Now more than ever, my friend, Peter Trayhurn, needs your prayers.
I first met Peter (an Australian) at Hallwang, the German oncology clinic, in 2013. He went there with Stage 4 Colo-rectal cancer, having been given six months to live by his oncologist in Australia. His cancer vanished within six weeks’ of treatment, only to rear its head again when he returned to Australia.
Since then, he’s been playing a painful game of whack-a-mole with the cancer.
What’s remarkable is that Peter has outlived most of his doctors’ worse predictions. He’s outlived most of his friends on cancer forums. And he’s done so with a very good quality of life. He’s driven himself all over Germany, flown all over the world in the search for cures, gone scuba diving, lived on an ashram and done yoga. And been a father and husband.
He’s also the author of a blog: http://petertrayhurn.blogspot.co.uk/. It’s a step-by-step account of his cancer journey. It’s full of infuriating typos and spellos, but it is also full of the latest treatments. It’s full of his zest of life. And I can vouch for the fact that the positivity and optimism in his posts is real and authentic, and not a mask. I think he’s the closest I’ve come to a genuine cancer saint.
A few weeks ago, his condition worsened when he was in Australia. He was throwing up non-stop and wasn’t absorbing nutrients. I managed to persuade him to Skype me when he was in hospital. I saw how bad he was. He was in agony throughout the call despite morphine.
I whispered nervously to him: “Is this the end?”
He looked into the screen and a small smile lit up his face.
“No, I think it’s just the beginning,” he said.
Please pray for my friend Peter. Now more than ever, he needs your prayers. And please also pray for his family. For his children, who cry every night in their beds. For his wife. For his doctors to make the right decisions. Pray that he pulls through the surgery to help him eat, that his guts heal, that the pain lessens, that he manages to eat, that the cancer vanishes.
Please pray. Because the world needs more people like Peter to show us how to remain human despite the inhuman trials. Who can pull smiles out of pain.
****
BisforBananasCisforCancer 