Ian

Congratulations on a great speech. You are to be commended on how you
have handled this horrible disease. My dear husband of 51 years has
spent the last week in one of the finest hospitals in the state of
California. He went in expecting surgery and was pronounced inoperable
probably due to the delay of the health maintenance organization to
which we belong.. He is awaiting assignement to one of only two
suitable nursing homes in this area for end of life care. He has a
recent tracheostomy and a feeding tube. This started out as only a
small lump on his cheek 20 years ago and that spread to a lymph gland in
his neck. He survived that operation but this time the squamous cell
carcinoma spread so rapidly that it outran the doctors who were
involved.

I am writing to warn everybody to never ignore even the smallest lump or
irritation. These little things can be deadly I'm sure most of you know
that but now I stop people in the grocery store and warn them, complete
strangers, young ones especially, to never neglect anything that
doesn't seem to heal.

Again congratulations on an amazing recovery. I have been reading your
posts and know that you must have tremendous will power to have beaten
the odds so soundly.

Sincerely
Irene (a former Brit)