Tweet
Scottish author announces on his website that he has gall bladder cancer and is unlikely to live longer than a year
I am officially very poorly. After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.
I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I'd started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn't gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.
I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.
The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for "several months" and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.
There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we're balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.
Lastly, I'd like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved – and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed – has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We're all just sorry the outcome hasn't been more cheerful.
I am officially very poorly. After a couple of surgical procedures, I am gradually recovering from jaundice caused by a blocked bile duct, but that – it turns out – is the least of my problems.
I first thought something might be wrong when I developed a sore back in late January, but put this down to the fact I'd started writing at the beginning of the month and so was crouched over a keyboard all day. When it hadn't gone away by mid-February, I went to my GP, who spotted that I had jaundice. Blood tests, an ultrasound scan and then a CT scan revealed the full extent of the grisly truth by the start of March.
I have cancer. It started in my gall bladder, has infected both lobes of my liver and probably also my pancreas and some lymph nodes, plus one tumour is massed around a group of major blood vessels in the same volume, effectively ruling out any chance of surgery to remove the tumours either in the short or long term.
The bottom line, now, I'm afraid, is that as a late stage gall bladder cancer patient, I'm expected to live for "several months" and it's extremely unlikely I'll live beyond a year. So it looks like my latest novel, The Quarry, will be my last.
As a result, I've withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I've asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps). By the time this goes out we'll be married and on a short honeymoon. We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us. Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.
There is a possibility that it might be worth undergoing a course of chemotherapy to extend the amount of time available. However that is still something we're balancing the pros and cons of, and anyway it is out of the question until my jaundice has further and significantly, reduced.
Lastly, I'd like to add that from my GP onwards, the professionalism of the medics involved – and the speed with which the resources of the NHS in Scotland have been deployed – has been exemplary, and the standard of care deeply impressive. We're all just sorry the outcome hasn't been more cheerful.
The view from Scotland:
The Scottish writer of novels such as The Crow Road, Complicity, and a series of highly-acclaimed science fiction books, is in sunnier climes a day after stunning the literary world and thousands of readers by announcing he has just months to live.
Contextual targeting label: Arts and Entertainment
His friend and fellow Fife-born writer Ian Rankin yesterday said he had received an email from Banks, 59, and he was in Italy and "aware of everyone's good wishes and support".
Banks has cancer in his gall bladder, liver, lymph nodes and probably his pancreas.
He said he has been told he has months to live and intends to spend as much time as he has left seeing friends, relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to both he and Adele.
In his statement, he said he had asked Adele Hartley, his partner, "if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow".
Yesterday, the writer Val McDermid, also from Fife, wrote of her peer and friend: "I've known for weeks this news was coming but that makes it no easier to look at these words on the page.
"When Iain leaves the stage, the lights will be dimmer, the possibilities less and the prospects more dreary.
"For he is one of the most playful, inventive and entertaining writers of our generation."
There are now more than 90 pages of tributes and messages to Banks on his online guestbook, containing hundreds of contributions.
Christopher Glidden wrote: "Thanks for all the huge thoughts and subtle touches and great stories. I haven't yet read all the books in the world, but I still haven't found an author whose writing I enjoy as much as yours. And thank you for validating what I suspected for a long time – Laphroaig is amazing."
Ellie Silver said: "All I can say is thank you; thank you for the stories, and for the people – Prentice, Alban, Ashley, and Uncle Rory, to name but a few. Your books have been an irreplace-able part of my teenage-hood, and their characters are just like old friends."
Banks's final book will be The Quarry, and he said his publisher, Little Brown, was now bringing forward its publication date.
Contextual targeting label: Arts and Entertainment
His friend and fellow Fife-born writer Ian Rankin yesterday said he had received an email from Banks, 59, and he was in Italy and "aware of everyone's good wishes and support".
Banks has cancer in his gall bladder, liver, lymph nodes and probably his pancreas.
He said he has been told he has months to live and intends to spend as much time as he has left seeing friends, relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to both he and Adele.
In his statement, he said he had asked Adele Hartley, his partner, "if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow".
Yesterday, the writer Val McDermid, also from Fife, wrote of her peer and friend: "I've known for weeks this news was coming but that makes it no easier to look at these words on the page.
"When Iain leaves the stage, the lights will be dimmer, the possibilities less and the prospects more dreary.
"For he is one of the most playful, inventive and entertaining writers of our generation."
There are now more than 90 pages of tributes and messages to Banks on his online guestbook, containing hundreds of contributions.
Christopher Glidden wrote: "Thanks for all the huge thoughts and subtle touches and great stories. I haven't yet read all the books in the world, but I still haven't found an author whose writing I enjoy as much as yours. And thank you for validating what I suspected for a long time – Laphroaig is amazing."
Ellie Silver said: "All I can say is thank you; thank you for the stories, and for the people – Prentice, Alban, Ashley, and Uncle Rory, to name but a few. Your books have been an irreplace-able part of my teenage-hood, and their characters are just like old friends."
Banks's final book will be The Quarry, and he said his publisher, Little Brown, was now bringing forward its publication date.
Rotten news.
