Radcliffe was diagnosed in late 1997 when he was just about to leave a residential drug rehab following twenty years of drug abuse. ‘It was a Wednesday when I was told and concluded a trilogy of disasters that had been dogging me all week. On Monday I had awoken with the knowledge that my ‘detox’ from drugs was over. Reality came at me full throttle. During group therapy the police arrived to arrest me but were unable to do so due to the sanctuary status of modern rehab. They had left with the assurance from my lawyer and the staff that I would surrender to custody on leaving treatment. Tuesday saw the arrival of the divorce papers from my wife. She had finally had enough. For her own and the children’s sake she had taken the decision to move on. Wednesday brought the news that I had Hepatitis C. This was definitely NOT my week!’
It was shattering news… “Perhaps I was lucky that my diagnosis came at a time when my life was already in tatters… though the information the doctor gave me with such care was scary, it seemed just another slice of an already undigestible feast”.
Two months later, whilst in a half-way house and rebuilding his life, Radcliffe saw a consultant about his hep C.He was amazed to discover with hepatitis C that nobody could actually tell him exactly what to expect or how it might affect him … “though there was a growing bank of information, the only thing that was clear was that the symptoms are sufferer specific.All he could tell me with certainty was that following twenty years of drug abuse my liver was going to need all the help it could get, and that the hepatitis was likely to get much worse if left untreated”. Armed with this information Radcliffe agreed to have a biopsy.Following the result he was advised that treatment was the only option available and he agreed to it. ‘ The treatment was debilitating...itmade my hair fall out and my skin dry....if this was the cure then what the hell was the virus doing to me?! I got very depressed and run down. I also got more and more determined to see it through. On a practical level injecting myself wasn’t exactly new territory, but the impact those shots had was really tough’. As Radcliffe has genotype (1) the treatment was to last a year.After four months Radcliffe tested negative, but after a further four months he tested positive again revealing that it wasn’t working …. “I was bitterly disappointed though the doctor was very supportive and remained positive, my viral load had gone down so at least we knew the virus was affected even if it hadn’t cleared”.
Since then Radcliffe has “monitored sporadically, ignored occasionally and suffered often”.But says “Through my contact with The Hepatitis C Trust I have been introduced to alternative therapies that can at least relieve symptoms, friends who understand what I am going through and found the courage to try treatment once again, this time with pegylated interferon… I am currently awaiting the start of round two…”
