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In 2007, 58-year-old Terry Foster was diagnosed with lymphoma. At the time, his wife, Melanie, had also been pregnant with their first child.
The couple was incredibly anxious for the months to come, but was able to take some reassurance from the fact that Terry’s company said “they’d continue to pay [him]” and encouraged him “to take any time off [he] needed.”
But Foster’s health continued to deteriorate.
At his worst, he spent 19 days in the intensive care unit. His doctors sensed that he didn’t have longer than 48 hours to live, and took care to move him to a separate room so he could pass in peace.
To everyone’s surprise, Foster fought back.
He continued to press back against his cancer until doctors cleared him from the hospital, deeming him well enough to return home to rest and recover there. Foster recalled that his doctors suspected he might still pass, “but [he] just continued to get better and I began working from home.”
Foster worked at home for quite some time, then decided that he would return to the office and work full time.
Things were fine for a spell – but then Foster’s laptop broke. Instead of simply replacing the broken computer, “the head office…advised [him] to drive to Glasgow to collect a new one.”
There, Foster was confronted by his boss and given the news: “They were sacking [Foster]…because [he] had cancer and was expected to die.”
“I went into a state of shock. When I told my wife she burst into tears, it was awful, we had a newborn baby and it was the most horrible time for both of us,” Foster said. “We really struggled financially during this period and the stress and worry of it all impacted on my recovery.”
Foster decided that he wouldn’t stand idly by as this all happened to him.
He took his company to court for an employment tribunal and won quite a large sum of money for how his company handled his employment and illness. Thankfully, after all this, Foster continues to be cancer free.
