Funny people still get sick

THE LIFE OF DAI

Anyone who saw comedian Dai Henwood’s interview with Jaquie Brown on The Project about his bowel cancer will not be surprised at his frankness about living with a terminal illness.

That interview aired in January last year, three years after he had been diagnosed with stage-four cancer.

By then he was ready to share his story publicly, not have it dragged into the limelight at a time not of his own choosing.

That was fortunate, given his public profile, and a testament to the discretion of those people he had taken into his confidence.

Much of this memoir, a collaboration between Henwood and Brown, is about the diagnosis (which happened when he had a colonoscopy during lockdown) and what happened next.

It is worth noting Henwood had been ignoring symptoms including bleeding from his bowel, dismissing them initially as related to his consumption of alcohol.

However, they continued after he gave up the booze.

Initially it was hoped the cancer was curable, despite its advanced state, but that was not to be.

Henwood says he finds it easier now living with incurable cancer than when the intent was to cure it.

"There’s a freedom in not trying to cure it any more," Henwood writes.

As he says, he has not hidden away from any emotions, but he has not let emotions get the better of him.

While it might be "unfair", how he responds to it is what defines him, not the event itself.

He cautions against having thinking stuck in future mode, rather than appreciating what is in front of you now, "in all its messy imperfection".

In common with many cancer patients, Henwood has been bombarded with suggestions of miracle cures from the well-intentioned.

One was a TikTok video that said not to eat spinach because it had no benefit.

Popeye was invented by "Big Veggie" to sell spinach when he obviously got his strength from steroid injections.

"It’s so bizarre to me that we live in a world where people choose not to trust medical experts but will passionately support an influencer on TikTok or some deregistered vet," he writes.

Although Henwood does not skirt around the challenges of living with cancer, this book is no misery memoir.

It is full of life and laughter and common-sense tips for those with cancer and those who love them.

A minor gripe with its editing involves a section discussing how people cope with news of the diagnosis.

Henwood was curious to know how fellow comedian Jeremy Corbett would react.

Unfortunately, the reader never finds out what Corbett’s response was.

• Elspeth McLean is an Otago Daily Times columnist and former health reporter.