"treatment of my Kidney tumour by ablation"

in October 2019, I passed blood, I knew that wasn't right and went to the doctors the same day, who referred me to Urology at St James Hospital in Leeds. Within a couple of weeks I had ultrasound of my kidney and cystoscopy of bladder and prostate.

Bladder and prostate all ok, however a "lesion" was seen on my left Kidney. Bloods were taken followed by a CT scan within a further couple of weeks, soon after I met with Mr Cartlidge who explained that I had a tumour, of what sort was not clear at this stage but whatever type it was he assured me that it was curable being quite small at around 2.5cm. Also he explained the options for treatment - surgery to remove the kidney or ablation of the tumour.

It felt right at that point to go for ablation on basis that it was less invasive and outcomes looked very positive.

In mid December 2019 I had a biopsy undertaken on the tumour and in early January Mr Cartlidge confirmed that a) it was a renal cell carcinoma and b) could be treated very well with the ablation technique (which I admit I had not heard of until it was mentioned in our earlier meeting)

Soon after in January I met Professor Tze Wah at St James along with members of her team who would perform the ablation, right from the start I felt very good about the whole procedure, in in 11th Feb, procedure done under general anaesthetic, overnight stay and if all well home the following day.

That is exactly how it turned out, the whole procedure went incredibly well and was home following day, I had been warned that I might have "flu like" symptoms afterwards but I can honestly say that I had no such symptoms and no pain whatsoever, I took 10 days off work and feel absolutely fine.

This morning, I met up with Prof Wah and her colleagues Hamish after having an MRI scan to check on the state of my tumour, Prof Wah showed me the outcomes of the ablation - tumour gone and just an area of scar tissue. I am absolutely over the moon, being told you have cancer is one of the scariest things in the world as many of you know but the whole process from start to finish for me has been a journey made very smooth by the brilliant team of people that have helped me, I cannot remember all their names but my most sincere thanks.