IT was on a skiing holiday in Austria in February 2018 that dad-of-two Nick Turner became worried that something ‘wasn’t right’ with his insides.
Exactly one year later, 60-year-old Mr Turner was back on a snow-capped mountain – this time in the French Alps, following successful surgery for bowel cancer.
“It is an understatement to say it had been quite a year,” said Mr Turner, who lives in Drakes Broughton, near Pershore, with wife Jackie and two daughters Fran and Heather.
He is now supporting Bowel Cancer Awareness Month, which runs throughout April, and is delighted that the government has in the past year lowered the age of people being offered screening for the disease from 60 down to 50 years.
“From being healthy, fit and active I suddenly found myself undergoing surgery to remove a cancerous tumour from my lower colon, dealing with having an ileostomy stoma and having to cope with a five month, often uncomfortable recovery process.
“But, back at the top of the mountain and ‘cancer clear’ I was so thankful that I had acted quickly in seeking medical advice. It really did make a massive difference to both my treatment and its results,” Mr Turner said.
Mr Turner’s bowel cancer was removed through keyhole surgery from which he made a remarkable recovery. Although recovery had, in Mr Turner's words ‘its low moments’, things went well. Just weeks after his second operation Mr Turner was able to attend his daughter Fran’s graduation at Aberystwyth University and the weekend later, camp out at the Upton Blues Festival.
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