Ronnie Patton has bravely shared his journey of battling Sarcoma to raise awareness about this rare and often overlooked form of cancer.

Transcript

00:00I'm a big fan of old music, and I keep thinking of a line from the opening track on Ziggy Stardust,

00:06Five Years, where Boy sings about,

00:08I never knew I would need so many people.

00:11And that line just keeps coming back to me.

00:14My sarcoma journey started early last year,

00:17when I went to the doctor and reported a lump.

00:21I got a number of tests and checks,

00:24and just about this time last year I was told I had a sarcoma,

00:27and I was told I would need surgery because the tumour was quite a size.

00:32We then met with a consultant in the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham.

00:37We came away from that conversation and he was fairly confident that he could get the sarcoma out

00:42without damaging my leg.

00:44That turned out not to be possible by the time we went back because the tumour had grown.

00:48They told me this would be life-changing.

00:51I didn't know what that meant, and for me what it now means I'm in a wheelchair.

00:55I've come to realise recently that I used to think I was independent, but none of us are.

01:00We all rely on other people,

01:02and I suppose the way I'm looking at it now is I rely on other people more than I used to.

01:07The sarcoma team in the Ulster Hospital were extremely helpful.

01:10They never really set big expectations,

01:14and kind of brought me through it step by step.

01:18So it started with, it is a sarcoma, well what does that mean?

01:21It'll mean surgery, what type of surgery?

01:24The big hop forward was when I was told about eight weeks ago,

01:27you're clear, we'll see you six monthly, and yes, if you want to travel, that's feasible.

01:32I think it's critical that we raise awareness of sarcoma.

01:35When I was told I had a sarcoma, I'd never heard of the term, didn't know what it meant.

01:39I didn't even know that it meant cancer.

01:41As we see a lot with other illnesses, it's making people aware of the symptoms,

01:45because there are very few.

01:47As I say, I noticed a lump, I noticed it in the shower one morning.

01:51I think it's getting the message out to people,

01:54that don't ignore unusual lumps, look out for symptoms.

02:00People say it, but I think until you go through something like this,

02:05you don't really speak out, ask questions, go to your doctor.