Starting near the end

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Ever since I discovered I had a brain tumour, on 3 December 2009, people have urged me to write about this experience. I resisted this for a number of reasons, but now, as the end point inevitably draws nearer, I am only starting to feel I have some grip on this subject, and can write on it in such a way that it might be meaningful for others who are finding suddenly they to come to terms with what they have and what they now are.

Each person's experience of brain cancer will be different; hence my initial reluctance to write about mine. Ironically, I am less able physically now to write than I was many months ago; what I have left to me is my rationality, and my left hand, which I can still combine to write to you via this medium. Either of these assets or both could disappear at any time, so I hope I manage to write something meaningful before that happens.

A word or two about me first: I am [or was] a writer, university historian, film-maker, and many other things in my working life. Teaching at university on Asian cultures, world religions and modern social developments such as women an child trafficking and child labour, and travelling widely through the world have given me perspectives on life and death that don't belong exclusively to one faith or philosophy. But this isn't about such matters. It's about how I am dealing with a GBM - for the uninitiated, a glioblastoma multiforme brain tumour that has become part of my life. No, I'll be honest - a form of brain cancer that dominates my entire existence.

I am now ready. Shall I go on? No point in writing this just to myself.....

Denis Wright

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