A grateful patient has donated a mountain bike and accessories to our Oncology and Haematology department to show his appreciation for the staff who have cared for him during his ongoing treatment for prostate cancer.

The patient, who wishes to remain anonymous, provided the bike to help raise money for the department for helping him “to wake up with hope and look forward to my day, rain or shine”.

The department is now raffling off the bike and a host of other prizes.

Pauline Staley and Lucie Summerfield, joint team leaders in Enhanced Supportive Care, one of the teams that cared for the patient, said: “We are very appreciative of this generous donation, which is testament to the work of the team in supporting patients during their treatment.

“Most people won’t know about the work we do until they need us. We provide specialist nursing support to patients and their families and carers at the point of diagnosis of non-curative cancer.

“This means people access the care they need earlier, which in turn can help them live well for longer.”

The patient has also written a letter to give hope to other cancer patients. You can read the letter below:

I had a pain in my lower back and groin. I thought it was kidney stones and it got to the stage where I could not walk, even with pain relief.

I had a blood test and my GP phoned me the next day. I was told I had prostate cancer. My body just went numb. I could not accept it.

I stopped eating properly, stopped listening to music and watching TV, and began to close myself off from my family and friends.

I was at rock bottom and still in pain. I was like this for a month and was in tears most of the day and confused. The only time I was at peace was when I slept until I woke up.

Then one day I sat on the end of my bed and looked in the mirror. I looked very ill. I said to myself, “Get a grip on this, because it’s not going to help me fight this cancer if I carry on like this”.

My family was always there for me and friends. I had an MRI scan then sometime after a consultant phoned me. He said I had advanced prostate cancer which had spread to multiple areas of my bones and he also said I’d got a very hard, long journey ahead of me. I had tears in my eyes but the fact he said “a long journey” was a positive to me.

He put me on a one-month course of tablets, then I had a biopsy in the Urology department – thank you to them. I was given an injection and the pain slowly started to ease over a month or two. Then began the fight, with help from the brilliant Oncology team at Queen’s Hospital.

I won’t ever forget my first appointment. Me and my wife met Lucie Summerfield, a brilliant special care nurse. Lucie talked us through everything. From being a nervous wreck at the start of the conversation, Lucie made me feel really good and I thought “finally, there is hope”.

After the talk with Lucie, I saw Saad Tahir, a consultant oncologist. What a good man he is, and I trust him so a big thanks to Saad and Lucie. He started me on my first treatment plan.

When I left Oncology, I felt on top of the world. I was on the treatment for about two weeks but had side effects from it and was told to stop. When I felt better, I was able to restart the treatment. Jo from Acute Oncology Service was keeping an eye on me all the time so a big thanks to Jo. Then I was told to stop treatment. Lucie and Aura were there for me all the time, no matter what. They are just fantastic specialists and they made me feel like the only patient, which is amazing.

The treatment has been unbelievable and is holding the cancer back in my bones. They say I’m very young to have this sort of cancer.

I’ve had to make a lot of lifestyle changes due to the cancer and treatments. They can’t cure it but it can be treated.  Instead of waking up in the morning with a tear in my eyes I wake up with hope and look forward to my day, rain, or shine. All thanks to Saad, Lucie, Aura, Pauline, Jo, Nikki, Karen, Stephanie, and all the other staff and consultants in Oncology.

That’s why I donated my Carra mountain bike and bike accessories to raise as much money as possible for Oncology to help other cancer patients.

I can only say a massive ‘thank you’ to the staff in Oncology. My fight still goes on and I’m not giving up because Oncology are not giving up on me. God bless you.

Remember, you will get there and don’t give up hope.