STILL HERE, STILL LAUGHING ... LIVING WITH CLL

On Monday, the 20th of July 2026, I went for a routine blood test. By ten o'clock that night, the NHS was sending an ambulance to my house. By the early hours of Tuesday morning, I was lying in Yeovil Hospital, hooked up to machines, receiving blood transfusions, and being told I had leukaemia.

And the first thing I asked was...

"How long have I got?"

Not exactly the Monday I'd been planning.

Welcome to Still Here, Still Laughing.

This is the story of how I discovered I had chronic lymphocytic leukaemia, or CLL, and what it's been like trying to get my head around it. There'll be some serious stuff. There'll be some worrying stuff. And there'll be humour. Because I've always believed that if you can't laugh at life occasionally, particularly when it decides to kick you in the bollocks, then you're in for a pretty miserable time.

Anyway, let's go back to the beginning ...