Edward Mountain: Tweet of the Day 2022

In May 2021, I was diagnosed with bowel cancer - which apart from being a shock, frightened the hell out of me!

Like many others I associate the word cancer with an early death and at the age of 60 I was, and am, convinced I had more to do. The resultant radio and chemo therapies were not what anyone could describe as fun.

To keep some normality, I worked throughout my treatment – which was very therapeutic, but didn’t come without problems. Too often I found myself dealing with constituents who raised issues about their cancer treatment either being delayed or not within the recognised timescales. It was at times like that I relied on my incredibly loyal team who recognised when I was struggling and always jumped in to help.

Keeping my sense of humour and positivity was sometimes very difficult and perhaps that was what drove me to keep my cancer quiet. Life as politician means that you are a social media target. Too often it is a brutal place and nice comments are often in short supply. Negative comments were not something I needed and nor was anyone feeling sorry for me. What I also didn’t need or want was constituents feeling that they couldn’t turn to me for help. I was adamant my door would always be open to those that wanted help. And it was.

In January 2022, I had my surgery and began to see more than a ray of hope for the future. My incredibly supportive wife and children stoically stood by me, respecting my privacy and my wish to control the news.

It was after all the only thing that, during treatment, I was in control of. It was also at this time I began to realise that my journey might help others and started thinking about how best to speak publicly about this and overcoming my discomfort on talking about personal things candidly. My hero ‘Bowelbabe’ Deborah James had led the way – so I knew I could, in time, follow.

It wasn’t until May 2022 that I felt comfortable enough to use Twitter to encourage others to make sure they kept an eye out for the symptoms of bowel cancer (blood in your poo, changing bowel habits, weight loss, tiredness, a pain in your tummy). My biggest regret is that I didn’t do this earlier, and my hope is that by going public it may help just one person.

So, my advice: check yourself and speak up – being open will not only help you, but it could help others. Sometimes people’s responses on social media might surprise you.

While I remain very guarded about my private life, my faith in human nature has been restored because of the positive responses I received on Twitter.