Cive James and Pill x

[romarin]

Writing in Guardian Sept 10th Clive James said he was still alive due to Pill X for CLL......what is it.? Ibrutinib? His experience would help the case for NHS availability perhaps. Wish he would tell us!

[Psmithuk]

I have wondered about Clive James as well. He certainly thought he was at the end of his life when it was first diagnosed, and then he seemed to have a revival. I also would like to know his CLL story - pity he's not on this site, it may well have helped him. Full marks to him for being open about his CLL.

[Kwenda]

Clive James.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Clive...

clivejames.com/

The contact page for Clive James is below..

clivejames.com/site/contact

Surely the best way to approach this would be for the CLLSA to approach Clive James and ask him if he would lend his name, or be an ambassador, for those with leukaemia.

One would naturally expect someone who has been given another chance of life due to the latest research to be very willing to take on some limited role as an ambassador for the CLLSA…

Even a short written article that could be published could make a significant difference.

Dick

The Guardian article is at :- theguardian.com/culture/201...

[Oleboyredw-uk]

<Important Disclaimer: I have no idea what he is on>

"but a new chemo drug, which I might as well call Pill X – its real name sounds like the result of falling accidentally on the keyboard of an ancient Greek typewriter"

Random thought .... Idelilisab sounds randomly ancient Greek to me .... but what do I know, I have enough trouble with English (for which I partially blame the ancient Greeks).

I agree with the comments, it would be really good to know. It would also be good to know if it was one affected by the CDF withdrawal.

rob (with apologies for the Sunday morning 'humour')

[Quarry]

I have always loved Clive James' programmes and his dry sense of humour.

BUT, whilst he focusses discussion of his health on CLL, he also has emphysema (probably linked to his smoking days). His breathing difficulties must be due to the emphysema. I have no idea which disease came first, nor which is doing for him.

Whilst it is good he discusses his CLL and I wish him well, I do worry he is actually giving the wrong messages about CLL - anyone watching his (now occasional) TV interviews over the last 5 years will think CLL causes all sorts of symptoms it does not, that it is a killer and that it gives a pretty awful end to life!

[Tanta44 in reply to Quarry]

There is apparently a rare form of CLL which attacks the lungs according to my consultant. Clive James commented once that the CLL was turning on his lungs - but he could well have emphysema.

[Quarry in reply to Tanta44]

From that Authority of, er, Fact......Wiki!

For much of his early life, James was a heavy drinker and smoker. He recorded in May Week Was in June his habit of filling a hubcap ashtray daily. At various times he wrote of attempts – intermittently successful – to give up drinking and smoking. He admitted smoking 80 cigarettes a day for a number of years. In April 2011, after media speculation that he had suffered kidney failure, James confirmed that he was suffering from B-cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia and had been in treatment for 15 months at Addenbrooke's Hospital. In an interview with BBC Radio 4 in June 2012, James admitted that the disease "had beaten him" and that he was "near the end". He said that he was also diagnosed with emphysema and kidney failure in early 2010

We would need a specialist to tell us if there is a link between the three things, or if he has just been smacked coincidently from 3 different directions at once. Poor chap