Man's eye test before anniversary cruise sees him rushed straight to hospital

21 September 2023 , 06:32

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Dave in hospital during his cancer treatment - the dad said he owed his life to The Christie Hospital

A man was urgently told by his optician to rush to his doctor after they discovered something alarming during an eye examination.

Dave Gibb was preparing to embark on a cruise to celebrate his 40th wedding anniversary with his wife, Carole. He had gone for an eye test and the opticians saw something worrying enough to recommend he head straight to his doctors. Dave, 73, said: "The doctor sent me for a blood test at my local hospital, who then subsequently diagnosed advanced blood cancer. My first reaction was shock and anger as I felt I had so many things still to do in life."

This retired IT Project Manager, from Greater Manchester, underwent an initial round of standard chemotherapy in October 2010. However, he was transferred to The Christie in December, where he was introduced to a new treatment plan. This regimen consisted of a cocktail of chemotherapy drugs working in conjunction with a targeted cancer drug named rituximab.

Dave and his wife Carole

Dave told The Liverpool Echo: "While the treatment was successful and put me in full remission, my blood count would not pick up, and I needed regular blood transfusions over the following year. This was not a sustainable solution.

"Then 'lady luck' played a hand. A scheduled scan showed a slight enlargement of my spleen, and fearing it to be a possible source of the cancer returning, I was told it would be prudent to remove it. Subsequent pathology tests did not find any evidence of cancer there, but almost immediately, my blood count started to climb back to an acceptable level, and I was eventually discharged a very happy man.

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"There then followed seven wonderful years in full remission and great health. We moved to a lovely village in the Wirral, where I bought a boat, learnt to sail, and became a grandparent.

Professor Bloor, Dave Gibb and his son Dr Adam Gibb

"Unfortunately, in 2019, my cancer returned. However, The Christie still had some tricks up its sleeve. I was then treated with ibrutinib, which quickly returned me to a stable position. For a further two years, I enjoyed good health and took part in many sailing adventures, holidays and child-minding duties."

Dave also caught Covid twice but "survived to fight another day". But, as his white blood cell count began to rise again, the cancer returned even more aggressively than before. But with what he described as "another slice of good fortune", The Christie was offering a new cell therapy treatment.

He added: "I was assessed as being a suitable candidate for the therapy. After a round of chemotherapy designed to drive down my increasing white cell count, I underwent a procedure to 'harvest' my T-cells. They extracted my blood and spun off the required cells, which were sent to a specialist laboratory in the USA with the capability to perform complex cutting-edge cell re-engineering.

"The modified T-cells came back to Manchester and were transfused back into me to do their magic during a stay of three weeks as an inpatient. In simple terms, my own re-engineered and somewhat beefed-up T-cells could hook onto the cancer cells and destroy them. The finer details of which are way beyond my knowledge base."

Following scans showed no trace of the cancer and Dave is now in remission once again. Following his treatment, he decided to move back to the Manchester area to be closer to family - he also bought a new boat. Dave credits his life thrice over to the specialist cancer centre in Manchester, The Christie.

He said: "The Christie is a place that is full of talented and caring people at all levels and for whom I have nothing but the highest admiration and respect. Walking through the doors of The Christie was strangely one of the luckiest things I ever did."

Dave's consultant, Professor Adrian Bloor, added: "Mantle Cell Lymphoma is an uncommon form of blood cancer with around 600 patients diagnosed in the UK every year. It can usually be successfully controlled with chemotherapy for a few years, but standard treatments are not curative."

Professor Bloor has been overseeing Dave's treatment for over a decade. He revealed that Dave initially responded well to chemotherapy, but his disease relapsed in 2022. Fortunately, Dave was a suitable candidate for CAR-T therapy and has shown a remarkable response to this treatment. CAR-T therapy has only been available as treatment for Mantle Cell Lymphoma for the last couple of years and has transformed treatment for this disease and other blood cancers."

* This article was crafted with the help of an AI tool, which speeds up The Mirror's editorial research. An editor reviewed this content before it was published. You can report any errors to [email protected]

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