Received my copy of Local Life this week, it’s a local
booklet for community news in the towns and villages around Ormskirk,
Lancashire. Buried on p19 was a piece about a health initiative called “Stay
healthy for the ones you love”. It offers a free health check with your local
doctor for all men and women aged 40-71 years who have no existing medical
conditions. I really welcome this project, Tom went to see his doctor about a
dodgy knee and thanks to his doctor urging him to have an overall check up we
learned of his Prostate Cancer just in time. It wasn’t until after a series of
tests we were told the cancer was still contained within the prostate gland and
prospects for his future health were good.
That inital news was pretty overwhelming for Tom but he
wasn’t the only one, the whole family was devestated. The impact for us was mainly
emotional because our finances didn’t entirely depend on Tom’s income. We’d
certainly miss it but we weren’t going to starve or be thrown out of our house.
For people diagnosed with a serious illness who have dependents and who are
providing a significant part of the household income, these are the practical
nightmares to add to the emotional ones.
For yourself but also for your loved ones please do
consider getting checked whether you have symptoms or not. There are many diseases
which don’t surface until they have already done significant damage. Good luck.
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