In the third instalment of her cancer diary, Fiona Green, 62, asks why she became sick

THE four weeks of radiation treatment are over, the effects peak and I am still unable to eat and the pain is at its worst.
This is because the treatment is cumulative. I hoped to have my appointment for complementary therapy massage come through by now.
But no, they are booked until the summer. A “very long waiting list” is blamed. I was disappointed and that helps make it bearable.
As my visitors come I put on a brave face for each of them, which is expected in our society.
“Shut up and put up” or “grin and bear it” are British phrases from the world wars, and they still apply with a ferocity.
That applies everywhere, except within the walls of the MacMillan Support Radiographer’s room. With Mark, I was able to grieve the loss of my hair, health, the recent death of a loved one and even to make light of the ghastly mask.
Next I had to address my shrinking funds and this is how serious illness gets you. It’s never just a case of ‘rest and get well’. Money has to be gained or the next thing severe debt follows.
I queued along with more than 50 others at social services on a freezing February morning to see if I qualified for incapacity benefit (no), income support (no) and pension credit (maybe). People in the queue were marvellous – so bright and cheerful.
There was a young woman newly out of prison, another out of hospital and two with babies all making jokes about their terrible predicament.
These people are the invisible thousands, stripped of their dignity, and waiting for meagre handouts from the heavy government purse. They are given impossibly small amounts to live on.
In order to make sense of my illness, I looked around for reasons why I had contracted such a nasty cancer. I had been a heavy drinker and smoker when I was young and there is certainly evidence linking that with throat cancer, but The Evening Standard recently highlighted the issue of mobile phone masts in my area.
There are 83 of them within a quarter of a mile of my home and the Middlesex Hospital.
I did some research on the internet and there is evidence to prove a link between these masts and lymphomas, which is the type of cancer I had contracted.
How can these dangerous things be allowed to proliferate within a densely populated area like ours? The nearby primary school could be affected too. People protest when just one mast is planned for their town. Here we have more and more planning applications for them each week. Environmental health officers responded to the protests with the line: “There is no definite evidence of a connection.” How many people have to be made ill before something is done?
It would be easy to assess how many people from my area are on the hospital books for cancer if I could get access to such information.
I have been quite positive throughout my treatment but when it stops I have been warned that depression can set in and that is when friends start to disappear.
I read that all the adrenaline that has kept me going throughout will subside too. To counter this I have set aside a day each week to paint.
My new diet is filled with an abundance of fruit and vegetables and antitoxins and I actually enjoy food shopping for the first time in my life.
Gone is the weekly trawl to Tesco and instead I am skipping to the health shop. I have a juicer and an electric whisk to make wonderful drinks, and more time in the country air, away from the mobile phone masts.
• Fiona Green, of Fitzrovia, is a retired counsellor and teacher of children suffering from ill health.