Living with mesothelioma is a challenge in many ways – from processing the poor prognosis, to the uncomfortable symptoms, to the stress of financial decisions to make sure loved ones have security in the future.
Despite receiving a diagnosis of mesothelioma, inspirational father-of-six Mick May has defied the odds by surviving the cancer for more than seven years. Not only that, he’s spent his time penning and releasing his memoir, Cancer and Pisces. The book charts his years of survival, his love of fishing, his family life and the successful conclusion of one of the most complex cases his London legal team had ever brought.
Mick was diagnosed at the age of 54, in May 2013. Conventional wisdom gave him a bleak prognosis with only months to live and no prospect of treatment. After he was diagnosed, he instructed our specialist solicitors to investigate where he was exposed to asbestos.
When he was 22, he worked as a city banker at Kleinwort Benson, and it was discovered that his exposure took place during renovation of the bank office. We secured him a settlement in 2016 that allowed him to continue life-prolonging treatment.
Mick’s treatment
Mick was the first mesothelioma patient worldwide to receive the drug Vismodegib to treat his condition. This drug is typically used to treat skin cancers, where the PTCH1 “hedgehog” gene responsible for preventing uncontrollable cell proliferation (named for the spiky embryos produced by fruit flies engineered to lack this gene) have become mutated. When it was found that Mick’s tumour concerned a mutation to his PTCH1 gene, there was an opportunity for him to become a one-man trial to discover if it would work on his asbestos-related cancer, too. It worked - his tumours reducing in size by over a third after two months of the treatment.
Mick’s main aim was to reach his 60th birthday. He’d need to defy the odds to do it, but the dream came true with a special party of over 160 people on 29 June 2018, organised by his wife Jill. His book was released on 10 August 2020, after being persuaded to put pen to paper by friend and former cabinet minister, Jonathan Aitken.
Cancer and Pisces is available from Amazon and other literary outlets with all royalties from the book sales going to Cancer Research UK.
Mick’s appearance on our podcast
In the latest edition of our podcast, our legal specialists Joanne Jefferies and Ian Bailey were joined by Mick May, and Liz Darlison from Meso UK. They met virtually to discuss the importance of raising awareness of such a dangerous cancer, the story behind Mick's foray into becoming an author, and the work that Meso UK does to help people on a daily basis.
During the podcast when asked about his experience of the diagnosis, Mick said: “I was very lucky, and I know it. I’m very grateful. Immediately a number of treatment options opened up to me, which I could see were probably going to give me a greater life expectancy rather than the devastating statistics you see on the internet.”
He continued, “After receiving treatment over a course of six months, I suddenly realised that I might have a couple of years of normal life ahead of me. I got to calm down and start genuinely enjoying life.” He reasoned that his luck was in part to catching the disease in an early stage and his location geographically enabling him to get access to cutting-edge treatment and an excellent support team of specialists.
Liz is both a specialist mesothelioma nurse at the Hospital of Leicester, and Head of Services at the charity, providing specialist support services for anyone affected by mesothelioma.
You can listen to the discussion on this podcast now on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Podbean or Overcast.
More about Mesothelioma UK
Mesothelioma UK supports patients from the outset of their diagnosis, by ensuring they have the best possible access to NHS treatment irrespective of where they live. Their specialist nurses are strategically distributed around the country to ensure that no matter how rural a patient might be, they have the same opportunity for treatment as someone who lives close to a specialist cancer unit. These nurses also have a responsibility to raise the awareness of mesothelioma, provide education to healthcare clinicians in their area, and encouraging the creation of support groups for people affected.
The charity also helps promote equal access to clinical trials that are on the forefront of new treatments and therapies that can offer much needed hope to patients when the tried and tested methods have all been used.
The work the charity does is invaluable. Spreading awareness of what’s actually not a well-known disease is one of the key drivers to increasing the chances of diagnoses being reached earlier and gaining more funding for research, both of which subsequently extend the lifespans of people with the disease, to the benefit of them and their loved ones.
We’ve worked the charity closely since its inception in 2004 and know how much our clients benefit from their incredible knowledge and amazing levels of support they offer.
We believe it’s important to recognise the role that charities play in our communities because we’re all likely to make use of a charity’s service at some point in our lives. Charities have struggled through COVID-19 as people have had a tighter grip on the purse strings with the ever-present threat of a recession lingering in the air, which is why we must do all we can to show our support.
To read more about the charity, go to the Mesothelioma UK website.
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