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Alan Clarke Interview Part Five

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By The Drum Team, Editorial

February 12, 2010 | 4 min read

In the final part of Alan Clarke’s discussion about fighting throat cancer and his return to work, he talks about how it has changed him as a person and in his role at The Bridge.

This is where this could potentially become rather dull! I really don’t subscribe to all that stuff about “I’m a changed man...”, “life will never be the same again..”, “it’s changed me for the better...”.

Everything we go through is part of life’s rich tapestry and, to be honest, I reckon I’m bringing more in to the office from my current experience coaching an Under 8s football team than I am lifting from my experiences while I was under treatment!

That said one ‘third party’ I deal with a lot has said I’m much more chilled out than I was previously and there’s no doubt I have seen how life (or not life in this case) could have been so I do enjoy living life to the full even more than I did before. I could also say (and this is a reflection on them rather than me) that loads of people have said “you must be in such a dark place”, “You must be worried sick” – NO!

I can honestly say, from the moment my Consultant said “...and the good news is our aim is to cure you. You’re young and fit so there’s no reason why we can’t be successful in completely eradicating this cancer” that I’ve never worried about what could go wrong, only what I needed to do to get better. I remember him coming in to my room a couple of days after surgery and there I was bandaged to the eyeballs, pumping in morphine, breathing through a tracheotomy ...and watching the original Rocky film. He just laughed and said, “Good on you. Keep watching movies like that and I’ll have you back to normal in no time.”

Pushed I would say the business relevance is it has driven home how important it is to have a team of good people all working towards the same goal (e.g. some agencies might rely on a particularly brilliant creative team or excellent new business guy to bring in new business but that’s futile if the rest of the team isn’t up to the job and the client walks after a few months).

I can’t say that that is a revelation I’ve had in the last 12 months – I’ve often referred to the story of a Scottish football team in trouble (Hibs) who brought in arguably the greatest footballing talent ever (George Best) who went on to do some sublime work for them (look on You Tube at the goals he scored for Hibs) but, ultimately, they still got relegated. Every great team needs talent throughout it. It doesn’t have to be high profile (they’re usually the ones that bring the trouble..) but it does need talent. I think you can generally get my drift on my views on many of my colleagues in the Scottish industry. As a whole we get what we deserve...which is a crying shame for the really good people out there who get dragged down by the half wits.

Following the conclusion of the interview, Alan remembered to highlight one more thing -

"I’m the committed non-smoker that got cancer in his throat. It’s just bad luck, and just because you’re not in a risk group doesn’t mean you can afford to ignore symptoms."

A frightening point that highlights just how sudden this disease can strike.

Go to Cancer Research UK to find more information on cancer and how you can help fight it.

The Bridge is a member of the Marketing Industry Network.

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