Dear Boris?

Possibly not the best start to a letter – not sure whether to address it to Dear Boris, Dear Mr Johnson or Dear Mr Boris Johnson. Mr Mayor? Hmm. So, Dear Boris seems simplest! ‘Yo Boris’ just seemed rude. Bo-Jo just seems…well…let’s not go there eh?

Anyway – Mr BJ Mayor Type Person! We need and would really appreciate your help. In 2008, I was diagnosed with ovarian cancer – the really crappy kind that sort of tries it’s best to kill you as soon as possible. BUT, I did the chemo thing [nuked the little suckers], I did the ‘omg I have no hair’ thing. And I did the ‘wth? I am very scared’ thing after treatment. Cancer does the most peculiar and irritating things to one’s head. But I am now doing the Survivor thing. Bring THAT on! Oh – and the cyclist thing. Lycra? Moi? Good Lord…

Anyway – onward and upward to the Now.

My husband decided [in his wisdom] to get me to sign up for a 400km cycle across Kenya once I had recovered. I signed up in a moment of madness in 2010 [after a couple of glasses of fortifying Oyster Bay]. Since then, I have never looked back. Having cycled 400km across Kenya in 2011, including the Rift Valley, I am now cycling 400km across Cuba in October this year.

These cycles are organised by a woman called Ann Frampton. Ann is a teeny weeny anti cancer bomb – the word ‘inspirational’ is overused and worn. But in this instance, it’s the only word to use. Ann is truly our inspiration – she climbs up and down Ben Nevis – she’s cycled across India, China, Kenya – she’s stormed through the desert burning her feet. She has encouraged literally thousands of women to join her cycles and treks to raise money and awareness for these three charities. Ann is a cervical cancer survivor herself. But that does not define her – she is an incredible person, doing incredible things.

But ‘Ah yes’, you cry – ‘lot’s of people are doing this kind of thing’. And you would be right! [of course – you’re Boris]. But our next challenge is interesting. For you.

I know you support cycling. So – read on young man!

We are doing the very FIRST women only cycle through London at night. It’s called the Women v Cancer Ride the Night.  We will cycle 100km through London to raise funds and awareness for Ovarian Cancer Action, Jo’s Cervical Trust and Breast Cancer Care. We will stay awake all day, cycle all night and curse the very idea of it on the afternoon after we finish. BUT – we will have done something incredible. We’ll have raised lots of money. And we’ll have raised awareness of the symptoms of all three cancers. Which means we’ll have saved at the very least – ONE woman’s life. And we will totter about on stiff legs for a week afterward. Chuckling all the while. Because it will be hilarious!

There will be 2000 women on this cycle. And we would like your good self to lead us out. Boris and 2000 women. How can you resist?

Oh, and if you could bring Arnie, that would be such fun ;)

Please get in touch – either through this blog by making a comment, or facebook or twitter. Or, answer Ann’s letter, which is winging it’s way toward you as you read this. Or call Ann on 0845 408 2698! Your People could talk to her People!

Thanks for reading – we’re looking forward to hearing from you!

7 weeks, 2 days, 1 hour and counting!

The Kenya crew, plus Kate and Rachel.

Yesterday we did the Great Shakespeare 100km challenge ride, as a sort of training exercise for Cuba. The FH decided to give it a miss this year, so it was just Kate and me driving up to Stratford on Saturday afternoon for an early Sunday start. Missed him being there, but he must have had prescience! What chaos…

We hung the bikes on the back of the car, Kate left her dogs with various sitters, we stuffed all our belongings in and trundled off for what should have been a simple 3 hour drive up. We were so well prepared!! Ha.

On BOTH sides of the motorway there were burning vehicles [incredible], so the resultant traffic jam added 45 minutes to the trip. It was like being in a Mad Max film…at 2 miles per hour. Thank goodness we packed snacks! The bike rack became a bit rackety, so we pulled off, sorted it and and set off again. Two minutes after getting back onto the motorway I felt like someone was stubbing our their cigarette on the back of my thigh! More pulling off [rather FRANTICALLY] only to discover that a rather large red ant [apparently this was the Police speed enforcement ant] had crawled onto my dress at the sort-out-the-bike-rack stop, and was merrily biting the hell out of me! Suffice to say he died and we sallied forth once more into the breach!

Stopped for a coffee at Strensham Services – OMG!! All the Walmart people were there! 8 coach loads of them! Suffice to say we made a very swift rush to the Costa coffee, where we were served something rather resembling mud in a giant cardboard soup bowl. Rushed out into the car park, and in the frenzy to unlock the car before we were beamed up, I and managed to pop the boot, to which the cycle rack is attached. To open and slam it we’d have had to remove bikes and rack…never going to happen at this point. So we drove the rest of the way with the ‘your boot is open, fool!’ light on. By this point we actually didn’t care. We finally arrived at my friend Loraine’s lovely house in the Cotswolds at about 8.30. In one piece, astoundingly enough…

We had a fab dinner provided by Loraine and a catch up and all got to bed at quite a reasonable hour. Up at 6.00 to leave for the start, toast, coffee and bananas for brekkie then Loraine backed into me in the drive! Luckily just a scuff [bring out the T-Cut] and after a bit of manoeuvring we were off.

Met up with the Crew at the hotel where the cycle starts, everyone was rather jolly, and we were all looking forward to the days ride.

LITTLE DID WE KNOW! For some reason the day was torturous. Cycling into a head wind most of the time, which sort of takes the fun out of it. Instead of whizzing down hills, one cycles down them...at 9 miles per hour. Frustrating. And tiring.

Plus 5 million miles of wheat fields and cute cottages make one a tad disoriented…being in the Cotswolds for too long makes one feel like one has taken a hallucinogenic drug…

Kate and I decided to do The Hill – Larkspur...it’s horrible. No idea what we were thinking. It’s a 21% grade as far as I can remember. I was going so slowly that when a car came down I fell off into a hedge and have some lovely scratches to show for it. Thanks very much to the woman who raced by me shouting ‘get out of the way’ – which I tried to do and fell backwards. But she didn’t stop to see if I had died or not. Probably just as well, as I was a tad peeved at that point! Could have been messy…

Note to Cotswolds people – it’s FAR too cute there, and your roads are terrible! Full of holes and strewn with gravel. And cyclists heh heh

Kate keeled over at the second feed stop, a victim of stuffing far too much cake and bread at the first one. So we lounged about there for a while while she recovered, smoking and drinking coffee, supplied by the amazing ladies who, every year, are there smiling and supplying fab grub to over 600 cyclists.

We finally lost the will to cycle after some fellow told us there were only 4 km to go, when actually there were still 12 to go! Met up with one of the other Cuba girls and we had a Team Spazz Out, then a mad jelly baby scoffing attack, girded our loins and got going – to find we only had another corner then it was 400 yards to the finish! Total disorientation.

But even with all the delays and chaos, I still beat my time from last year by half an hour, so it’s not all bad! Plus we DID drive for 8 hours, sleep for 5 and then cycle for 6. I’d say that’s a good training day, as we were still functioning this morning!

The Great Shakespeare Cycle is the best organised cycle we’ve done. This is the third year I’ve done it. I forget how hard it is each time. It’s so well organised, you get your time chip, excellent food, go out like the Tour and the marshalling and signage are brilliant. I’d recommend anyone to do it, plus it raises funds for an excellent charity.

If we do it again though, it’ll be a full weekend job, so we can rest before and afterward! Only 7 weeks to go until Cuba! So next weekend we will be mainly cycling up and down hills! In DEVON!

statistics

Yesterday, I looked at some STATISTICS – and lost the plot a bit. Statistics always do that to me, and usually I avoid ‘seeing’ them if at all possible. Plus I usually don’t take any notice of them, because ‘statistically’ I should probably be dead. And as I’m not, I feel justified in ignoring them. A bit like weather reports. But the big bill board was a bit hard to NOT see, which led to the ‘omg! omg!’ attack. Fear creates anger in my head. Then I need to DO something, which is not always possible.

But, saying that, something useful DID come of my Statistic Shriek. I was reading an article [copied in below, as they sometimes disappear – actual article here] about the sad death of Pierce Brosnan's daughter, Charlotte, and I discovered that in the UK, women at high risk are eligible for annual screening once they reach the age of 35, or are five years away from when their youngest relative was diagnosed with the disease.

This is great! And why didn’t I know? Please share this information. It could save someone's life.

Pierce Brosnan with his daughter Charlotte, who has died of ovarian cancer, aged 42

“Catch ovarian cancer before the disease catches you

By Max Pemberton

The death of Pierce Brosnan's daughter, Charlotte, from ovarian cancer must increase awareness of this often ignored disease.

The sad news last week that Pierce Brosnan’s daughter, Charlotte Emily, has died of ovarian cancer at the age of 42 has put this oft-ignored disease on the news agenda. It is the fifth most common cancer in women, with 7,000 cases diagnosed annually in the UK, yet it is rarely in the headlines compared with, say, breast or cervical cancer.
Ovarian cancer has been linked to certain genetic mutations that are also implicated in breast cancer; and the tragedy of Charlotte’s death was compounded by the fact that her mother Cassandra, Brosnan’s first wife, died of the same disease in 1991.
Whenever someone in the public eye is diagnosed with or dies from a disease, the number of anxious people visiting their GP with apparent symptoms rises. Often, these are the ''worried well’’, but in the case of ovarian cancer, not all women who may be at increased risk realise they are entitled to regular monitoring on the NHS.
If any good can come from this death, it is an increased awareness of the support and screening services available for women with a higher-than-average chance of developing the disease. They include those who have a strong family history of ovarian or breast cancer (two or more close relatives from the same side of the family, such as a mother, sister or daughter, who are diagnosed under the age of 50). Such women may have inherited a mutation on the BRCA1 or BRCA2 gene and can be referred for genetic testing.
The chance of developing ovarian cancer for most women is one in 50, but for those with this mutation, the risk rises to between 15 and 45 per cent.

Women at high risk are eligible for annual screening once they reach the age of 35, or are five years away from when their youngest relative was diagnosed with the disease. Screening includes a blood test for a chemical that is sometimes produced by ovarian cancer cells and an ultrasound scan.
Anyone concerned about the risk of ovarian cancer should use the online information tool called Opera (http://www.macmillan.org.uk), which will help them decide whether they should seek medical advice.”

funDraising – it’s not ‘fun’ – the ‘d’ stands for desperate

I am starting to think that people assume that we are raising money for the fun of it.  Not me; my friends and family have been wonderfully supportive of my efforts – but recently I have been trying to help my friend and fellow Cuba cyclist, Kate, to reach her target. I have sent out emails to various business groups we have both been/are involved in – and the result has been A Resounding Silence from the majority of the recipients. Not all – but most.

And it’s  A Resounding Silence that makes me cross. And VERY disappointed. And very upset. It’s enough to make you cry. We are not fund raising for ourselves! This is not about personal gain. We are not fund raising because it’s ‘fun’. We are fund raising because the situation is desperate.

So it’s upsetting when people who you KNOW could afford a fiver, well – they just don’t. And yes, I know everyone has their own charity – but it doesn’t help me feeling that a tiny donation – a pound even? – would be kind. We are supposed to be a team – business networking is supposed to create that. Well. Pfft! To say I am disappointed with the Business Network ‘support’ is a huge understatement.

Check this out – a woman dies EVERY TEN HOURS of ovarian cancer…every ten hours! FFS!! IT’S ENOUGH TO MAKE YOU SCREAM WITH TERROR!

The treatment of ovarian cancer has not changed much in the last 10 years. This is not a good thing. EVERYTHING else has changed in that time. We have mobile phones that we can see each other when we call – we have electric cars; we have microwave ovens; using a machine-brain interface, researchers are making it possible for otherwise paralyzed humans to control neuroprostheses – essentially mechanical limbs that respond to human thought – allowing them to walk; the Eye of Gaia, a billion-pixel telescope will be sent into space this year to begin photographing and mapping the universe on a scale that was recently impossible; The Mars Science Laboratory – by August 2012, the next mission to Mars will reach the Martian surface with a new rover named Curiosity focusing on whether Mars could ever have supported life, and whether it might be able to in the future.

I ask this – is it more important to see if Mars ever supported life or is it more important to make life that we have already, less agonising when we pass or less agonising to survive??

Women who die of ovarian cancer do NOT go “gentle into that good night". They go kicking and screaming – they don’t want to die. Usually they are far too young – in my experience anyway. They leave behind children, husbands – life. But it takes them. It takes them and it does it in a hideous and painful way. Death by ovarian cancer us NOT a gentle passing.

So please. PLEASE help us? No donation is too small – yes – you have heard it all before, but every time you hear it, it’s meant. Every single charity DOES need and deserve our help. But in this instance, we are asking for just a little donation. EVERYONE will either suffer cancer themselves in their lives or have a dear relative or friend suffer it.

Kate’s justgiving address is HERE – please – if you can – as I said; no donation is too small.

Thank you. And thank you for reading too – and my apologies for the rage, but I feel so strongly about this…

women rule!

Between freelance work, which is buzzing merrily along at last [fingers firmly crossed about THAT - look! I even placed an advert! - my self confidence is at LAST reappearing.] And fund raising for Cuba and waiting for my check-up and trying [with limited success I might add] to TRAIN for Cuba, I haven’t much thought about an update on here. But due to some gentle nagging from various parties, here I am again.

I think the most important thing to the majority of followers of this rather lazily updated blog is that I am still NED! I had my check-up on the 11 June – it was the last 6 monthly check up I ever hope to have. In August, I reach my ‘5 year all clear’ [scary!] so my next one is in a year. Changing over to an annual check up is strangely disturbing. Like letting go of the hand that is supporting you. One wobbles a bit at first. I am still wavering between relief and panic. Mostly panic. Which I will get over. I still have a large risk of recurrence – but I also still have my amazing cancer team at the RD&E. So. Not thinking too much about that.

In other news, I have made it to the semi-finals of the Venus Awards! Devon page here. My category is sponsored by The Old Bag Company. For the Inspirational Woman category, there were 307 nominations. I am so touched to have made it through to the semi finals! Amazing. I am not quite sure how many semi-finalists there are, but at the end of the day, just making it through AND being nominated at all is such an honour. Thank you Rita and sundry other friends for nominating me!

And I am cycling! Training for the 400km across Cuba – I even have a new bike, kindly sold to me at a stupid price by my fellow cyclist, Kate. This weekend coming, we will be sallying forth to do the 60 mile Force Cancer Charity ride. I am convinced I haven’t trained enough, but hey ho – we will do it! Check out the shirt design by Chameleon Design! This is Kate and me at the training weekend in the Cotswolds. Good fun!

Other good news is that I have beaten my fundraising target! Thank you SO much all of you who went to brunches, bought raffle tickets, appeared at events and donated raffle prizes. It does mean a lot to me, and I note every single donation, no matter how small – every little helps! Thank you all!