In this short video Shane shares his story with us and tells us 'the sun will always shine tomorrow'

My name's Shane and I'm from Leeds, the best city in the world. Unfortunately, I was diagnosed with Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Lacrimal Gland two years ago.

Can you describe your diagnosis and treatment?

It started with headaches, during the summer, a couple of years ago. 

I was treated for migraines initially, but it turned out to be Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma of the Lacrimal Gland and everything moved really fast after I was diagnosed.

Terrifying, is probably the best way I can put it, right at the beginning. But now, if I could look back and talk to myself when I was first diagnosed, I'd say “deep breaths, relax, nothing's going to happen overnight. You've got a lot more time to process stuff”. 

I'm a worrier and I over think stuff all the time anyway. 

So I was researching everything, looking online, reading outdated information and scaring myself to death. So I think, yeah, I wish I could go back in time because I wasted the last two years worrying far too much.

Luckily I had a good team. My GP sent me to have, she said 'just to be safe', we’ll send you for a scan, and if you don't hear anything in two days there's no problem, and then two days later, sorry, the following morning, the doctor rang me. 

So I kind of knew something was going on. And then he says, do you mind if I tell you on the phone, there's a mass behind your eye, it could be anything. 

Sent me off for tests. I had a surgical biopsy where they broke the temple, they left my eye in, and broke the temple, took a bit of the tumour.

Luckily for me, the pathologist diagnosed it for what it was straight away. They removed my eye, did loads of amazing stuff and gave me radiotherapy. So after that, I was sore for a little bit, but since then, everything's gone well.

How has life been since your treatment?

I'm two years out of treatment, they removed my eye, I had radiotherapy. 

I had gold standard of treatment as far as what you'd expect. 

I was lucky to be, when they did the pathology report from the biopsy, I was lucky to be diagnosed correctly the first time, which is often not the case for a lot of people with ACC who are misdiagnosed, which causes a lot of different issues. 

So I consider myself lucky that I'm in the position that I am in today. 

I don't know if I've got anything inside me right now because I haven’t been checked for 12 months, but I'm going to hopefully be getting that done before Christmas and then I just live one year at a time, the way you should do anyway, not stressed about stuff too much.

How have you coped with the changes in vision since your treatment?

One of the main reasons that I'd like to be used as an example on the videos for new patients if they come to Salivary Gland Cancer UK is anybody who's looking at vision loss as part of their treatment, like I had my eye removed, it's by no way, shape or form as bad as you’d think it would be. 

Your brain adjusts to the loss of one eye. You don't see a dark patch. All your vision comes through one eye and your brain compensates for the fact that your scope of vision. 

So when people talk about peripheral vision, you’ve got your peripheral on your right, and I can even see my hand on my right-hand side now through the same eye, the way the brain adjusts to it's fantastic.  

I do building work for a living and I haven’t had any complaints, and so I think, yeah, it's comforting to know that it's not as life-changing as you think.

How has being part of Salivary Gland Cancer UK helped you?

Salivary Gland Cancer UK, I found after it was recommended to me through a friend who had ACC as well. 

The biggest thing that it’s given me is a reliable source of information that's relevant to people living in Britain and the most up-to-date research.

I'd say the best part of it is the people that you meet, I've got in touch with, about 10 different people that I'm in regular contact with now that I'd have never met before. Never. So, yes, it's a good charity.

What have you found helpful through your journey?

My two sisters come up trumps for me when I was first diagnosed. My sister, Vicky, she did a triathlon for me, and raised some money just to see me through and my other sister, Becky, she helped me out financially because she could. 

And it's not just the practical side of stuff. It's just like once you get a diagnosis like this, people tend to just pull together. 

I've got a friend who's recently been diagnosed himself, suffered throat cancer, and you just want to help, I mean, I think it's human nature. You just want to help each other through.

The one piece of advice I could give people, is don't be stubborn and accept help that you’re offered, because you're going to get offered a lot of it. 

And don't try and be a hero and take things on, take the world on yourself, because you don't get a trophy at the end of it and you need to accept help and accept your situation and realize that you've got a tough time to get through your initial treatment. But it's not all dark clouds, and what do they say, 'the sun will always shine tomorrow'.