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Fight of Your Life

31st Jul 2018

Episode 7: A change of plan

Bad news at a bad time

Oli Dugmore

Bad news at a bad time

The end is in sight, sort of. That’s what Dylan Evans thought as he approached the Macmillan Centre at Lister Hospital, Stevenage, a journey he had made 10 times previously. This was his penultimate dose of chemotherapy to treat Hodgkin lymphoma since being diagnosed in January. “The longest year of my life” is about to end for Dylan, on August 10. A date he’s fixated on.

It means a return to the gym and the cage, where he is trying to carve out a career as a mixed martial artist.

But when Dylan arrived a chemo nurse said his bloods were off, way off. His white blood cell count was below the minimum level and hadn’t improved as much as they’d hoped. Cue “a fucking panic attack.”

“I’ve got August 10 as my last chemo, set in my head, it’s a big day for me,” Dylan says. “It’s all I’ve been thinking about really”

“I get emotional every time I think about it and the thought of that getting postponed really bent my head.”

Fortunately for Dylan, his haematologist cleared the treatment and they rigged him up to the chemicals which are purging the cancer from his body. I suppose whether that’s fortunate or not depends on perspective.

“Two weeks. Two weeks and then I’m fucking done, I’ve got one more. One more fucking chemo.”