It was at a point in his life when Lieutenant Colonel (Ret’d) Egbert Field was “feeling fit as a fiddle” and could have been described as a “fitness freak”, he said, that he was diagnosed with Non-Hodgkin lymphoma. The cancer diagnosis left the 57-year-old father of three crying like a baby as he thought that his life was over.
Were it not for his wife, Sydney’s persistence that he saw a doctor after she felt three split-pea size lumps just behind his left ear, his cancer might not have been detected early. It has been years since the diagnosis, which was followed by it returning five months after he was declared cancer free and early detection of prostate cancer five years later, and Field is grateful for family and now advocates regular check-ups as he is a living testimony to the well-known saying “early detection saves lives.”
Currently the Director General of the Guyana Civil Aviation Authority (GCAA), Field has also encouraged his staff to be tested and went as far as having the Authority stand part of the cost to ensure that they were tested for various cancers. His initiative for the Authority to partner with the Guyana Responsible Parenthood Association, which halved the costs for various tests, led to one person being diagnosed with cancer and immediately being placed on treatment.
