Sunday 10 April 2016

Just Another Year

I wrote the piece below yesterday, I don't want to change it but I have to put these words first.....

I have just learned of the passing of an old school friend, Gaynor Joseph, from cancer,  she had a different kind to mine, a less obvious one. Gaynor was a very gentle kind soul. She did the right thing and kept going to the Docs but no investigations were done until it was too late. Should that be happening in this day and age? Should any one with concerns be turned away? I know NHS resources are tight but the cost of catching a disease earlier must be cheaper than trying to deal with it in the later stages.  I thank God my lump was an obvious lump. I was lucky, there was no doubt about what it was. If I had been dismissed I may not have been able to write the following.....


Just another year has passed. Don't worry I know its not the beginning of January, I know it's the first half of April 2016. Just another year ago, in the first half of April 2015, I faced a new challenge, one I never thought I would encounter.  I had found a lump in my breast and did not know what the future would hold or even if "future" was a word I could have in my vocabulary.  In the past 12 months I have learned a whole new vocabulary and have become fluent in Cancer speak.  I learned about Wide Local Excisions and Clear Margins, FEC and Docetaxel,  Rads and Boosters, Targeted Therapy and Over-expressing Proteins, Hormone Therapy and Receptors. My world became a mixture of whizzing whirls of hospital visits and slow stagnant stays in bed, smiling steadfast confidence and bewildered beaten doubt. I entered a world that many others already existed in and many others will do so in the future.  Without the love and care of my family and friends, the lows would have taken over and I wouldn't have noticed the highs. I have been truly blessed to have the love of an amazing man, my soul mate, Lee Bond and the totally selfless unending care of a wonderful mother in law Chrissie Bond. My offspring injected me, fed me, wiped my tears and made me laugh by abusing me with their sick sense of humour, a grounding that is always needed! My other family members and all my friends have all been invaluable in their wise words and generous kind deeds. I'm not going to turn this into an award acceptance speech, so I won't name names, but thank you a hundred million times!!  After 12 months I'm still having treatment, so still tripping back to the Chemo ward every 3 weeks for Herceptin jabs, which will finish in September. But for all the thanks above, the biggest gratitude has to go the NHS and the incredible research that has given me the treatments to fight this disease. Love on its own can't do it.

Because of all this I am looking forward to April 2017 when I can say .......  just another year has passed.


My thoughts are with Gaynor's loved ones xx