It all started when I went for my morning walk a while ago: I was about a kilometre from home when I realised that having stacked up the wood burner when I got up, I had not dampened it down before I left.

With my head full of images of the chimney catching fire and the house aflame, I ran the kilometre or so back to the house where fortunately I found everything intact and the fire only just getting going. I duly dampened it down and went for my walk as usual.

The next day I woke with a sharp pain in my right shin. That's running for you.

Normally I would wait for this sort of thing to fix itself but after a week or so of quite severe discomfort, it was showing no sign of going away so I made the appointment to see the doctor. I had to wait a week for it, and guess what - during that week my leg fixed itself. So when the reminder popped up on my phone, rather than pay the cancellation fee, I thought I may as well go along and get checked out.

This new found, very un-manly, willingness to go to the doctor is a result of my having had two kinds of malignant cancer last year. But for a reluctant visit to the doctor on my wife's insistence, the cancers would have remained undiscovered and I would not be writing today.

So I turn up to my appointment and the doctor checks out my leg, which is fine, and we get to talking. Last year I went through a whirlwind of investigations, procedures, biopsies, oscopies, palpations, surgery, and a month of radiotherapy. This was a rollercoaster for which I and my family were completely unprepared.

I am pleased to report that I am, as of January this year, cancer-free, but the events of last year have, somewhat predictably, taken their toll on all of us. Of course we are all very happy that I am not going to die just yet, but we are, each in our own way, a bit freaked out by it all.

I have never been one for taking pills and potions unless absolutely necessary so it took the doctor a while to persuade me to change my mind and give the Escitalopram a go. However when I went to the pharmacy to get the prescription filled, the cautionary chat from the pharmacist was enough to change it back again. Now I have to go to a follow-up appointment next week and explain why I'm not going to take it.