A Brutally Honest Story About Life As A Cancer Patient
It started with a pain in the neck
It’s never good news when you get a call from your doctor while you’re driving and he tells you to pull over.
That was what happened to Welsh comedian Rhod Gilbert who was on his way to perform at a comedy gig, as revealed by his Channel 4 Stand Up To Cancer documentary, A Pain in the Neck.
Gilbert was on a charity fund-raising trek in Cuba for Cardiff’s Velindre Cancer Centre when he noticed a lump in his neck. A few weeks after going to the doctor about it, Gilbert got the call from his GP with his biopsy results: it was cancer.
Gilbert’s neck and throat cancer was caused by HPV (human papillomavirus), a virus that affects our skin, mouth, and genitals. Most of us become clear of HPV within two years of having come across it. There is a HPV vaccine that is given to children aged 12 to 13 years old.
In a small number of people, HPV persists and in a small number of those people, it can cause cancer -cervical cancer in women, and neck and throat cancer in men.
In his opening gambit, Gilbert says:
When I got cancer, to be honest, I was terrified. So I wanted to do something to take my mind off it, make the whole thing feel less scary, and maybe help other people, too. So I decided to film it all. I really hope that my story gives you a little hope.
Rhod lives between Wales and London with his wife Sian and dog Rosie. He reveals Sian opted to not appear on camera in the documentary because like him, “she’s s***-scared of what lies ahead”. I imagine it would also be too much for her to look after him and be on camera as well.
A Pain in the Neck is a gruelling and emotional watch, documenting 18 months from Gilbert’s diagnosis to him getting the all-clear — a moment Sian describes as the couple being given a second chance in life.
At the start of his first treatment, Gilbert describes chemotherapy as a surreal experience, like his arm is freezing and like something out of Terminator while he sits next to a machine emitting sounds like a printer.
I learned about the brutal side effects of chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatment for head and neck cancer. Gilbert reveals:
- His whole mouth and throat erupted with ulcers, making swallowing very difficult.
- He had his teeth taken out because doctors feared they might not withstand the side effects of chemotherapy.
- He found it impossible to keep food down due to nausea. Even the smell of his dog Rosie turned his stomach. At one point, he couldn’t eat for four days and ended up in hospital so he could be fed through a tube.
- He lost two stone during his treatment.
Despite his ordeal, Gilbert is still able to use humour to make light of his condition. At Gilbert’s first chemo session, the male nurse warns him about side effects, saying if he’s sexually active he must use protection at which Gilbert guffaws, “the last thing I’m thinking of is going home for a shag!”
Gilbert worries about his vocal cords, acknowledging his cancer treatment could save his life but kill his career as a stand-up comedian.
I read an interview in which Gilbert revealed he had a group of friends who created a rota system to take him to and from the hospital. When a friend texted to remind him, ‘One day at a time,’ he thought, ‘Are you joking? It’s more like an hour at a time. Or ten minutes.’”
When Gilbert rings the bell at the hospital to signal the end of his treatment, tears are pouring down my cheeks. It is a triumphant moment and his relief and gratitude are palpable.
At the end of the documentary, Gilbert hosts a star-studded comedy night to raise funds for Cardiff’s Velindre Cancer Centre, the “Hospital of Hope” where he’d been a patron before becoming a patient.
It is a wonderful punch-the-air ending to a gruelling 18-month journey on which we saw another side to what Rhod Gilbert calls his “Mr Shouty Showbiz” persona.
He was vulnerable, brave, and honest. When someone wants to open up to the worst time of their lives and use it to help other people, that’s special.
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