There’s a side to this illness that has created an instinct in me that I don’t really like.

Five years of free prescriptions (14% chance of seeing that expire), a disabled badge and queue jumping for scans, X-rays and blood tests at the hospital is appreciated. Along with free parking at Huddersfield Royal Infirmary.  But let’s be honest, while the cancer drugs are needed, I can afford my eye drops for the Bell’s palsy.

The problem is, I am beginning to expect special treatment in situations that don’t merit it.  Not only that, I’m tempted to demand it.

With the slow puncture in Bristol I wanted to play the cancer card when calling out the way AA. Chris counselled against it but a little instinct inside me says surely I should be more important than a pregnant woman alone in the middle of nowhere!

And I hate paying for parking when I’ve taken a disabled bay. After all, despite being financially secure it should be free for me while you lot have to pay, right? Well it is in some car parks and not others. The irony of the disabled person having to walk across the car park to read the sign that tells them the payment rules before returning to their car, sometimes to get the right change, isn’t lost on me.

In other words, I am now beginning to understand those customers of mine on disability benefits that used to have a hell of an attitude. I found it particularly annoying, especially when they often received tax free benefits that exceeded my net pay. And while I’m trying hard not to be the same (and certainly don’t seem to have the benefits package), it isn’t as easy as you’d think.

I am yet to play the cancer card effectively.  But it is tempting.  I do, however, still want to be a decent bloke!

Perast – Where They Bury Their Dead on an Island