Tumour Humour

Ok, so "comedy" and "cancer" are unlikely bedfellows and trust me, sometimes funny seems a very long way off. Mostly though, to the disdain of some people, my horribly dark sense of humour has got me through the past five years (almost) since diagnosis.

Let me set the picture, I was in my second year of a psychology degree, I got diagnosed in the January a week before exams. The next term I was going to be studying health/anatomy of psychology. So, I'd be looking at brains and what they do. My comment when telling my tutor about my illness was how handy it would be that I'd be talking with neurosurgeons and seeing my own brain scans...for a moment she looked completely aghast but then she started to laugh. That broke the ice and I've been like that ever since.

When I met my surgeon for the first time I had to sign those annoyingly long consent forms and he asked, rightly, if I fully understood the risks and what he'd be doing. I reassured him that I understood perfectly and had watched some YouTube videos of the exact procedure.


Alright, sometimes things are very unfunny, sometimes - usually behind closed doors, I have a good old cry about things. But mostly I try and let my sense of humour keep me buoyant.

Next week is going to be a very tough one but I'll bear in mind what I said to someone just before Christmas. We'd been looking in various charity shops at books and things and we happened to go into a Cancer Research shop. I remarked to the friend I was with "i wonder if i'd get a discount in here" a totally off the cuff comment which they laughed at. A woman turned round, probably about to say something about inappropriateness but she took one look at me then smiled then laughed.


Really, if I'm not allowed to crack stupid jokes about my situation then I'd seriously lose the plot.