Award-winning Cumbrian crime writer Mike Craven was just 35 when he was told he was dying from cancer.
A stomach ache had quickly developed into something more serious and Mike was diagnosed with Burkitt lymphoma, a cancer of the lymphatic system.
A 12-hour operation to remove a rugby ball-sized tumour was followed by chemotherapy, but Mike was told the treatment wasn’t working. His family even began to plan his funeral.
But in a plot twist that could have come straight from one of his best-selling novels – and later did – the cancer was found not to have spread, treatment continued and Mike went on to make a good recovery.
Mike, 54, who writes as MW Craven and is the winner of two prestigious Crime Writers’ Association Dagger awards, said the brush with death changed him and contributed to his successful career as an author.
Now Mike, who lives in Carlisle with his wife, Joanne, is backing a Cancer Research UK campaign to give hope to future generations and to help more people like him survive.
Cancer Research UK is boosting cure rates for Burkitt lymphoma. Thanks to the charity’s researchers, patients can now get the treatment that’s best for them, after the largest ever trial of intensive chemotherapy for Burkitt lymphoma. The trial has shown that intensive therapy can achieve high cure rates in this disease.
That’s why Mike is urging people to give regularly to Cancer Research UK to help fund long-term research projects that could drive new breakthroughs.
Life-saving cancer treatments are made by months and months of trialling, testing and learning. But monthly progress in research needs monthly donations.
Mike is best known for the Cumbrian-set Washington Poe series of novels, which have appeared in The Sunday Times top 10 bestsellers list. Poe lives in a remote shepherd’s croft in Shap and the books are full of Cumbrian locations, from the county’s ancient stone circles to Carlisle.
Mike’s new American-set series, which is due to launch next year with the first title, Fearless, has sparked interest from movie makers in Hollywood.
Despite the cancer diagnosis taking place nearly 20 years ago, Mike said the experience has never left him. He grew up in Newcastle and served in the Army for 11 years before going to university and moving to Cumbria. He was a newly promoted senior probation officer living in Cockermouth when he first became ill.
“I started to have stomach ache on a Monday and I was admitted to hospital on the Friday – it was that quick,” he said. “I was treating it with Pepto Bismol – I thought it was a stomach problem and it would go away.
“I was lying on an examination bed, waiting for the doctor to come in. At that point, I noticed for the first time that the right-hand side of my abdomen was rock hard. That was the first time I thought, this is probably something quite serious.
“The doctor was saying we need to admit you tonight. I sort of knew it was cancer from that moment. I thought I’ve got a tumour. My father died of cancer quite young and I had it in the back of my mind.”
After tests confirmed Mike had a mass in his stomach, he underwent a biopsy that developed into a 12-hour operation at Carlisle to remove a large tumour.
“They opened me up and took out as much as they could,” he said. “It was about the size of a rugby ball.”
The cancer turned out to be fast-growing and within a week, a pea-sized section that the surgeons hadn’t been able to remove had grown to the size of a tennis ball.
Mike was transferred to Newcastle’s Royal Victoria Infirmary where he became an in-patient for almost six months. He was told he would need three rounds of chemotherapy but as treatment progressed, his future looked in doubt.
“After the first round they said it’s not worked so we’re going to explore your palliative options. They said there’s just some tests we need to do to confirm what we already know. We’ll take a sliver of bone out of the hip to confirm it’s now in your bone marrow.
“I only found this out very recently but my family had been told I was going to die and they had started to plan my funeral. Apparently, it was going to be on a Monday.”
But to the doctors’ surprise, the tests showed that the cancer hadn’t spread and Mike’s treatment continued. Mike said that recovering from cancer had changed him and given him the confidence to follow his ambition to write full-time. He made sure that the hero of his first novels, top Cumbrian police officer Avison Fluke, also had Burkitt lymphoma.
“I wanted to write about my experiences,” said Mike. “That’s why I gave Fluke the same illness as me, because I thought it would be quite an interesting plot.
“Recoveries like mine aren’t possible without the dedication of scientists who are relentlessly striving towards new discoveries and milestones month after month. This vital work needs our support.”
By sharing his story, Mike, whose books have been translated into 26 languages, hopes to inspire others to play a part in the fight against the disease.
Back when his dad died of cancer, Mike says people didn’t talk about the disease, but he believes it’s better to be open.
He said: “By making a monthly donation to Cancer Research UK, people across the North West could help give hope to many more people like me and invest in long term research that could save lives for generations to come. Until we have a pill that cures everybody, I say let’s keep on researching.”
Cancer Research UK spokesman for the North West, Jane Bullock, said: “One in two of us will get cancer in our lifetime, but all of us can help beat it. As we mark our 20th anniversary, we’re reflecting on how far we’ve come thanks to supporters like Mike. From proving the link between smoking and cancer to laying the foundations for modern radiotherapy, our scientists have been at the forefront of cancer research for 120 years. And we’re not stopping now.
“Monthly donations make a huge difference to advances such as this, because they allow us to plan for the future – and the more we can plan, the more projects we can fund to unlock more of cancer’s secrets. So we hope people will give regularly to the charity, if they can.
“We’re working towards a world where we can all live longer, better lives, free from the fear of cancer. Beating the disease is a long game, but it’s one that – together – we will win.”
Donate monthly to Cancer Research UK at cruk.org/donate
