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Mik Scarlett thought he was going to die after his spine collapsed, aged 15 |
‘I thought everyone could beat cancer’
Musician struck down by childhood cancer reveals how he has fought back from the brink
AT 43 years old Mik Scarlett represents a scientific anomaly.
At eight weeks old he was diagnosed with one of the most lethal forms of childhood cancer, adrenal neuroblastoma, which affects the glands above the kidneys.
He was given days to live.
Fearing the worst, Mik’s parents agreed to let their son be subject to a previously untested treatment at Great Ormond Street Hospital.
An operation to remove the tumour, followed by two radiotherapy sessions, high dosages of vitamin B12 and five years of chemotherapy using an agent derived from a now extinct rainforest plant saved his life.
“I was the first person in the world to be cured of this type of cancer, but I didn’t know that until recently,” said Mik, a musician and previously a broadcaster, who lives with his wife, Diane, in Ferdinand Street, Chalk Farm.
“I was brought up thinking everyone was cured of the disease.
“If I had thought I was lucky and could have died I would have grown up worrying I might die.”
Mik became a high-scoring student at his local mainstream school in Luton and interested a number of employers ready to offer him prestigious jobs.
Then one day, en route to his German O-level exam, his spine collapsed.
“I’d had a sudden growth spurt, going from 5ft to just under 6ft in eight months, making the bones very weak,” explained Mik.
“When I came out of hospital in the chair my life had completely changed. I lost the job offers and my friends and I thought I was going to die.
“I sat my parents down. I’d done all the things they wanted me to do until then.
“And now I wanted to live my life.
“I dropped out like a ton of lead, dyed my hair every colour under the sun and went to college only to drink and meet girls.”
Discovering he could play the piano by ear, the Gary Numan and Depeche Mode fan went on to teach himself the art of music production using synthesisers and early music-making computer software.
Although his band, Freak UK, which formed in 1989 and split up in 1996, made more money from T-shirt sales and were better known for their after-show parties, Mik managed to make ends meet playing solo at a club in Luton where he was spotted by a television producer.
Stints on Channel 4 and the BBC as a “sexpert”, children’s TV presenter and general news reporter as well as Emmy and Bafta nominations followed.
In 1999 he was hit by an articulated lorry in Marble Arch, splitting his spinal cord. But his only remaining injury from that accident is a torn tendon in his right shoulder thanks to a pioneering experimental operation by surgeon Dr Ben Taylor at the Royal National Orthopaedic Hospital, who fused titanium rods to Mik’s spine using bone from his right hip.
As if by miracle he has regained some sensation in his legs and feet.
“The nerves were not severed, they were just damaged and trapped in the scar tissue,” said Mik.
“Medicine is so much more experimental than the doctors would like you to think.”
After four years of agony and hundreds of boxes of codeine the pain in back has eased up.
But despite Mik’s incredible luck, learning to walk again is not an ambition of his.
He said: “There is an attitude that science will cure all disabled people one day so the world needn’t be made accessible for them and I don’t think that’s right.”
He added: “At 43 it’s not ideal to reinvent yourself from the waste up.
“I’d never be able to walk properly and I can’t imagine being able-bodied. I know where I am with my chair.” |
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