David Reynolds has dedicated his professional life to educational research. Although his origins are in the UK, he’s held a variety of university posts around the world including latterly in China in 2021. Since moving back to Wales, he ‘still dabbles with writing and conferences’, hosts lectures, works with other researchers and produces media responses.
David’s research specialises in areas of education such as what makes good schools. David and his colleagues are committed to working with schools to deliver a different approach to education.
It’s an area of research that emerged as a focus in the 1960s when it was concluded that schools had big effects on children; that the development of children didn’t rely solely on their parents and that people were not pre-determined to succeed or fail.
David explains: “My academic life started in the 1960s around the time when ‘expectations theory’ was popular and when people were believed to respond to what was expected of them. There was a classic study that impacted around the world where teachers were told that totally randomly selected children were going to bloom intellectually and lo and behold, they did – expectations totally determined what actually happened. Children became what was expected of them.”
From Majorca to Wales
Alongside his distinguished academic career, David enjoys spending time in Majorca for several months each year and it was during one of these visits in 2018 that he caught a cough and ended up in a local hospital.
No major health issues were discovered at the time but after he came back to the UK the following year, doctors in Wales found that fluid was building up in the space between David’s lung and his chest wall. These pleural effusions carried on and needed draining regularly.
In December 2020, David was diagnosed with epithelioid mesothelioma.
David says: “Based on the expectations theory that I’d studied during my academic career, I told no one about my mesothelioma diagnosis in 2020 – not my then wife, children, friends or colleagues. My reasoning was that if people thought I was going to die because I had mesothelioma, I would, and if they didn’t know that I had mesothelioma, I stood a better chance of survival!”
Identifying possible exposure
In terms of his possible exposure to asbestos, David explains: “When considering this, it could have possibly been involved in a house move where there may have been asbestos in pipes or cables. Otherwise, my father was a chief engineer in the Navy, based at Chatham Dockyard, and he spent time in submarines. There could have been asbestos in the sheds or subs that he was bringing home on his clothing.”
No symptoms and no treatment
It’s now been over five years since David’s diagnosis and his mesothelioma management plan has been active monitoring, along with intermittent pleural aspirations.
As he has experienced no symptoms as yet, he has received no treatment. He has already surpassed his estimated survival and is still doing well. He still goes to Majorca for several months of the year and feels very well in himself.
However, with an enquiring, academic mind, he wonders why he has survived, despite no treatment.
Considering the data
“I now wonder how many other people are like me?” says David. “I believe that it’s important to communicate that there are circumstances where individuals like me don’t die within their estimated survival times.
“As an academic, I’ve looked at the datasets from past papers and although a high proportion of people with mesothelioma die within four years, without intervention, there’s around 15-20% with naturally occurring morbidity, but no death.
“There may be an extent to which survivors have had treatment, but I haven’t seen it. It strikes me that this is the most important thing at which researchers could look.”
A call to the mesothelioma research community
David continues: “We need to work out what survival is, how do some survive – if not genetic, what are the environmental or personal factors?
“I would be interested to study the survivors and go into detailed characteristics; their attitudes, behaviours, environment and background, and how we can replicate that.
“I would implore the research community to commit to more studies, particularly as more people are living longer with mesothelioma as new treatments are bedded in. Once we understand why that is happening, we can then go to people at the earlier stages of their journey and better estimate their future survival.”
Anyone interested in research or writing on this topic, and interested in developing our knowledge about people who get mesothelioma but survive, please contact Professor David Reynolds CBE at da***@*********************ng.com
