Brave model Francis McCarthy came up with a unique way to reassure his children and help himself deal with cancer – he nicknamed it “the Beastie”.
Mr McCarthy is currently in remission from Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma, after first being diagnosed in 2001 aged just 36.
At the time his two daughters, Dani and Amy, were in their teenage years and he and wife Catherine wanted a way to avoid upsetting them too much.
The Aberdeen resident explained: “When I was diagnosed it was very difficult to deal with, your world collapses around you.
“We didn’t want to lie to them but we didn’t want to shatter their world.
“So when me and Catherine used to talk about it, we would talk about it and we would never use the word cancer, we always called it ‘the Beastie’ and said that I was dealing with ‘the Beastie’.
“So we told them that I had Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma but didn’t say it was cancer because we knew that they wouldn’t know what Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma was.
“We said I would be going into hospital for some treatment and I told them it would make me very ill, it would make all my hair fall out, I would look terrible but it was only to make me better.
“I still believe we made the right decision because we didn’t lie to them but we chose our words carefully.”
Mr McCarthy also felt that using the nickname made it easier for him to comprehend and deal with.
He also continued to work as a self-employed taxi driver during his six sessions of CHOP chemotherapy.
Mr McCarthy worked through his treatment because he believed it would help him in his fight.
“I just thought I wasn’t going to let the Beastie win,” he recalled.
“I thought if I was crumpled up and I couldn’t face my work and couldn’t go and enjoy myself then that was another mark to the Beastie and he would have been winning.”
After a 13 year remission Mr McCarthy’s Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma returned in 2014 and it was only then that his children found out that he had had cancer in 2001.
Following chemotherapy and a stem cell transplant the Aberdeen Harbour dock worker is in remission again and is looking forward to the Brave Catwalk Show at the Beach Ballroom on Friday May 5.
He said: “Friends of Anchor are just fantastic at what they do.”
“My wife and eldest daughter nominated me because they thought I wouldn’t do it.
“But when they told me about it I said I would do it because I thought it would be good fun and it has been.”
