My father had lung cancer when I was 10 and lived an extra 40 years on the remaining lung which was good going as his surgeon expected him to die within a year of his operation. Pretty small odds of him living as long as he did and he got to the stage where when he was in hospital occasionally in later life he'd get asked if students could oome in and look at him as he was something of a curiosity as he should not have been alive. Not enormously amusing but it was nice to have his company across the years. And he did have a cracking scar.

The only bizarrely amusing (?) or just plain weird thing I remember from those times was the following. The ward he was in at Brompton Hospital was filled with lots of people suffering from smoking related diseases - lungs out, chromic emphysema etc etc One of the things my dad found really bizarre was the sight of one of the guys - who had had one of his legs amputated due to circulatory problems - hopping his way to the balcony to have a fag.