Gordon Mahood is cancer free.

But the Fermanagh native is aware that “cancer is cancer, it can come back.”

It has been “a long, tough year” for Gordon, 43, who, was diagnosed last year with stage four bowel cancer, with secondary cancer on his liver.

Impartial Reporter:

Following four months of chemotherapy and two major rounds of surgery, he is determined to “get [his] life back” and warn men that bowel cancer is not an older person’s disease.

“I want to tell blokes to pick up on things, get themselves checked out and don’t be embarrassed about the examination – it could save your life.”

It took four months from Gordon recognising his unusual symptoms to finding out he had cancer. Symptoms of bowel cancer include bleeding when you go to the toilet, a change in normal bowel habits, a lump that your doctor can feel in your back passage or abdomen, or feeling like you need to use the toilet, even if you have just been. 

After an examination by a female GP, Gordon was told by a Belfast Trust hospital that he would have to wait six months for a colonoscopy. He was very worried and arranged to have the colonoscopy through Benenden Healthcare Society, a mutual that his parents are members of. Following the colonoscopy, the private doctor offered to take him on as an NHS patient.
“Cancer was never discussed but I’d say that doctor knew what he was dealing with when he carried out the colonoscopy, especially since he took me on as a patient, rather than referring me back to a GP with my colonoscopy results.”

Sitting in a consultant’s room in a Belfast hospital last September with his wife and six-month old baby boy, Gordon was presented with “a devastating blow.”

“[The consultant] pretty much said I had bowel cancer. He also told me I had secondary cancer in my liver. That meant I was stage four. The whole thing was a bit of a blur because I was trying to take everything in,” said Gordon, who is still upset with how that meeting was handled. 

“The consultant kept answering my questions with questions. If I asked something he would say: ‘Are you sure you want me to answer that?’ I was getting a sense that there was no hope or no way forward. He wasn’t offering me options about chemo or surgery. I wasn’t getting the impression that there was a plan of action. I was wondering: ‘Am I going to get palliative care?’ From that meeting, I was offered no hope.”

Following the meeting, Gordon, who lost his sister to a heart condition in 1987, had to face telling his parents – Prue and Wilfie Mahood, from Tempo – “that their only surviving child had cancer.”

Three sleepless nights followed and the anguished family tried to get to grips with Gordon’s diagnosis. He went to his GP for sleeping tablets and when he came home he received a call from a Macmillan Nurse who gave him “hope in bucket loads.” Following a 25 minute conversation, outlining his options for chemotherapy and surgery, Gordon “slept like a baby” without the sleeping tablets. He stated: “In that initial situation you need to be given a sense of hope. It’s amazing what hope can do to your mind and spirit and the effect it can have on your body.”

Then began a gruelling four months of chemotherapy, targeting the primary tumour on his bowel and the secondary tumours on his liver. 

In order to cope with the disease, Gordon viewed himself as a cancer patient only on the day he was receiving his chemo. “The rest of the time I was dad for Harry, husband for Julie, son to my parents and an avid Ulster and Ireland rugby fan; I tried to have a normal life and not let the routine of chemo define my life.”

His advice to others on the same journey is: “Don’t let cancer define you.”

Thankfully, the chemotherapy had “significantly” reduced his cancerous tumours, therefore Gordon was scheduled for liver surgery in May 2016.
“I took everything in stages,” Gordon recalled. “Complete the chemo and then think of the next stage. If you think about the whole thing it is very stressful and counterproductive.”

The liver surgery was a success, with the surgeon taking extra off, just to make sure he had removed all the cancer. “Then it was a case of building myself up for eight weeks in preparation for bowel surgery,” added Gordon.
He went for bowel surgery in July 2016. When he woke up he was told that the two hour operation had become a six hour operation when the surgeon found polyps all over his large intestine. Gordon’s large intestine had been removed completely, an ileostomy had been carried out and Gordon now lives with a stoma.

“It was a bit of a shock but there was no other choice. If he had not taken that action I would be chasing this disease for the rest of my life,” he commented.
“At that stage I knew I was cancer free but I was expecting another round of chemo just to kill off anything that may have been lingering in the background. However, last week, I was told I would not need any more chemotherapy,” a delighted Gordon reported.
“I am disease free but I am aware that it can come back. Now, I am getting my life back.”

Gordon, who lost three stone during his ordeal, plans to get his strength back, take a holiday with his wife and son Harry, 19 months, and prepare to return to his workplace in the new year.

“At the start I found it hard thinking about how much of Harry’s life I would be around to experience. But once I got that sense of hope that things could be done and having Harry to look after, it took my mind off things,” reflected Gordon.

He is very thankful for the “humbling” messages of support and love he received from many people along the way.

“The last year has been such a rocky road,” said Gordon. “I just want to tell blokes to pick up on things and get checked out.”