The Time Bomb of Retinoblastoma - Chapter 11

I gave Chapter 11 of ‘Beyond the Red Door’ the title of ‘Time Bomb’ for a good reason. It wasn’t until I was about thirty-two years old before I discovered the links retinoblastoma has with secondary cancer later in life. I felt as though I’d been living with a time bomb that neither my parents nor I was aware existed.

I’d known that radiotherapy as a treatment for cancer had its own late effect concerns in that it could cause the disease it had originally eliminated. But it was only through some chance events and encounters that I discovered that retinoblastoma also had links with secondary cancers. At first, I thought bone cancer was the one and only concern, and that once I’d finished growing, this wouldn’t be a problem. But my inadvertent wanderings led me to find out more, and I knew it couldn’t stop there.

In this chapter, I describe what I found out, the attitudes I encountered, and how I resolved my new-found situation. I’d been severely shaken by this new information. It felt as though my life had been turned upside down. It was crunch time for me, and I had to make a choice.

You can read all about my struggles in this chapter in my book

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