The Big C & Me S01E03 - Episode 3

In the last episode, three people face up to the reality of life or death with cancer.

We meet 33 year-old Mark as he receives treatment in the chemotherapy unit at the Christie Hospital in Manchester. Mark's prognosis is terminal; he has been living with bowel cancer for five years, and knowing that the clock is ticking he has one dream - to live long enough to see his young son on his first day of school.

Over the year we see Mark and his wife Kerrie enjoy the time they have, but each appointment brings his prognosis into sharp relief: good news means they can hide from his cancer for a while, bad means they have to reassess their shrinking future.

Fifty year-old Steve (pictured), a self-employed painter and decorator, has been diagnosed with prostate cancer. We join him as he wraps up work on the building site in readiness for surgery, which will see him unable to work for two months. Being out of action means no earnings - an additional worry for the whole family.

Post-surgery, Steve is determined to put his cancer behind him, but setbacks in his recovery mean he's not going to get back to normal as quickly as he'd planned. As he awaits the all-important results, Steve reflects on what it means to have cancer, and reveals how important it is for him to go back to being the normal guy he once was.

For mother-of-three and trainee vicar Katy, the offer of a clinical trial to prevent the return of her malignant melanoma is a chance she has to take, but she knows there may be dangerous side-effects. As she celebrates her daughter's wedding, we see her wrestle with the decision: put up with the side-effects or live in fear of her cancer returning.