I’m a 24-year-old Maltese male that has been suffering from cancer.
When I was around 16, I had to pause school because the doctors found something odd in my liver. We then discovered that I had developed liver cirrhosis, which later became a liver cancer diagnosis.
My family & I travelled to the UK so I could get a liver transplant. There, they found out that the lesions were increasing faster than normal & that I had more lesions than was allowed for them to be able to go ahead with the transplant.
One of my UK transplant doctors said I might still be able to get the transplant since I was still young. He’d need to discuss it with a board.
My case was given the green-light to continue. They told me that they’d keep monitoring my liver & that when an organ is available, I would have to be at the hospital that same day.
We finally received the call & I was taken to the operating room. However, they found out that my diagnosis was incorrect.
I actually had a very severe & rare cancer called Angiosarcoma.
The doctors told me that if they had known, they wouldn’t have been able to offer me the organ transplant, as there would be a high chance of it returning over the next 2 years.
Despite the error, they tried to give it a positive spin & said that they might still be able to save me. Unfortunately, that wasn’t what happened.
18 months later, I started feeling a sharp pain in my right shoulder. Several doctors told me that it was just muscle pain. However, the pain kept increasing & as I kept bringing it up to doctors, they decided to carry out some tests.
Nothing showed up initially. However, after 6 months of immense pain, a scan was ordered & we found out that the cancer had returned.
The scan showed cancer on my upper spine & I was told I need a 2nd scan. If the cancer was only on the upper spine, I would have to fly to the UK for a doctor to remove the cancerous part of the spine. I later spent some days in the hospital in Malta to get part of my spine removed by a doctor as well as his team, which I’m very grateful for.
Unfortunately, we later found out that I also had cancer on my pelvis & in my lungs. They told me told that my cancer was terminal & that my life expectancy was less than year.
I was given this terminal diagnosis in mid-May of this year. It’s now November, meaning that half of my life expectancy has passed.
I’ve been through 6 months of unimaginable pain where I couldn’t even cough in peace. I don’t want to think of what lies ahead for me, my family & my friends.
Believe me when I say that if I could make everyone forget about me, so that my family would’t have to go through what they will inevitably have to face, I would do it in an instant. Sadly, I can’t.
What I wish is that it’s as easy on them as possible. I know that the pain I felt on my right shoulder is a fraction of what I’ll feel when I’m close to the end & this pain can’t be avoided.
This is due to the draconian laws that our country suffers from, such as having a strict ban on abortion & euthanasia.
Knowing that I will soon end up in unimaginable pain, why shouldn't I be allowed to pass away with dignity & without making my family see me go through all that suffering?
When someone's pet is suffering & the vet gives them the terrible news that their pet is going to die, they won't think twice of ending their suffering.
Why should I suffer just because l'm human? What makes cats & dogs better than me? Why must I continue to suffer till the end? What did I do to deserve this?
I say this with the utmost kindness but people that don't know what terminally ill people are going through shouldn’t be discussing whether or not euthanasia should be made legal.
The president shouldn’t be threatening the public by saying that if euthanasia & abortion are presented to him, he wouldn’t sign them & instead resign.
The president would rather see me, along with other people like me, suffer through the last few months of their lives, instead of giving them & their families the ability to not see their loved ones die in immense pain.
