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Lung Cancer Awareness – Mark’s story

Mark Jenkins, aged 55, of Horley, Surrey, was diagnosed with lung cancer in July 2020. Had lobectomy (partial removal of left lung) in September 11 at St George’s Hospital, Tooting, followed by a course of chemotherapy at St Luke’s Centre which finished mid-February 2021.

I ask myself every day why did I not go and see my doctor when I first coughed up blood,” says Mark Jenkins, 55, a self-employed carpenter of Horley, Surrey.  He has recently finished a course of chemotherapy at St Luke’s Cancer Centre in Guildford, following a lobectomy last September to remove a tumour from his left lung.

Mark was diagnosed with lung cancer after he fell of a ladder while working in London back in July last year.  As well as fracturing his humerus, he coughed up blood after the fall which sparked further tests when he arrived by ambulance at St Thomas’ Hospital. By the end of that day, after a CT scan, he was told he had a shadow on his upper left lung.

“It was surreal, like it wasn’t happening to me,” says Mark. “At first, I wasn’t scared as I was just trying to absorb it and I had no pain in my chest. But soon it started to dawn on me this was serious. At 9.30pm, a doctor put his hand on my knee and said `I’m sorry to tell you there is a shadow on the lung’. His hand on my knee emphasised the severity of the situation.”

But, 18 months before the fall from the ladder which led to his lung cancer diagnosis, Mark had coughed up blood.

“I had sat up in bed one morning at the weekend and started having a coughing fit. I cupped my hand over my mouth and there was blood. Quite a bit of it.  I didn’t think too much of it though. It didn’t happen again so I forgot about it.”

Mark has been a smoker all his life, around 20 cigarettes a day, from the age of about 14. He gave up smoking and went on a vape seven years ago. But he has always considered himself healthy – he enjoys mountain biking and going on long walks.

“Apart from the smoking, I am quite active and not overweight. As a carpenter, I am always on my feet and I can run rings around colleagues who are half my age.”

Even when he fell from the ladder and coughed up blood for the second time, he refused to think it was anything serious.

“I thought maybe I had bitten the inside of my cheek. A colleague was on the call to 999 at the time and told them ` he is coughing up blood’. I thought he was over-reacting, but I realise later he did me a favour.”

By the time Mark had his operation on September 11 at St George’s Hospital Tooting, he was told the tumour had doubled in size, growing from 40mm in July to 80mm just before the surgery.

“I feel blessed that the cancer was isolated and they didn’t have to remove the whole lung,” he says.

He began a course of chemotherapy at St Luke’s Cancer Centre in Guildford on December 11 which finished in mid-February this year.

“I was told that they had put the fire out with the surgery and the chemotherapy was just getting rid of the embers. I like it when people talk like that, it is easy to understand. I am quite humbled by the service I have been given. Everyone has been so good, everyone has been spot on – they couldn’t do any more.”un

Mark says he also feels lucky that he was able to have his operation before the second COVID-19 lockdown took hold in November 2020. During his chemotherapy he was shielding but says he is now looking forward to getting back to work and going on long walks.

“Although I feel lucky, I know things could have turned out so differently,“ he adds. “I would say to anyone ‘go and get yourself checked out if you cough up blood’.  I wish I had.”