• iconNews
  • videos
  • entertainment
  • Home
  • News
    • UK News
    • US News
    • Australia
    • Ireland
    • World News
    • Weird News
    • Viral News
    • Sport
    • Technology
    • Science
    • True Crime
    • Travel
  • Entertainment
    • Celebrity
    • TV & Film
    • Netflix
    • Music
    • Gaming
    • TikTok
  • LAD Originals
    • Say Maaate to a Mate
    • Daily Ladness
    • Lad Files
    • UOKM8?
    • FreeToBe
    • Extinct
    • Citizen Reef
  • Advertise
  • Terms
  • Privacy & Cookies
  • LADbible Group
  • UNILAD
  • SPORTbible
  • GAMINGbible
  • Tyla
  • UNILAD Tech
  • FOODbible
  • License Our Content
  • About Us & Contact
  • Jobs
  • Latest
  • Topics A-Z
  • Authors
Facebook
Instagram
X
Threads
Snapchat
TikTok
YouTube

LAD Entertainment

YouTube

LAD Stories

Submit Your Content
Grandad with cancer who thought 'that's it then' cured without having chemotherapy

Home> News

Published 12:05 22 May 2023 GMT+1

Grandad with cancer who thought 'that's it then' cured without having chemotherapy

He described the experimental therapy that saved him as the ‘best thing’ he’s ever done

Jess Hardiman

Jess Hardiman

A grandad with 'aggressive' cancer has managed to get the all-clear after an experimental therapy provided a groundbreaking treatment option without chemotherapy.

Stephen Cossins, 71, was diagnosed with chronic lymphocytic leukaemia (CLL), a rare type of cancer that affects the blood and bone marrow, back in 2016.

When the cancer began to spread ‘aggressively’ in 2019, Cossins, from Amersham in Buckinghamshire, decided to take part in a clinical trial looking at drugs that block the growth of cancer.

Advert

Instead of standard chemotherapy, the grandfather was put on Ibrutinib three times a day for three months, before then also taking another drug called venetolclax.

Stephen Cossins.
PA

Fast forward two years later, and incredibly he now has no signs of cancer.

Cossins is now urging others to join research studies, describing the experimental therapy as the ‘best thing’ he’s ever done.

Saying his diagnosis ‘came as a complete shock’, he explained: “I had no symptoms and I’ve always been a very well person. I hadn’t had a day off work sick in over 20 years.

Advert

“You always think the C word happens to other people. When they told me, I thought ‘that’s it then’.

“You feel so much inevitability about the whole thing.”

Mr Cossins was diagnosed in 2016 and remembers the feeling of shock.

“My children were distraught when I told them and my wife was hit harder by the news that I was. She was devastated.”

The study Cossins took part in was in part funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), which has launched a Shape the Future campaign to urge people to join health research.

Advert

Cossins took part in a study partially funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR).
PA

It runs the Be Part of Research service, a new digital ‘match-making’ service that helps people find and take part in health and care research across the UK, which has attracted more than 150,000 people so far.

People can simply register their interest on the website or via the NHS app if they live in England, before selecting which health conditions they are interested in – from diabetes and back pain to cancer – or sign up as a healthy volunteer.

They can also choose what type of research they want to do, such as drug trials, scans, focus groups or filling in online questionnaires.

Cossins, who has three grandchildren aged eight, seven and four, continued: “It was the best thing I ever did. I entered the trial three years ago and was cured, cancer free, after two years. It’s amazing.

Advert

“My wife and children are all delighted. I don’t think any of us believed this day would come. It’s wonderful but I’m so relieved it’s over.

“I’m one of the lucky ones. I’ve been successful on the trial but I hope it can help other people going through the same thing.”

He said he didn’t initially think taking part in the trial was for him, believing he would prefer chemotherapy as that is the ‘standard treatment’.

Cossins with his family.
PA

“I thought ‘do I really want to be a guinea pig for new drugs?’,” he said.

Advert

“But after the consultant and nurses explained that by taking these drugs as part of the trial, there was a possibility of being completely cancer free in two years, I thought it was worth a shot. I had to roll the dice.

“I’ve now got more time to spend with my grandkids, my family and my wife.

“We’ve been married for 46 years. I think we’ll celebrate being cancer-free properly with a short break in Devon or Cornwall.”

Professor Lucy Chappell, NIHR chief executive and chief scientific adviser to the Department of Health, said: “The NIHR funds and supports research that aims to make a difference to patients across the country – and even further afield.

“Our research covers all areas from the laboratory right through to the clinic. It leads to new treatments that benefit us in so many different ways, across so many different areas of health and care.

“Patients and the wider public are vital to this research – it is you who help researchers find the cures, treatments and breakthroughs that can help us, our friends and families to live the best and healthiest lives possible.”

Featured Image Credit: PA

Topics: UK News, Health, Cancer, Science

Jess Hardiman
Jess Hardiman

Jess is Entertainment Desk Lead at LADbible Group. She graduated from Manchester University with a degree in Film Studies, English Language and Linguistics. You can contact Jess at [email protected].

X

@Jess_Hardiman

Advert

Advert

Advert

  • Man who thought he had a UTI given 24 months to live after devastating cancer diagnosis
  • Woman with cancer reveals major reason why you should never use the same toilet as someone going through chemotherapy
  • Man left with 'weeks to live' after having cancer symptom dismissed by doctors
  • Woman who thought blocked nose was just ‘seasonal cold’ left stunned after finding out devastating diagnosis

Choose your content:

16 mins ago
an hour ago
  • 16 mins ago

    Man shares update months after waking up in hospital to learn partner died after they ate meal

    Billy LeBlanc sadly lost his girlfriend, Natalie Clark, after they contracted a bacterial infection from eating oysters

    News
  • an hour ago

    Hiker who was trapped 1,000ft deep inside active volcano for four days dies before rescuers could save her

    Juliana Marins, 26, from Brazil, was hiking near active volcano Mount Rinjani

    News
  • an hour ago

    Chilling new government document warns British public must 'actively prepare' for war in UK

    The new National Security document has warned Brits of other nations looking to start conflict on UK soil

    News
  • an hour ago

    Man cut in half by forklift explained what his life is like now five years on from accident

    Loren Schauers was working as a labourer in Montana when the forklift he had been driving veered off a bridge

    News