have it removed. He sends me to a surgeon who wants a biopsy before operating.

So on a wintry afternoon in late July, I have a series of scans and a needle biopsy at a clinic. It goes on much longer than expected. After the doctor glumly studies the X-rays and does another biopsy, I ask if he thinks it’s cancer. He nods.

Whatever either of us says next is a blur.

Arriving home, I tell my wife, Heather, as calmly as I can what the doctor said. Just as stunned as I am, she’s immediately practical: suggesting we wait till we know more and take things day by day.

I break the news to my son, Kip, 27, who is on his laptop in his bedroom. He takes it in slowly and calmly. We all know there is no point wasting tears now.