Scots dad thought 'life was over' after 'flushed red face' was sign of rare cancer
12.07.2023 - 14:29
/ dailyrecord.co.uk
A Scots dad’s world was turned upside down after his ‘flushed red face’ turned out to be a sign of a rare terminal cancer. Craig Speirs first went to his GP in 2008 after he began experiencing the strange symptom alongside heart palpitations and going to the toilet 10-15 times a day.
The former security company manager told how doctors were puzzled as to the cause before eventually receiving his diagnosis five years later in 2013. The 42-year-old, from Elderslie, said he thought “life was over” when medics told him he had Neuroendocrine cancer, which can start in different parts of the body.
His disease started in his rectum and he now has ‘hundreds of tumours’ on his liver too after being given just five years to live. The devastating diagnosis shocked his loved-ones including wife Angela, son Adam, seven, and daughter Rhianne, 14.
He told Glasgow Live: "I thought my life was over when I got told I had cancer. It was quite shocking for my family too, they probably thought they were going to lose me.
"I worked for nine months and then it became really difficult with all the treatments and I wasn't able to do the job how I wanted to do it. It was making the treatments even harder so I just took a step back to spend time with my kids.
"A cancer diagnosis will prioritise your life in a way that nothing else ever will. You will look at things in your life and think that things which weren't a priority before become a priority.
"My priority in life isn't how far I can go in my career, I have different aspirations in life."
Each year in the UK, around 6,000 people are diagnosed with a Neuroendocrine cancer. Although he was told he didn't have long to live, Craig, now 42, is still alive and has learnt to live with the terminal