“Three months to live without treatment but between six and eight months with treatment.” That was the prognosis for Laurence Ellis (67) when he was diagnosed with end-stage renal cancer in April

“So I opted, as one would, for the treatment. And things are going along quite well at the moment,” he reports cheerfully, five months later. “I wasn’t given an awful lot of time to live, but the treatments have worked very well indeed. I’m on immunotherapy, on a very strong anticancer tablet and I’ve had radiotherapy. Everything is working so well, I actually feel better than I’ve felt in a long time.”

He was surprised to be offered services at Galway Hospice (galwayhospice.ie) several months ago, having believed it was a place where people go to spend their last few days. “But I’m always up for trying something and then making a call afterwards.”

He attends once a week, except when it clashes with immunotherapy. “Every time I go there, it’s a good experience. Nothing like I expected,” he says. Instead, he found a whole other side to the hospice, which is a day service for people dealing with life-limiting illness.

“I’ve got a lot out of it,” says Ellis, paying tribute to the staff and volunteers. “In times of illnesses which are life-threatening, having people around where there’s compassion and empathy – they’re good qualities.”

Each Thursday, the hospice organises for him to be picked up from Loughrea, Co Galway, where he now lives with one of his two adult daughters and her family. As a bass player, singer and music arranger, he joins in the morning music therapy at the hospice. That singsong can last up to an hour. Lunch is provided, followed by options such as massage, occupational therapy and physiotherapy.

“I’m a diabetic so I have foot care. I’m also a wheelchair user, so I would avail of some time with the physiotherapist.”

The day ends midafternoon with a meditation session. He is grateful he can also use the centre’s showering facilities, because being a wheelchair user since April, he cannot get to the shower at home as it is upstairs.

Recalling how he had felt well until last February, Ellis now knows the back ache he experienced at the end of last year was the cancer spreading. As it was an atypical renal cancer and did not show up initially, further weeks were lost before the diagnosis.

Cancer diagnosis: ‘This is not good news, you need to be admitted right away’

The prognosis came as a shock, as he had thought it was probably a hip infection that could be sorted with antibiotics. But he says it did not take long for him to come to terms with it.

“My mental state is as good as it’s ever been. I don’t have issues with stress or worry. Even though I know the outcome is going be sooner rather than later … at least I’ve got an idea now.”

Although doctors cannot be 100 per cent sure about the time anybody has left to live, “I’d rather have an educated guess and I’ll fill in the blanks based on how I am feeling on any given day”.

It means he can start making plans.

“I don’t like being unprepared. Without wanting to make it sound morbid, I want to make sure that before I die, all my affairs are in order.”

He has put his house in Corofin, Co Clare on the market. “If the house sells while I’m alive, I can see that my children get the money that’s due them.”

But there is no question of him starting to say his goodbyes just yet. “Honestly, I feel like I’m in rude health – apart from the fact that walking is a little bit tricky. If I’m in a [wheel]chair, I whizz around; if I’ve got a frame, I whizz around; if I’ve got my stick, I potter.

“But other than that, everything else works,” he adds with a chuckle. “I have no feeling of giving up anytime soon.”