How might you respond to the news that you had a terminal disease? And
to the realisation that, on average, fellow sufferers survived for less
than twelve months?
These, and others, were the questions that faced Mick May, author of
Cancer and Pisces, in the early summer of 2013. His response was
instinctive; he went fishing.
Sometimes alone but more usually with family or friends, he even invited
members of his esteemed medical team. Most usually his expeditions took
him to the trout streams of England, but he recounts falling in love
with fishing whilst working in Texas, and his sixtieth birthday
celebration that took him even further afield, literally to the ends of
the earth, Ushuaia, Argentina.
Throughout it all he had fun. There are moments in the book when the
gravity of his illness casts long shadows but these are put into context
by the energy and joie de vivre with which he approaches medical
matters, his working and domestic lives and, of course, angling.
The story is suffused with humour and elation as he enjoys all these
extra and unexpected years that have been allotted to him.
Might Mick have found the meaning of life? Read on....