and so on…

Well, I STILL haven’t sorted the t-shirts…but, I am all over a fund raiser for March 2013. I have met this amazingly enthusiastic man, Med, of the Bar Venezia. He’s down on the Exeter quay, and I always remember him from a newspaper article about people trying to burgle his shop – he ended up sleeping behind his bar, in order to ‘deal with them’; bring it ON. He is going to help me with this, my FINAL fundraiser. I think…maybe final is a bit ‘final’ though?!

So in March, on Easter weekend,  I will be staging an event there to raise funds for the Cuba cycle. We will have live bands, a raffle, salsa dancing, food, beer, wine – you name it, we’ll have it! It will be a ticketed event. So watch this space for ticket info – ALL the money will go to research into ovarian, breast and cervical cancers.

AND my dear friend Julie is doing a golf day for me again – she raised £800 last year! Amazing...so, crossed fingers for this year’s event.

In the meantime, back at the Cancery Ranch, I had my check-up. Shriek.

As usual, I was trying to be normal. What the hell IS normal ANYWAY? No idea. But my normal is ‘worry about every little thing’. Every bruise, every pain, every bit of crap. All of which could be the precursor of a recurrence. Or not. Difficult one eh?

But happily, my CA 125 was 6 and everything else was cool. Apparently I am to be ‘kept on’ after my 5 year deadline though. That made me nervous for a while – but actually, that’s brilliant. I am all for lots of check ups. Keeps me sane.

and why am I so idle?

I know. Blah – sorry about not posting. I AM alive! AND kicking! Doing another of these mad cycles next year – 400km across Cuba this time. Uff.

Life is chaotic – I'm sure you all have the same problem. Going to do this, going to do that – in a minute; after I do THIS [which is urgent] and after that. Everything is URGENT – particularly in the world of print/publishing. People seem to think that they can give you a [publisher / word / Coleslaw = CorelDraw] file one day, and that, as a graphic designer you will magic it to be 500 printed fliers within two days…well. Never gonna happen. But what DOES happen is the graphic designer gets totally stressed and calls about 90 printers, the printers go bonkers and send demented quotes and the client – well, they go out for lunch and enjoy a nice glass of Chablis and a salmon fishcake…

Which is precisely what I did today! I am usually a non-luncher – which is to say I normally eat something over the keyboard and quickly at that. Today however, I went straight from a client meeting at 9.00 to an exhibition [such as it was] at 11.00 – in between I did an 'urgent' car sales advert, found my cats and applied some makeup. Ugh. Frenzy for a person with the residuals of chemo brain.

Then, after the 'exhibition', a friend of mine, whom I went to said exhibition with, said we should go to lunch. I nearly said no, but then had a wild moment and said yes. I am so glad I did – what a delightful change! We sat in the window of the hotel, had a drink apiece and a light lunch. Met the friends charming son, and planned his future :) It really made a nice day.

Thanks Shaun for that – some little things can make your whole week different. And another absolutely fabulous thing – one of my clients MIGHT sponsor my event t-shirts! Getting on that tomorrow, but seems he might pay for production if his logo is all over the back – bring it on! Logos of whoever – who cares? ..if they generate funds? bring 'em on!!

October

"Look at this shit" – and I quote from here because I totally love this post.

October is breast cancer awareness month. PLEASE try to avoid the 'pink' crap, and instead promote actual/real awareness by telling your friends how to check their breasts [men as well] and how to give practical support to women & men who have / had breast cancer.

Researching this is easy. Get your ass on Google – first lesson: do NOT tell cancer patients to 'be positive' – just a warning, so you don't end up with a hot waffle iron to the face ;)  They WILL be positive…in their own time. But it takes time. And it isn't helped by [well-meaning] people TELLING them they SHOULD be positive. Quite often, you just can't. Losing your hair, going through painful treatment,  gaining weight through steroid treatment and knowing you may die are quite off putting when it comes to the 'being positive' stuff.

Breast cancer is NOT about 'pink' trowels. It's not about pink shirts/shoes/hats/dollies/M&M's or Kentucky Fried Chicken!

It's about pain, loss and devastation [none of which are particularly pink!]

DO help by being proactive and spreading a sensible message. A colour or an obscure Facebook message about where you keep your bloody handbag / hat / heart / whatever the fuck, does NOT define, explain or help people to be aware of the symptoms of this disease. And the saddest thing is that even by being aware, it doesn't help – breast cancer can strike even the healthiest people – it just does. Sort of like any cancer really. BUT by checking, you may be diagnosed early, which can help your survival rate enormously.

Please promote awareness of the symptoms of breast cancer by telling women and men HOW to check for it. Simple yes? You'd think so. There is an awareness pack here. It has a lot of 'pink' stuff all over it – ignore that nonsense and READ the information.

There is an excellent blog post here, all about why 'pink' is so totally ridiculous [do read it – very interesting] I particularly liked the bit where he says:

Being aware of the hazards of shoving a spindle up your ass and lighting your clothes on fire while smacking people in the face with a hot waffle iron and singing “Kumbaya” in a falsetto voice… well, you get the idea. Prevention is the key reason for awareness.

Oh, and if you read the post AND the comments; it's apparent that 'pink' is totally sickening to the majority. Pink? No. Remove it from my sight please. Information? Yes – bring it on…

I am very afraid of breast cancer. It is closely linked to ovarian. Happily, I had a physical check up recently and I am fine. Just waiting for the scan results now…waiting. It's really not good for the 'positivity' factor. So; no-one best be telling me to be positive – 'ware that waffle iron!

need some advice?

This is the story of my dear friend Gaynor Hall. The girl with the glorious smile.

Gaynor died of ovarian cancer not too long ago and is sorely missed. This book is written by her sister, Jill Herring. It contains advice that could be very helpful to women in treatment. I haven't read it yet, but I've downloaded it to my trusty Kindle. I will read it when I have taken enough calming breaths.

Description:

"This is a true story based on Jill and her late sisters experience of ovarian cancer. It is a guide about the things they learned along the way, the do's and the don'ts, some helpful hints, questions that should have been asked and questions that should have been answered. What to do and when to do it, when is 'enough' and when to look elsewhere."

awareness

I am raising money for ovarian, cervical and breast cancer research. Please donate if you can – every penny really does help. I need to raise a minimum of K3 to qualify to do the 400km across Cuba in 2013.

And noooo – this is NOT a 'jolly'! Getting up at 5.00 in the morning to cycle up and down hills all day for 5 days on the trot; staying in a different place every night [it's sort of: pack, cycle, unpack, pack, cycle, unpack - daily!]…is fun, but it's tough. As it should be, or how could we ask for sponsorship? Rest assured - we do earn our sponsorship money :) So if you can, please spare a bit of cash for my Cuba fund? Thanks!

Last weekend we did our third 100km cycle of the year in the Cotswolds. It turned out to be 67miles! It's a brilliantly organised ride for the Shakespeare Hospice, and the Kenya girls use it as a 'meeting up' ride and for training. It's through incredibly picturesque countryside, and has some MONSTER hills. But, stupidly, I didn't train well this time, so I really didn't enjoy the cycling as much as usual. BUT we made it and got our next medal! If the FH hadn't been with me I probably would have sloped off into the nearest pub after 30 miles. My knee was agony, and I had lost the will to pedal for the last 10 miles.

This is before the cycle, quite chilled at the Youth Hostel – I was slightly more frazzled AFTERWARD, as I'd had no sleep as well as no training. A lot of noisy Americans arrived home at 2.00 in the morning and proceeded to bellow merrily until 3.00. Happily, they went instantly silent upon a polite request from me. Impressive manners – I'm sure they thought they were the only people staying there? Who knows…I got about 3 hours sleep.

And here's a bit of fun – featured below with my fellow survivor, Michelle, in the Ovarian Cancer Action newsletter! A bit about the Kenya cycle. Another one of those where I read the text and thought 'eh? I didn't say that!'. I think I said far too much and they had to précis it to fit just some of my waffle in…

And here is another friend, Tracey [her blog is HERE], in the papers! I know we probably seem a tad tedious, banging on about cancery stuff – but if ONE woman's life is saved through her reading about the symptoms in the paper or in a newsletter or magazine, or seeing us cycling past in the middle of the jungle and wondering 'WHY' enough to enquire…well, that's gotta be good eh?