Dunblane cancer survivor becomes one of the faces of national lung cancer campaign
dailyrecord.co.ukA Dunblane pensioner is one of the faces of a national campaign to change ‘outdated’ misconceptions of lung cancer.Encouraging people to forget everything they think they know about lung cancer, ‘Be Unforgettable’ aims to challenge the many misconceptions of the disease – from who can get it to its many different symptoms and the nihilistic perceptions that envelop it.The campaign, launched by the Roy Castle Lung Cancer Foundation, features people from around the country whose experiences with the disease quashed these outdated misconceptions.Bill Culbard, 80, from Dunblane, was diagnosed with lung cancer in 2000 after experiencing a persistent cough and wheezing.At the time, he was terrified.
It was the disease that took his father so Bill naturally feared the worse, especially when he was told it was inoperable due to the size and location of the tumour.Instead, Bill had an intensive course of chemotherapy, followed by radiotherapy.“I tolerated the chemo a lot better than I thought I would,” recalls Bill. “I was a little sick on occasions, but it wasn’t as bad as I imagined.“You have a certain picture of the side effects of chemo but that wasn’t my experience.
It was the same with the radiotherapy – I was a little sore at times and I also had difficulty swallowing but, in the grand scheme of things, it wasn’t too bad.“Once I had finished all of my treatment, I was told by my consultant that the core of the tumour had practically disappeared.
I returned to work and got back on with my life, having follow up scans for the next two years.“My last visit with my oncologist was in 2002.
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