The ache in his shoulder had been lingering for months, but Luke Grenfell-Shaw, just 23 at the time, shrugged it off as not worth fretting about. Besides, he was too busy to worry, working as an English teacher in Siberia, Russia. Each day began with a run around the park, followed by a short bike ride to the school. He remembers not being able to lean back in his chair without wincing in pain. Eventually, it got too bothersome and he sought out the school nurse, pulling up his shirt to expose the painful shoulder. Her reaction – “oh my God” – confirmed this was no normal ache.
Curious to see what was so shocking, Grenfell-Shaw stood in front of a mirror and took a photo of his back. His left shoulder, he could see, bulged like a powerlifter’s – far bigger than the opposite side. “Ah, that doesn’t look right,” he remembers thinking – still not panicking. Within two days, however, he was back in the UK receiving a life-changing diagnosis: the lump was a rare form of cancer that had metastasised to his lungs and was now stage four – advanced and aggressive. The doctors called it a malignant peripheral nerve sheath tumour, and the medical literature did not offer much hope.
