Hi, well, I received an invitation to 'introduce myself'. So here goes.

I'm well into my 78th year, married, 3 great children and 7 grandchildren. I was born in a village which was the first place to "cast the first iron cannon" and lived the first 36 years within about 6 miles of the sea in East Sussex. There followed six years with West Midlands County Council, three with Warwickshire County Council, ten with RoSPA and the last nine within various parts of the NHS. I've had various health issues over my life to date, but only in the past 12 months have I had any serious reason to think that I may have contracted cancer. My bowel habit changed suddenly and significantly and I lost more than a stone and a half unintentionally. Partway through the last year I noticed a pain between my ribs and pelvis on the left hand side. During August this year the pain that had been on the left has moved to the right hand side and become more acute. I'm awaiting the results of a flow test and a CT scan.