My first symptoms were in Sept of 2024. I had a cold / man flu possibly COVID and was bed ridden for a few days. At the end of this is noticed a slight lump on the left hand side of my throat.

I googled it and talked myself into it being inflamed glands following the cold.

Don’t do this if in doubt get it checked early.

I then had back to back business trip and holiday so a few days after my 55th birthday and the day after being told I would be losing my job I booked to see a GP on Dublin where I was working at the time.

The GP arranged two tests a blood test and an ultrasound.

Both of these tests were back by end of Nov and blood tests showed nothing unusual.

The ultrasound was a different matter. The letter said pronounced pathological lymph node enlargement neoplastic until otherwise proven.

in English this was lump that could not be explained it is assumed to be a cancer unless proven otherwise.

Throughout most of this I was Ok I expected something minor. My first worry was at the ultrasound that was where it first hit me this could be something else. The ultrasound report was really a shock.