From sizzling sausages in the Aussie sun to chemo drips at The Christie, 26-year-old Harry Cottrill from Milnrow has experienced the kind of plot twist that would get rejected from EastEnders for being “too bleak”.
While travelling through Australia, armed with only his plumbing skills and a hopeful visa, Harry developed a painful lump on his hand, which, unlike most injuries suffered by British lads abroad, wasn’t the result of beer-fuelled wrestling or overenthusiastic beach cricket.
Instead, it turned out to be Ewing sarcoma: a rare and aggressive cancer that usually targets children and young adults, and, as it turns out, doesn’t care if you’ve got your whole life ahead of you or a return flight booked.
Now back home and undergoing rounds of chemotherapy more intense than your nan’s bingo night, Harry is facing the fight of his life, all while being unable to work and possibly facing the loss of his hand.
“It’s turned life upside down,” said lifelong mate Tom Scott, who has bravely taken on the burden of organising fundraisers while continuing to pretend he’s emotionally stable.
“Six months ago he was tanning in Perth. Now he’s in a hospital gown being jabbed more often than a dodgy Tinder date.”
Friends have rallied with a Go Fund Me campaign, a football match, and a Three Peaks Challenge, because nothing says “friendship” like clambering up a hill and vomiting halfway down Scafell Pike.
So far, they’ve raised over £8,000, proving that Rochdalians may be tight with compliments but they’re bloody generous with fundraising links.
In an added twist of fate, Harry’s condition is so rare that most of his friends had never heard of it until it turned up, uninvited, like a Tory on strike day. Now they’re determined to spread awareness, and hopefully not the sepsis Harry’s already battled twice just for extra trauma points.
The future is uncertain, treatment is gruelling, and the prospect of losing his hand is real, but Harry, who once took on South Africa with a smile, is still swinging harder than most of us do at life.
If you’d like to donate to help Harry and support the “Battle of the Cottrills” football match. Or, at the very least, raise a glass and stop whining about your cold brew being too warm.
Reporting from down the M62, where the people are tougher than the news.
