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Marie Lanen
Head of parenting section (baby, pregnancy, family)
Suffering from neuroendocrine cancer, a Scottish father, Craig Speirs, was “doomed” according to his doctors. For 10 years, he has lived with a hundred liver tumours, thus thwarting all predictions.
It is in the columns of the Scottish media Glasgowlive that Craig Speirs testifies to his “new life” for 10 years now. At 32, the father of the family complains of numerous hot flashes and very frequent visits to the toilet (up to 15 times a day). At the time, he informed his doctor that he was also experiencing heart palpitations. It will take 5 years for a diagnosis to be made: he suffers from neuroendocrine cancer. The doctors give him only a short time to live, and yet…
Hundreds of liver tumors detected
According to the Institut Gustave Roussy website: “Neuroendocrine neoplasms constitute a set of tumours, likely to arise anywhere in the body and characterized by their ability to secrete hormones in approximately 30% of cases. The most frequent sites of these tumors are the lung and the digestive tract, but they can also develop in organs such as the pancreas, the ENT region or the thymus.” Thus, at Craig Speirs, the cancer would have started in the rectum before spreading, going so far as to generate hundreds of liver tumors. The less optimistic doctors set up a treatment for the father of the family. Over the past 10 years, Craig Speirs has had eight liver surgeries, two heart surgeries and several treatments – including chemotherapy – to increase his chances of survival.
He becomes an ambassador for Neuroendocrine Cancer UK
If the father of the family is still condemned, he has reviewed all his priorities. After 9 months of chemotherapy treatment, tired, he decided to stop working. He devotes himself to his family, his wife and two children. For several months he has also become an ambassador for Neuroendocrine Cancer UK (NCUK) in order to raise funds to help treat all patients. In fact, every year in the UK, around 6,000 people are diagnosed with neuroendocrine cancer. “My priority in life is not how far I can go in my career, I have different aspirations. I hope one day we will find a test that will speed up the process so that patients can be diagnosed more early” he testified to Glasgowlive.