Hilary and John Course have gone through one of the toughest experiences a married couple can face.\u00a0They were both diagnosed with cancer at the same time: Hilary with melanoma and John with lymphoma.\u00a0 They found themselves on adjacent wards at University Hospital Southampton.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cMany of the staff thought an in-hospital romance was blossoming until they realised we were husband and wife!\u201d recalls Hilary, able to laugh about it now. \u201cJohn came to visit me in his pyjamas and sat by my bed!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Fifteen years later, they look back at that period of life, not with resentment but with appreciation. What saved their life was immunotherapy \u2013 a treatment which uses the body\u2019s own immune system to find and destroy cancer cells \u2013 developed and trialled in Southampton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
John says: \u201cWe can see it as positive now. We\u2019ve come through it and we are proud examples of what this amazing treatment can do. We now appreciate every day \u2013 it changed our outlook on life.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hilary\u2019s story<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Hilary was initially diagnosed in 2007 when she noticed a large \u2018spot\u2019 on her arm. During surgery to remove it, more cancerous cells were discovered in her lymph nodes and were also removed. Hilary was given the all-clear, but four years later, in 2011, things started to get worse again. A CT scan revealed the melanoma had come back and was present in the lymph nodes around her windpipe. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Devastatingly, this was just a few months after John\u2019s diagnosis. Hilary began chemotherapy for her melanoma, now at stage four (an advanced stage). It initially seemed to work, and Hilary felt well again, but after just a few months, things worsened. <\/p>\n\n\n\n She was given new hope in the form of the immunotherapy drug ipilimumab, given in conjunction with radiotherapy. \u201cWhen I found out about immunotherapy and how it boosts your immune system, I was amazed. It sounded like such a natural idea, I was very willing to give it a go. It\u2019s incredible what the body can do!\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n The treatment worked immediately. \u201cAfter just three lots of ipilimumab, the melanoma had vanished!\u201d exclaims Hilary. <\/strong>CT scans showed only scar tissue remained. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John\u2019s story<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n While Hilary was fighting melanoma, John was facing his own battle. He was enjoying early retirement, but things changed when he felt a swollen gland in his neck. A hospital biopsy revealed it was stage three lymphoma. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John took part in a trial*, involving a combination of chemotherapy and immunotherapy. It was hoped the immunotherapy would significantly increase John\u2019s chances of beating the cancer. The immunotherapy drug that John received was rituximab, an antibody drug which works by sticking to a protein marker to the cancerous cells so that they can be identified by the immune system and its killer cells (T cells) can then do their job and destroy them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n After three treatments, a CT scan showed that all the tumours had shrunk except one, which was removed, before John had three more rounds of treatment. <\/p>\n\n\n\n John went on to have radiotherapy as a precautionary action and started his \u2018maintenance treatment\u2019, taking the immunotherapy drug rituximab every two months for a further two years \u2013 up to the end of 2014 when he was in remission. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Both ipilimumab and rituximab are now used routinely to treat cancer patients worldwide, a testament to the impact of the research pioneered in Southampton. <\/p>\n\n\n\n A new lease of life<\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n John says: \u201cCancer gives you a realisation. It makes you think about things in a new way and encourages you to do more with your life.\u201d\u00a0Hilary adds: \u201cIt\u2019s a privilege to grow old. So, you have to do something with it.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that\u2019s exactly what they\u2019ve done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Once the couple were fully recovered, they set out to see the world. Trips to America, Vietnam, Cambodia, Australia, New Zealand, Sri Lanka and South Africa have opened their eyes and minds, giving them memories they will cherish forever. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Next up is Canada and South India, but a trip to China in 2028 feels particularly significant. \u201cWe had a trip to China planned,\u201d Hilary explains. \u201cBut then we were diagnosed with cancer, so we had to cancel it. It will be amazing to get there finally \u2013 it\u2019s a really interesting country.\u201d\u00a0 But perhaps the greatest journey Hilary and John have started since recovering from cancer is becoming grandparents.\u00a0\u00a0 Their eldest son Mark had a baby boy with his wife Abbi in April 2026 and both Hilary and John couldn\u2019t be prouder.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe\u2019s very special,\u201d Hilary says. \u201cA baby is so precious and puts a lot of perspective on things. We are incredibly grateful to be here, to be able to spend time with him.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Research support <\/strong> <\/p>\n\n\n\n Despite the many wonderful moments the last decade has brought for the couple, there have been difficult times too. Eight years ago, Hilary\u2019s mother passed away from vascular dementia. She says: \u201cIt was a gradual decline. We used to say she was pleasantly confused about things. But really, it\u2019s a horrible thing to happen to you and for our family to see it. Dementia is an underfunded and under-researched area \u2013 as a society, we need to do more.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n Dementia and cancer are two of the five research areas that the University of Southampton\u2019s new Institute for Medical Innovation (IMI) will focus on. The centre will bring together the greatest minds in medicine, computer science and engineering under one roof to use the latest advances in AI, genomics and tissue analysis to accelerate the development of new treatments. Alongside dementia and cancer, it will focus on three other major disease areas, united by the common thread of a misfiring immune system and an urgent need for more research: sight loss, infection, and respiratory and allergic conditions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The couple, who supported the University\u2019s campaign to build the Centre for Cancer Immunology, are excited by the new plans. John says: \u201cWhen we were diagnosed with cancer, we had no idea all this research was going on in Southampton. We have said we will never move from this area because the treatment and the research that has led to it have been so good. We will always be eternally grateful to the researchers, scientists and doctors in Southampton and to see what the new centre aims to do is very exciting. It sounds absolutely fantastic. Bringing different disciplines together in the same space offers so much potential.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n * The trial that John took part in was one of a series testing the antibody rituximab, which has been the subject of extensive studies in the immunology laboratories in Southampton, to find out how it works in treating lymphoma and how the effects can be made better for patients in the future. Southampton was one of the first places in the UK to test this treatment and others like it. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Hilary and John live in Chandlers Ford in Hampshire, have been married for 32 years and have two sons. Sadly, cancer struck twice in their family in the same year when both Hilary and John were diagnosed with advanced stages of melanoma and lymphoma respectively.\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":2108,"template":"","disease":[17,61],"class_list":["post-2102","case-study","type-case-study","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","disease-cancer","disease-immunology"],"acf":[],"mb":[],"yoast_head":"\n