So if my memory is correct it is now 5 years to the day that I had routine surgery for suspected appendicitis, which turned out to be cancer in my appendix, at the time they didn't say it was cancer just suspected, about 3 weeks later they confirmed it as cancer and told me I had colon cancer, so the sweet part of this is that it's 5 years later and my colon is clear of cancer.

The bitter part is that by the time of the surgery my appendix had burst and the cancer got into my abdominal cavity and but couldn't be seen there at the time as my appendix had probably only burst a with the previous few days and so there were no discernible tumours.

I had 6 months of chemo, and during one of my 6 monthly reviews a junior oncologist said they didn't expect the cancer to come back. What they didn't tell me, but wrote in my notes was they suspected PMP, this is a rare form of cancer that starts in the appendix and unless caught early spreads to the abdominal cavity. So mid July 2009 I'm told they have seen something on the CT scan, sure enough I have PMP,

I get surgery in at a specialist centre at the start of 2010 (search for MOAS cancer) to get an idea of what surgery I had. 18 months later I am told that they see something on the CT scan, this time it's in a place where they can't operate without risk of killing me during the surgery, on the plus side it was probably there when they did the surgery in 2010 and so is very slow growing.

Right now I am skiing at Sunday River for the season at teaching skiing to people with disabilities and basically getting on with my life rather than letting cancer run my life.

I would be lying if I didn't say that I haven't played the what if game, like report a strange symptom 6 months earlier, what if they had operated a day earlier, but most of the time I go and ski :-) for as long as I can I am not going to let this cancer affect my life.