My GCC was diagnosed after my appendix burst whilst on a business trip in the Netherlands. After my operation I was repatriated home to Scotland to continue my recovery.

4 weeks after my operation, the Dutch surgeon rang me and with some enthusiasm said, "....you've got cancer, and it's a really rare one!" He then began to explain it all to me, whereupon I stopped him, and arranged for my GP to 'phone him, and for them to chat about it. I rang the surgery, who told the GP, who rang the surgeon and they chatted about it, before my GP rang me back with some excitement to tell me I'd got a "really unusual cancer that most Dr's don't get the chance to see throughout their career!" He went on to tell me that he'd contact the appropriate team at the main Hospital, and we'd get going.

I wasn't getting a warm and fuzzy feeling with knowing that I was a member of a quite exclusive club, but heyho!

From that point it was a little bit of being on a conveyor belt, with 'things' generally happening at fortnightly intervals: an initial consultation, CT scan, colonoscopy and then a 'make your mind up, decision meeting' before the operation, a 'Right Hemicolectomy' and the lymph nodes removed as well from that area.

From the moment that the GP told me the general plan, I realised how fortunate I was with my general nature, as I'd thought of all of this as not being 'my' problem, because everything possible to deal with it was being done by the experts on it, nothing further could be done, so why worry about it when it's their problem to fix it?

The only thing that altered in my day to day life was that I put a little bit of effort into getting as fit as possible, and improving my general stamina, with the thought that the only thing that I could do to help the medical folks, was to be the healthiest specimen that I could be, for them to operate on.

Neither the CT scan or colonoscopy showed any sign of the GCC, and the consent meeting was a formality for me, as of course I was going to get this potential trouble area removed, rather than wait around for the cancer to possibly return and to be actually ill when it needed to be dealt with; a no brainer.

The operation went well, I did have a slight hiccup getting my bowels & bladder to work properly afterwards, thus I was an inpatient for a couple of weeks, before it all came good again, and I began to recover to full fitness over about 4-6 weeks.

I'm unable to drink alcohol in the way that I had previously; spirits are a no-no, as is red wine, but not white, and beers aren't an every day thing either, so for the 1st time in my life, I'm drinking within govt guidelines, which is an unexpected bonus. Spicy foods aren't so good either, but that doesn't exclude flavoursome foods, just that more care has to be taken with the diet; not a bad thing perhaps?

I've been exceedingly lucky in several ways, of course in that it appears to not have spread, and that it was spotted in the initial pathology from my appendicitus. I was lucky that my attitude to it went the right way, it's not a choice that one has, it's just how one's wired up I believe, in a "glass half full/half empty" kind of way.

Perhaps another way of fortune being on my side, ignoring the fantastic work done by the medical and surgical teams, is that the GCC is so rare and unusual, perhaps greater efforts are (sub-consciously) made as it'll look good on the CV, or is that too cynical?

What ever, I thank my lucky stars for the teams that do what they do, 'coz they did save my life, and that they do that to different people every day.