At every stage of his cancer journey, Glenn Munro has had the perfect pun to lift his spirits as well as those of his loved ones.
“Everything you go through, you can find something funny about it, that’s literally the only way to go about it,” he said.
“Sometimes it’s the easiest way not talking about it, I just make jokes and get on with it.”
Mr Munro was diagnosed with bowel cancer in 2016, but has kept his spirits up – and helped lift those around him too.
Better known as the conductor of Moray Concert Brass, Mr Munro will be the one taking direction next month as he hits the catwalk for Friends of Anchor’s Brave fashion show.
He is keen to thank the staff for their treatment – and patience with his jokes.
Remembering his time at the Anchor unit in Aberdeen, he said: “I think they were quite happy when my jokes disappeared from the place, I just cause trouble wherever I go really.”
As well as his ability to use humour in moments of fear or pain, Mr Munro credited his family and music for carrying him through the last six years.
The diagnosis
Mr Munro, from Elgin, first started experiencing pains in 2015 and was taken to hospital after he was violently ill one night in August 2016.
The 54-year-old said it was a while before anyone confirmed to him that he had cancer.
“At no point was cancer ever mentioned, all I knew was it was an obstruction in my bowel. How stupid do I feel now?” he said.
“I eventually found out from a GP that came to my house to tell me I had cancer.”
He underwent nine rounds of chemotherapy before a later scan showed an abnormality on his liver. While in Dr Grays for more scans, his mum died in the same building the next morning.
The scans found the cancer had spread to Mr Munro’s liver as well as a peritoneal surface malignancy, both of which needed to be operated on by specialists in Basingstoke.
Luckily, he still managed to tour Holland with Moray Concert Brass just before the procedure, which he had been determined not to miss.
During what is referred to by patients as MOAS – the mother of all surgeries – doctors removed parts of his liver, stomach, pancreas, greater and lesser omentum and the peritoneal surface malignancy.
He was then given the all-clear and thought he was finished treatment.
Saved by immunotherapy
But in 2018, Mr Munro went back to hospital for scans after feeling unwell again.
He remembers the moment he knew the cancer had returned, spotting a “big white thing” on the screen and realising it was a tumour.
Doctors broke the news it was inoperable, and he underwent another two rounds of chemotherapy.
This caused complications so, after another operation, doctors started Mr Munro on immunotherapy as a “last chance” solution.
Three months later, the tumour was shrinking, and soon after that, he got the news no one was expecting.
“Everything had disappeared,” he said. “If it wasn’t for immunotherapy, I wouldn’t be here.”
Seven years on from his first pains, he is currently showing no signs of the disease. He does, however, wish he had more scars to show for his three major surgeries.
Mr Munro said his partner Julie, children and family members Meghan, Lee, Kris and Honor and grandchildren Harris and Kai have climbed over every hurdle of his diagnosis and treatment with him.
“I had my moments when I was sat at home looking at my partner Julie and my grandson thinking ‘what will happen if I’m not here?’ but you bounce back from that because you have to,” he said.
He also praised the team at the Anchor unit, adding: “When you go through to the ward for the first time you’re put at ease.
“Nothing is a bother for any of the nurses in there. I’ve been on wards where someone says they’ll come back to you then you don’t see anyone for five hours, but the girls there are right back to you, even if they’ve got another five people asking them to do something.”
‘People keep telling me I’ve been through a lot’
Rehearsals are well under way for Brave, which takes place at the Beach Ballroom in Aberdeen on May 5 and 6.
A total of 24 men will hit the catwalk, showing off a range of fashion. But the show means so much more to those taking part, with some seeing it as a celebration of how far they’ve come, and others using it to spread the word to get checked out.
For Mr Munro, the rehearsals have helped create new memories of Aberdeen.
He said: “We didn’t really like going to Aberdeen because it was just for hospital visits really, but now for Brave it has changed the whole mindset of it.
“You hear the stories and think your story is nothing compared to what they had, but I think we probably all think that.
“People keep telling me I’ve been through a lot but in my head I haven’t, that’s just the way I deal with it.”
Tickets for Brave are on sale now, visit the Friends of Anchor website to join the waiting list.
