AN IRVINE cancer survivor is throwing his support behind a new drop-in service which helped him battle the disease.

Alex McCartney was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2014 and has spent the last two years fighting for his life.

The 38-year-old went to the doctor complaining of indigestion and it was the start of a rollercoaster journey that would end with him being treated for bowel cancer one year and getting married the next.

Alex had been taking tablets for indigestion for a long time when he started to notice he was feeling tired and getting out of breath more easily.

Initial tests found he was anaemic but following a trip to Mexico with his fiancée Allyson in April 2014, he had to be admitted to hospital for an overnight stay.

He said: “I was having problems eating. I was getting really unwell and looking really pale with no energy.

“Even walking up the stairs was taking it out of me.”

Following an endoscopy, Alex was discharged and was given laxatives for constipation but his health continued to deteriorate and he lost 30 kilos in weight.

Finally, in July 2014, Alex was admitted to University Hospital Crosshouse in Kilmarnock and diagnosed with bowel cancer after an X-ray picked up a blockage in his intestine.

However, his problems weren’t over. When the bowel failed to rejoin after surgery to remove a large section of the long intestine, he had to undergo a second operation to repair the gap.

Irvine Times:

He then suffered various infections and a blood clot in the lung.

After all this, Alex, who works as a desk engineer at Hunterston Power Station, then had to go through chemotherapy.

He said: “It was better than I was expecting compared to everything I had been through.

“I had the most minimal side effects I could possibly have got from chemo. None of the sickness, diarrhoea, lack of appetite, hair loss. It was a very easy ride and I got through it surprisingly easily.

“It was almost easy in comparison to what I had been through. It was a nice change.”

More than 80 per cent of bowel cancers are diagnosed in people over 60 and Alex believes this is why it took so long for his cancer to be diagnosed.

However, he also feels his age helped him recover from the surgery and chemotherapy more quickly.

His chemotherapy finished in June 2015 and a month later he got married.

As part of his surgery, Alex had been fitted with a colostomy bag and after the wedding he decided to undergo a reversal operation to rejoin the ends of his bowel.

“Every story I read was very negative but for me it was the best decision I could have made at the time,” he says.

“The final surgery has gone so much better than I could have hoped for. Now it’s just getting the body back into real life.”

Throughout his journey, Alex and Allyson were supported by Macmillan Cancer Support through the charity’s drop-in services at Boots in Irvine, where you can talk to trained volunteers about any aspect of living with a cancer diagnosis and get information about support services. 

Alex said: “The Macmillan people referred us to local counselling. It’s been more of a challenge for my wife than myself. I maintain I had it easy.

"All I had to do was lie there and do what the doctors told me to do. She had to deal with all the other things in her life as well.”