As a former soldier Fred Ford has fought his fair share of battles.
He’s been in the British Army, received a Queen’s commendation and served as a mercenary for the Sultan of Oman’s artillery.
But he admits his ongoing fight against pancreatic cancer – which this year killed Apple’s hero founder Steve Jobs – is the toughest yet.
Fred, though, has a secret weapon in the army of Macmillan nurses who work at Macclesfield Hospital.
And flanked by the staff he calls his ‘angels’, he feels positive and ready for whatever the cancer, which ambushed him in October last year, throws at him.
He said: "Lots of people don’t know I have cancer – although they will now.
"I’d been feeling ill for a while but then I was in agony, I’d lost a third of my body weight and I knew something was wrong.
"I had loads of tests and finally a CT scan showed the cancer in my pancreas. I have good days and bad days – sometimes I have to spend the day in bed, and others I can walk for miles."
Fred, 57, of Chantry Court on the Moss, is having palliative rather than curative care and has been told he has a 50pc chance of surviving five years.
He keeps busy – he organised the 750th Charter celebrations in Macclesfield and is a member of Macclesfield Rotary. He’s also a battle re-enactor.
The cancer has now spread to his lungs but there are 150 types of chemotherapy available to him and he’s currently on his second one which is proving effective.
He said: "Actually pancreatic cancer survival rates are about five per cent – they’ve said there’s no cure but I don’t care, I plan to live until I’m 104. I’ve got far too much to do."
It’s this positive state of mind that helps Fred fight, along with the support and advice of the Macmillan nurses he discovered in March.
"I heard about them from a fellow patient. I hadn’t really realised they were there somehow. When you have cancer you’re in your own little world, many people cocoon themselves. But I realised they were there to help."
Fred was referred to the Macclesfield General Macmillan Unit.
The twice-divorced grandfather-of-one added: "I got there and to be honest it was just good to chat to someone. I live alone with my mother who’s 81 so it’s hard to discuss it with her."
Now that Fred’s mother is in hospital, staff visit him at home too.
"They come once a week to see I’m all right and I still sometimes go into the centre. All the patients talk about them like they are angels and they are.
"They just pick up the phone and do things for you there and then, producing results amazingly quickly, they are compassionate but practical at the same time."
They have most recently set up physiotherapy for Fred.
"My advice to anyone having problems with cancer is to get referred by your doctor and go to see a Macmillan nurse."
Fred has vowed to remain positive.
"A lot of people don’t realise cancer affects you mentally, it can make you lethargic. But I take inspiration from Steve Jobs and Lance Armstrong – they said he had three months and he just said no, started training and then won the Tour de France seven years in a row.
"And as a re-enactor I take inspiration from people through history too – people who have defied the odds through sheer determination.
"I’ve seen a lot of patients at the Christie in a worse way than me but who seem cheerful, it’s inspiring.
"Survival rates are increasing all the time and I intend to live on, I’m busy with the Civic Society and the Rotary and I have a lot of books I want to write. Life’s interesting and continues to be so, I learn something new every day and I’m enjoying life.
"Oh, and I’m single and available!"
