About Liam Ryan
Former Liverpool architect Liam Ryan was diagnosed with “one of the worst cases” of head and neck cancer ever seen at Aintree University Hospital in 2002. But with world-class medical expertise and the support of his friends and family, he managed to beat the illness – and now he’s written a book about it titled “Cancer 4 Me 5 (after extra time)”.
Website: http://liamryan5cancer4.com
Posts by Liam Ryan:
A Personal Interview
I attended a job interview recently. It was my first one for a long time. And it was for a good job. But I am 54 these days, I wear an eyepatch and having been self-employed in a small town for almost 20 years, I believed the odds were well against me. There would...
The Cycle of Life
I hugged my eldest son, Christy, two weeks ago, probably for the first time. He was about to disappear through the departure gates to board a flight to Dubai and begin a new chapter of his life with Emirate Airlines. Grown men don’t often embrace but we both knew this...
We Are All Equal in the End
My father-in-laws final words to me were that he was amazed how quickly his life had passed. He was 75. Not old by any means, but not exactly a short run either. If he was saying that at 75, what is it like at 50, or 35, or in your teens. They are words that have...
A Tribute to a Great, Ordinary Man
Jack Quigley was an ordinary man. A lovely ordinary man. Sometimes we forget that the word ”extraordinary” is primarily composed of the word “ordinary”. Before I left for my surgery in Liverpool in 2002 we had one final night together in my local pub in the town where...
Put Your Priorities in the Right Order
People often ask me how my attitude to life has changed on both sides of my cancer ordeal. Sometimes, rather than embark on a detailed explanation, I just tell the following story. U2 embarked on a World tour in 2005 with 3 big dates in their home city, Dublin. I had...
A Journey to End the Journey
In my previous article I described how I often use the analogy of a mountain to help me tackle the challenges of life. But in 2007 I actually moved the mountain from analogy to reality. By then any remaining doubts that my recovery was not both incredible and...
Climb Your Mountain
I have always liked the analogy of a mountain, for life. Mountains are great things. They are unique. They are serene and solemn and strong. They are spectacular, both from the bottom as you look forward and the top as you look back. But a mountain is never easily...
A Positive Article About Dying!
I appreciate my demise is a regular theme of my writing. But maybe it is important that I prompt contemplation of this huge, inevitable event that most of us spend our lives trying to ignore. And perhaps a more useful outcome of my reflections is that they were not...