A LIFE AFTER CANCER

Despite getting the all-clear from her doctor, Gill Simmons, 59, struggled to move on

- ELAINE HAYWARD

Gathered in the restaurant with my family, I smiled as I watched my sister Jacky, then 63, raise her cup of tea in my direction. ‘Here’s to the future Gill,’ she beamed. It was March 2022 and our family were out for a celebratory breakfast following the news of my all-clear from cancer. Throughout my treatment, I’d envisaged this moment – thinking that once it was all over, l would return to my old self and start enjoying life again. But the reality was proving to be different. Cancer had changed me, and not for the better.

Six months earlier, in September 2021, I’d been diagnosed with head and neck cancer after finding a painless lump in my throat. It was a terrifying time, and I worried constantly that the cancer would defeat me and I’d leave behind my son Matt, then 25, and my partner of 10 years Gavin, 48. But, after enduring six weeks of gruelling daily radiotherapy, I finally received the news from my consultant that the treatment had worked. ‘We can give you the all-clear but we’ll be monitoring you for the next five years,’ he explained.

MENTAL TOLL

Matt, who had accompanied me to all my appointments, was so relieved he actually cried and hugged me tightly. ‘I was just so worried I was going to lose you,’ he said. I’d raised him by myself since he was seven and we were fiercely close. He’d even moved back home to take care of me during my treatment as I lived alone. Gavin, along with my two brothers and two sisters, had also been incredible, taking me to appointments and trying to keep me feeling positive. And like Matt, they were euphoric when I told them the news.