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Passionate musician George Holt has continued to play the violin during his battle against cancer |
The plucky violinist fighting cancer
Brave musician tells of his painful journey and reveals how a new drug offers hope for future
IN 1999 George Holt was told he only had five years to live because a rare form of cancer was ravaging his body.
Eight years on and George, who is now 62, is still refusing to lie down. He was involved in the formation of the London-wide support group for myeloma patients, he battles through excruciating pain to carry on teaching violin classes and he labours in the kitchen to rustle up healthy recipes for his fellow sufferers.
“It’s very clichéd to say you think about death a lot and I tend to get on with it, but in my weaker moments it’s hard not to be morbid,” said George.
“The longer I survive, the closer I get to death. The hardest thing is stopping the disease claiming your identity, because it can take over your whole life and, before you know it, you and the disease are one and the same.”
Myeloma wears down the immune system by attacking plasma cells – the body’s defence system in the blood. It represents about 1 per cent of all cancers and is most prevalent in the elderly, although its incidence is rising in younger people. Myeloma is so insidious because there is no way of stopping its spread around the body.
It affects sufferers in different ways and George suffers acute back pain that often leaves him unable to leave his flat in Kentish Town.
He said: “That was how I was diagnosed with it. I had been to my GP with terrible back pain on a couple of occasions, but myeloma was the last thing they suspected because it is so rare.
“It all came to a head when I was rushed to A&E after collapsing because the pain had got so unbearable.
“They still didn’t know what was wrong with me when I was in hospital and then I saw this hand reach through the curtain above my head with the blood results that bore the bad news. It was so dramatic – like something out of Holby City.”
It took a while for the news to sink in, but a course of chemotherapy and a bone marrow transplant from his brother soon brought the gravity of the situation home.
“It was hard at first,” admitted George. “I wasn’t the same person. I had to give up my job as a music teacher because I could no longer sit on the floor with the children and the medication seriously messed with my head, making me anxious and panicky. It can make crowded rooms and going out difficult so I often just lie low in the flat.”
But the disease hasn’t felled him, and George is more than upbeat about the future, especially as he has just received funding from UCLH to trial the new superdrug Revlimid.
He said: “I hope that when the trial is evaluated in the medical journals it will help to convince primary care trusts of its value as a treatment.
“I am quite hopeful about the future. I can still play the violin every day, and am able to take some private lessons. In that way I’m lucky I guess. If cycling was my passion I would be stuffed.
“It’s my escapism. When I’m playing music nothing else matters. I also enjoy going into UCLH where the standard of care is phenomenal. All along, my GP, UCLH and the charity Myeloma UK have been incredibly supportive. And with the new drug, I don’t want to get carried away thinking it’s going to be the end of all my problems, but from what the doctors are saying, the hype is justified and it is something I am feeling very excited about.”
Although his family live in Lancashire, and though his experience with myeloma has been a deeply personal one, George is not alone.
He formed the Myeloma London Support Group in 2000. George said: “I guess I was just curious to meet other people who had myeloma.
“It gives me great strength, sharing my experiences. It is something that you can’t get from doctors and nurses.”
• www.myelomaonline.org.uk |
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