What changed
Rex Mackrill, 65, says a diagnosis of incurable stage-four prostate cancer forced him to reconsider trauma, work and the small pleasures of ordinary life. After chemotherapy and ongoing fatigue linked to hormone treatment, he stopped working as a GP practice manager. He says therapy for PTSD later helped reduce his anxiety, which he once described as “10 out of 10.”
Why it matters
Mackrill’s story is about two kinds of weight: the physical burden of cancer treatment and the quieter burden of trauma carried for decades. He says he spent much of his adult life feeling frightened without understanding why, until a life coach recognised signs of trauma when Mackrill was 60.
He later sought help and was diagnosed with PTSD. CBT and EMDR changed how he experienced anxiety, he says. That is a personal account, not clinical outcome data, but its practical message is clear: distress that feels like a permanent personality trait may still deserve proper attention.
Cancer also changed the shape of his days. He could no longer do the work he loved, while fatigue became part of life after treatment. His focus, he says, remains on his family and on noticing ordinary pleasures such as food and rain.
His advice is simple: speak to a GP, or tell someone trusted that something is blocking you. The point is not to carry pain privately until a crisis forces it into view.
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