John McFarlane, by his own admission, wasn’t a man who liked to bother his doctor. He estimates having only ever been to see one, around three times in his adult life.
However, during Covid, he began to suffer from random episodes of excessive burping. As a sufferer of heartburn all his life, John knew what his triggers were, but these new episodes didn’t seem to correlate with any particular food or drink he had taken.
John’s wife had actually encountered the OGCancerNI stand at Belfast City Hospital and after a chat with some of the volunteers, she came home, urging him to get his heartburn checked out.
He got an appointment with his GP who gave him medication to relieve the indigestion but “looked blank” when John enquired as to what might be the cause. When the indigestion relief failed to alleviate the problem, John’s wife urged him to seek a second opinion.
This time, during a telephone consultation, the new doctor brought John in to see him that day as a matter of urgency. He checked John over and assured him that it wasn’t his heart. But yet again, had no real answers when John asked as to what the cause was behind these burping episodes.
He did however mention to John that it could be escalated to getting a camera down for a look, but it was November time and John was extremely busy with work, so refused. He does admit though that when he got out to the car, he did feel like it was a mistake, but armed with new meds, he decided to see how things went.
The new year came and as he was still suffering, John decided to bite the bullet and go for the camera test at Belfast City Hospital. They initially unofficially diagnosed him with Barrett’s Oesophagus. However, he later received a letter requesting he come to see the same consultant. When John and his wife arrived, the consultant said he was going to have a nurse sit in on the meeting and when the nurse entered the room carrying a box of tissues, John said that was a “major red flag”.
The consultant told John he had cancerous cells in his oesophagus, something which he described as “completely blindsiding” both himself and his wife. He said, “At the time, I felt great, bar the burping, I had no symptoms at all, I hadn’t lost weight, I felt fine.” In actual fact, John had weighed himself in the waiting area and his wife, who is a nurse, told him at that stage he was technically obese given his weight and height!
Whilst still coming to terms with the shocking news himself, the next difficult task was telling his two adult children. John said: “My son is a doctor; a research scientist and I rang him that night and told him I had these cancerous cells. When I came off the phone, my wife was standing there, and she said “Why are you saying you have cancerous cells? John, you have cancer” and to be honest, that was the first time that it really hit me.”
“I was referred to Dr Inder Mainie who I was told could do this procedure which had a 97% success rate. However, on the day during the procedure, I sensed a complete change in his body language, and I could see it wasn’t working. He was so determined, but at the end he just completely slumped down. He advised me that he thought it was still early enough for surgery, so that was my next step.”
Dr. Kennedy carried out John’s surgery at BCH and at his three-month post review, he was overjoyed to be given the all clear. However, John couldn’t resist asking what the outcome would have been for him without it, to which Dr. Kennedy replied, “your demise would have occurred within 12 months.”
John is grasping his second chance at life with both hands, he says: “I have a new job, I walk every day and get out in the fresh air. I knew in my heart of hearts that something was wrong, but I suppose like a typical man, I didn’t want to make a fuss. The NHS were brilliant though, every step of the way with me.
“My advice to anyone having any sort of random symptoms is to get it checked out. Listen to your body, you know your body better than anyone else, so if something doesn’t feel right, get it checked sooner rather than later.”
