Lynn Gilchrist - Catwalk for a Cause 2024
Lynn Gilchrist - Catwalk for a Cause 2024
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00:00 Hi, my name is Lynn Gilchrist. I was born and raised in Inverness. I'm 64 years old.
00:08 I am married. My husband unfortunately lives in a care home now as he got dementia a couple
00:15 of years ago. I have three grown up children, seven grandchildren and three great-grandchildren
00:23 because I was diagnosed with lung cancer back in March 2022. I still have it, it's incurable.
00:34 However I am getting treatment. I've had chemotherapy, I've had radiotherapy and I've also had immunotherapy.
00:41 I started off with a cough. I was on holiday in Tenerife at the time and this was in February
00:49 2022. So I came back and I asked the doctor, phoned the doctor, "Can you just leave me
00:55 say I'm antibiotics, I've got a chest infection." So anyway, she says, "Well no, better you
01:01 come out." So she did, you know, the tapping on the back thing and then, "I think we need
01:07 a CT scan." And I think I kind of thought, "Oof, then." However, I got the CT scan, I
01:14 got an MRI, I got a couple of tests, etc. And on the 16th of March, a lovely lady, Jen
01:20 Leitham, told me that I had lung cancer and it was stage three. I've got a tumour in my
01:25 right lung and I also have a sort of inflamed lymph node. This can't be removed. It can
01:34 only be treated. Well, oddly, in the first sort of 30 seconds after she told me, the
01:41 first thing I thought was, "Oh my goodness, who's going to look after my husband?" And
01:45 the second thing I thought was, "Oh my God, what an awful job this poor woman's got."
01:52 And really after that, it was... I never ever sort of broke down or anything. I'm very realistic.
02:01 It is what it is. And I've dealt with it pretty well, I would say. Well, I think I have. The
02:09 hardest part was having to tell the family and worrying about the children's reaction
02:16 and, of course, worrying about my husband in the future. That was hard. But, eh, sort
02:26 of other than that, you know, I don't really find anything hard apart from that, just worrying
02:33 about them and how they're feeling. They all sort of acted differently, but I'm sure they
02:38 all had the same, you know, feelings and emotions, which they hid from me quite well. My daughter
02:47 nominated me without my knowledge. However, I would say that I would have done it anyway,
02:55 you know, had she just said, "I'm going to nominate you," because the Highland Hospice
03:01 is the charity that I've always given to anyway. And everybody, I think everybody will always
03:11 at one point in their life, they'll need this, whether it's for themselves, whether it's
03:17 for family, whether it's for a friend. That hospice will touch everybody's life at some
03:23 point, I believe. Up to now, I'm happy to say I haven't needed any help from them. But
03:32 I'm not saying, you know, never say never. And if I was to, if I am to get shuffled away,
03:40 you know, at the end of the day, the Highland Hospice would definitely be my chosen sort
03:46 of place, really, you know. I haven't really struggled with it, because for the first year,
04:00 I was looking after my husband, he was still at home. So the focus was not on me, it was
04:05 on him the whole time. Since then, now that he's in the home, he's been there for coming
04:13 up to a year. Do you know, I just carry on and live every day as if everything's fine.
04:23 I'm not somebody that rolls over and plays the 'woe is me' card. I just, you know, I've
04:29 carried on working, I've carried on golfing, I've carried on socialising at every possible
04:35 opportunity. I've just carried on with life in general, because there isn't anything else
04:42 you can do, you can't change it. Probably family. I would say family, yeah. They keep
04:50 you going, grandkids, kids. My mother's still alive, she's 94. She's healthier than I am,
04:56 needless to say. Yeah, family keep you going. And again, a positive outlook, positive attitude.
05:06 Yeah. I've been very lucky with treatment. I had the chemotherapy, got a little bit tired,
05:15 not really sick. Couldn't face food, so I lost a bit of weight, but all in all, I've
05:21 been really lucky. Went and bought a fabulous wig, two trips to Edinburgh and didn't lose
05:28 my hair. So, that was quite funny really. No, I've been lucky, I have to say, compared
05:37 to some poor souls that I've seen, I've not really, really suffered at all from the treatment.
05:45 That's funny, sort of a mixture of excitement, because it's, you know, it sounds like it's
05:49 going to be a fabulous night, but also, you know, a little bit nervous. You know, everybody's
05:55 bound to be nervous that they're going to trip on the catwalk or something, aren't they?
05:58 But no, I think it'll be a good night and it was good to meet everybody at the fitting
06:03 because you can see that they're still on the same boat as you. They're all feeling
06:07 slightly nervous and excited at the same time. And the people that are running it from the
06:12 hairdresser, Ali, to Emma, to everybody has been just so nice, so lovely. So, yeah, I'm
06:21 looking forward to it.
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