My brother

So, it's not been a great week in the Scott family world, as we had some pretty awful news with regard to my older brother, Richard.

Heather, his wife, got in touch last week to say that Rick had some pretty serious health worries, but that he wasn't ready to tell us as yet, as things weren't yet 100% clear. But to warn us that there was something up on a fairly major scale, news to us as Rick has always been in rude health, yes in more ways than one.

And then we heard that out of the blue, he's been diagnosed with something no-one would ever want. And which is quite hard to post on a blog about, as it feels it trivialises things. So this isn't something I'm taking lightly – it'll be obvious why not in a second – but easiest to pop it on here, partly just so you know (and not least because many of you will otherwise continue to wonder why I've ceased giving him a hard time for being so unhelpful with regard to looking after Mum).

It transpires that a few months ago he started having some clues as to a health issue, and while I won't go into detail as it's a private kind of thing, he does himself say, that as a doctor, he wishes he had taken the advice that he would have given to any patient of his arriving at the surgery with similar symptoms, but which he for some reason decided to ignore until he really couldn't ignore it any longer.

To cut a long story short – and one which is obviously only just unfolding, and we're not as yet sure what the true picture is right now, or will be in a few months time when treatment has begun – Rick also has cancer.

Somewhere between Bowel and Rectal, I'm not crystal clear which. And which is Stage 2 possibly 3, slightly better than was initially thought and hopefully at a stage when somethign can be done about it. Radiation, chemo and a fairly major op seem the current plan, but as I say, it's early days, there are second opinions to be had, courses of treatment to be gone through and then we'll all know more.

Not something you'd ever wish someone to ever have or go through. And just as bloody inexplicable as my predicament, especially for a family with ZERO history of any kind of cancer (heart disease, yes. dementia, yes. alcoholism, yes, but not the hideous C word, so where the hell did these both come from?). So for it to hit two out of the three of us is just extraordinary. And Rick isn't exactly the high fat, booze intaking bon viveur that in my current ignorance I kind of imagine this type of disease might gravitate towards.

All a bit of a shock, but not much to be done than get treatment underway and see what unfolds.

What a crock of bollocks. I sit here writing this having been to see the Prof today (yes it was meant to be thurs but we shifted it) and have very luckily still got good bloods results, but am waiting for my PP score to come back tomorrow/Thurs before I know where I am at, and what the likely start to 2012 will be for me – a good one or a shocker. For both of us this is going to be a watch & wait kind of game, not honestly one that even my competitive nature wants to rise to, but here's where we're at.

Keep those fingers crossed again guys? Will let you know more when I do. Cheers S x