Crumlin man with terminal cancer hopes his love of music will be his lasting legacy

A SCOTTISH photographer has shared the moving story of a Crumlin man who is living with terminal cancer after a chance encounter on a beach.

Ryan Morris, who runs The Human Collective page on social media, takes pictures and tells stories of people he meets out and about.

“Each of us have a story in us, and I took it upon myself to share them with the world. To give people a voice essentially,” he explained.

Chris Tennyson who has lived in Scotland for the past 10 years, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just one month after first developing symptoms.

When he presented to hospital, he was given the life-altering news that the cancer appeared to have already spread to his liver.

At that point, Chris, who turned 40 on January 3, was told his illness was terminal.

While chemotherapy has been offered in the hope of extending both his life and quality of life, the diagnosis has been nothing short of earth-shattering for him and his family.

Ryan met Chris on a Scottish beach in December and said: “I’m sharing the story of my new friend and I’ve made a promise to Chris that this story will be read by as many people as possible, so his message can be shared far and wide. I want you to read this carefully and understand what music can do for someone and how it can shape their whole life.

“With his blessing, this is my friend’s story.”

Taking up the story, Chris said: “I’m originally from a place called Crumlin in Northern Ireland. I've been living in Leven for two years and before moving here, I lived in Kirkcaldy for about eight years with an ex who I’m still really good friends with.

“Recently I had a diagnosis of cancer, which is terminal and I’m not sure how long I have left.

“Growing up I was fascinated with vinyl, and possibly because the way my mind works, I wondered how things work and the mechanics of a record player.

“How a plastic spinning disc can make such amazing music come out of it has always, as a child, fascinated me. I remember mum and dad had a radiogram, like a big cabinet with a record player inside, they never had many records mind you but my granny gave us some such as Dolly Parton and I must have been about three and I could play this thing, despite not being able to do much else and my mum said I would play it over and over, even lifting the needle to put it back to the start and it had her head tortured!

“I was born in 1986 and a few years later, vinyl was slowly being replaced by CDs into the 90s and I always had a turntable through the years and I would always inherit records from family and friends.

“To me, turntables sound more alive, so different from digital, there’s more authenticity to them. There’s something special about taking a record out of a sleeve, sitting down with it and just listening to it, unlike digital on Spotify where you're not really listening to it because you’re doing something else, you’re not absorbing it.

“You can’t get up and walk away from a record because it needs turned over, you have to take care of them. Keep an eye on your needles.

“Every record I have I can tell you where it came from, who gave it to me. I can tell you the year I got it.

“I have a Tina Turner record there, The Best and my dad bought my mum that in 1991 for their wedding anniversary and I still have it, I still play it. And even though it’s a little bit beat up, it sounds fantastic.

“With this thing, these records have been the most cherished things in my life because I really do love music so much and with this diagnosis that I have, it's been a bit hard for me to think that I might not hear a record again.

“So what I want to do is to give everyone in my family a record, or a couple and they don’t have to play it right away because it might be sad for them to do that, I’d like them to buy a little turntable and I want them to put it on at some stage, cause then for me, that means my records will continue to go on.

“Honest to God, I’m raging I can’t take them with me because I would literally take a record player into the grave with me if I could.

“I’m 40 on the third of January and if I get to that, I'll be really thankful because I’ve had this time to say goodbye and to speak about stuff like this.

“I’ve met some incredible people, I cannot believe how kind people have been and it’s just been the most beautiful experience for me to see that and I just feel so happy that I got see that and experience life the way I have because I’ve not got any regrets and it might have been shorter but I wouldn’t change a bit of it and I’m happy to go now cause I feel like I've done everything I’ve needed to do and I just want the people to think about the music, because the music is so beautiful.

“My favourite singer is Dolly Parton and even if I’m upset, or I’ve had a heartache or I’m really down, I’ll play one of the saddest songs she’s ever written and it still makes me feel better because it gets all of this hurt out of you and I think music can have such a profound effect on people and I want that to be my legacy.

“I can’t play any instruments but I can sing a little, but I want that to keep going because I think that's how I’ll be remembered.

“I know it will be painful because my Mum won’t be able to listen to ‘Jolene’ for a long time.

“That's what I want.

“Someone said to me ‘would you not like to be buried with your records’ and honestly, there’s history, these are outliving me and some of these records here are older than me, made in the 60s and they still sound fantastic. CDs now are barely playable because they’re all disintegrated.

“Thank you so much for taking my beautiful photos on the beach today.

“I just want people to take the time to listen to a song, sometimes you hear a song but you don’t listen to the lyrics because they’re the story of the song and I always say that.

“I think its a country music thing because country music always has a good story. If you listen to how intricate and how detailed the stories, and how someone is able to fit that into a song, it does fascinate me how that works. But sometimes you don’t pay attention, just listen to the lyrics.

“I want my song at my funeral to be ‘I Will Always Love You’ by Dolly Parton and I sat here and played it the other night and I’ve played it so many times in my life before and I always thought of that song as a breakup song but now I feel like it’s more of a goodbye song and it's just changed so much how that song sounds to me now and it sounded so amazing because it was like hearing it for the first time again.

“And that’s what I think people need to do, they need to listen to the song and focus on the lyrics.

“But I’m happy, I’m so happy that I’ve had such a nice life.”

Ryan added: “In all the nine months of doing this, sitting with my new friend, talking about music, movies and photography, it all felt very intimate and beautiful. It was important for me to do this right, not just for Chris but for his family.

“This will be the final story for a while.

“Thank you to Chris for allowing me to share space together.

“I’m sending you all of my love and I’m glad we’re friends now.”