One Lump or Two? - Softcover

Walker, George

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1900456079 ISBN 13: 9781900456074

Publisher: North East Promenaders Against Cancer (NEPAC), 2001

About this title

From the Author

The date is Tuesday 19th May 1998, nothing very spectacular about it except that the weather is glorious and I have just made an important decision after Rosalynde recounted a phone call she had with Professor Steve Proctor while I was in Newcastle. Strangely enough the seed for this decision was sown last Saturday when I called at a pretty, little garden centre called 'Jan's Plants' at the small Northumberland village of Etal in North Northumberland. Jan's husband Jimmy has grown Kelso onions for years and he always keeps me a couple of boxes for our cottage garden at Kypie Farm and our other garden at Westerhope near Newcastle. After our usual friendly greetings and the question I have been asked more times than any other - 'How are you George?'. A question always asked with slight trepidation, which I readily sense but it is rewarding though to see the genuine sigh of relief when I say 'I'm fine, thanks.' Anyway, Eddie then said, 'I'm reading your book, 'Cancer is Only a Word' for the second time. I don't read all that much and usually it's just books for necessity like garden catalogues but yours is different. You have everything in your story - there's happy and sad bits; there's bits that make you laugh and bit's that make you cry; there's bits that depress you and bits that lift you up. Why don't you write another one?' I've been asked that on more than one occasion but I've always put it straight to the back of my mind partly because the amount of work involved but mainly because I haven't felt the urge or the need to do so. I also like books with happy endings and I couldn't be sure whether a sequel would have a happy ending. At this very moment and for the first time I feel both are possible. The story I am about to unfold more or less begins where the other left off. It will be written with the verbal warning that all the ingredients mentioned by Eddie will appear again, but the strongest of them all will be that of hope sprinkled with humour as events lead up to the telephone call from Steve Proctor to Rosalynde. By the time the story nears completion the outcome of that phone call should also be revealed. For people who did not have the opportunity to read my first book, 'Cancer is Only a Word', which was published in 1994 and sold out elatively quickly for a book written by an unknown and totally inexperienced 'author' it will help you to move on to the first chapter of this book if I gave a brief synopsis. 'Cancer is Only a Word' began as a diary of events, which overtook me around Easter 1988 when I found a large lump in my abdomen. This was eventually found to be non-Hodgkin's disease, a form of lymphoma which is a blood related cancer. Initially the disease was diagnosed as cancer of the pancreas and I was literally told I only had about 12 weeks to live. After a traumatic week of recovering from the biopsy and waiting for the final results, I was told it was lymphoma - I had been given a reprieve! The 'diary' was a form of therapy suggested to me by Rosalynde, my wonderful supportive wife, who has borne the burden of my illness with me for nearly 14 years, and it slowly turned into a book as one amazing thing after another took place during several recurrences of the disease. The title may sound arrogant but it was not meant to be; it was taken from a poem written by a teenager with cancer and I was very moved by her attempts to give the same inspirational message as do the following chapters. She is another success story, is now married with a family so for her cancer really was only a word.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Chapter I - The First Book
'Cancer is Only a Word' was launched at the 5th North East 'Last Night of the Proms' in October 1994. Five years after starting to write it two thousand copies were printed and if it hadn’t been for the generosity of Anne Flowers and the Newcastle Centre Library, who not only helped me with the publishing but very kindly allocated me storage space for the small mountain of boxes which arrived from the printers, Rosalynde and I would not have been able to move for books at our already overcrowded home (I’m a great collector of Victoriana much to Rosalynde’s controlled annoyance).

Happily we sold over 300 copies at the concert which just left a mere 1700 to distribute and a few days later I launched myself into yet another career - book salesman and distributor extraordinaire.

My first real attempt actually took place in Penrith after the concert. We were on route to Borrowdale for a walking weekend - an idyllic escape from the hectic, energy sapping, build up to the concert. We stayed at High Lodore Farm, a place I’m loathe to mention because it’s so good and I’m afraid all future readers will go flocking there. So Phyllis and Martin, prepare yourselves for the onslaught.

Armed with my brief case and a note pad serving as an order book, I walked into the first book shop we came across. It was actually one of those shops like John Menzies and WH Smith which sold a multitude of things as well as books. Not having a clue on how to begin I asked the assistant if I could speak to the Manager who appeared and listened to my somewhat hesitant sales spiel. She wasn’t impressed but out of sympathy, rather than boosting her company’s sales figures, offered to take one copy at 30% trade discount saying that if that sold she might consider taking another one or perhaps even two if I could drop them into the shop.

As I had already naively told her all the proceeds were for cancer research and patient care, I was taken aback at the amount of discount she was wanting and a round trip of about 150 miles to deliver additional copies would drain away any further income and my patience. I then tried to persuade her to review her order and discount but to no avail. So I beat a retreat without releasing a single copy. The weekend wasn’t a sales disaster though because I met a couple of old friends from my school days in an antique shop in Penrith where I backed them into a corner and released them for a fee of ten pounds in return for which they received a signed copy. Phyllis and Martin bought a copy during our stay at their farm. Another of their residents brought the total to three before we finally departed full of good food and wine and feeling splendidly re-vigorated by the peace and beauty of the English Lake District.

Slowly but surely my sales and distribution experience improved and eventually, after many miles of driving around an area which stretched from North Shields to Hexham and Newcastle to Edinburgh, I managed to unload about a thousand books in shops ranging from the 'real' book shops like Waterstone’s and Dillon’s to multi-purpose shops like WH Smith, newsagents and even garden centres where they experimented in garden gravel, sand and cement, tea rooms, children’s play areas and the occasional plant thrown in.

My two 'favourite' hospitals, the RVI and the Newcastle General sold a lot for me and I sent a hundred copies to the Bristol Cancer Centre as a gift for their kindness to me in 1988 when my world was in darkness.

Perhaps my proudest moment, when I actually felt I had written a book and had earned the title of 'author' was when the Waterstone’s branch at Newcastle asked me to do a book signing evening which I promptly accepted. The evening was advertised by Waterstone’s and about 40 people turned up. Wine was served, I gave a talk about the book and my experiences and signed quite a few copies that night. Most of the people who turned up were, of course, friends and colleagues but it was another one of those memorable experiences that only happened because of cancer.

Four years on cancer has continued to leap in and out of my life with that strange mixture of unforgettable, happy and exhilarating oases of pleasure interspersed liberally with fear and depression.

The book itself has sold out but orders are still coming in and most of them from areas of the British Isles outside the north east. I have even had orders from Canada, America, Australia, Norway, Spain and, would you believe, Tokyo.

I’ve received many complimentary letters, some of them very moving. All of them express the fact that the book helped them in whatever situation they found themselves with cancer, whether as a sufferer or a carer; making it all very worthwhile for me.

What else came out of it from a number of the letters was the comment that although they had got to know me well as a person it was only really from around my 50th year onwards and they would have liked to have known more about me in my earlier years. The next chapter will hopefully make up for that I’ve kept the sex, crime and violence down to a minimum!

Edition details

• Publisher: North East Promenaders Against Cancer (NEPAC)
• Publication date: 2001
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1900456079
• ISBN 13: 9781900456074
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 204