My name is Eileen Mullen, I am now 70 years old and I had colon cancer.

I first noticed that there was something a bit odd because I was getting breathless

just walking up the hill from the tube station to home and that's why I went to my doctor.

She sent me for lots of tests, ultimately it was a colonoscopy that unearthed the cancer.

I think if you're faced with the diagnosis of cancer, it's terrifying. So you need to calm down

because once you've got it you're in care.

And we are extraordinarily lucky in this country in the level of care that we get,

and there are all sorts of things that you can do to help yourself.

While I was recovering I was pretty much house-bound

and certainly after having abdominal surgery it's not a terribly good idea to carry large weights,

so I discovered the delights of shopping online and getting my weekly groceries delivered.

That felt like a real luxury, actually, and it's very easy to do - I'd recommend it.

Another bit of advanced planning that I did was to cook lots of food before I went into hospital

so I knew that I was going to have proper meals when I got home.

You're not going to recover if you don't eat properly and I've always believed in having decent food

and when I got a bit stronger, I made sure that I went for a walk every day

A, just to get out of the house and B, to get a bit of exercise and to begin to feel a bit more normal.

One of the difficulties for the layman dealing with medics

is that they can quite naturally use technical terms and language that you might not be familiar with.

and that can be a bit daunting but I think you just need to find the courage

to say 'I'm sorry I don't understand. Can you explain that?'

And there's no shame in doing that, after all it's your body. It's your problem.

And they are there to help and no one's ever made me feel silly

for asking to have something explained in terms that I could understand.

So I had my surgery in 2006 and it seems ages ago

and apart from the fact that I get followed up once a year, and I think there's one more to go,

I've almost sort of forgotten about it because I just got back to being me.

[Different speaker] And how do you feel now? [Eileen] Well apart from old, fine!

[Laughter]

For information, help, or if you just want a chat,

call the Macmillan Support Line on 0808 808 00 00 or visit macmillan.org.uk