A friend I never met

Today I have been stopped in my tracks and now I am just sitting here and don't know what to do with myself. I just popped on to my breast cancer forum for a quick up-date with what's been going on there and found out one of the young girls I knew on there has passed away. I have never met this girl but she was always there online, chatting away, helping everyone out with advice to get through chemo, she was the one who put me onto my wigs on the internet.... and so it felt like I knew her. Hearing this news has brought me up short, she has been ill for a while and I always knew this day would come when one of the big breast cancer influences in my life lost their battle - but I didn't think it would be so soon. This may seem very foreign to everyone, feeling so deeply about someone you never met... but I have followed her journey closely.

She was diagnosed at the age of 29 (yes the same age that I was diagnosed) in July 2005. She got through chemo and came out the other side thinking she had kicked the disease into touch (much as I am feeling now!) but then sadly about 10 months after finishing treatment they found the secondaries; first her liver, then her brain, lungs and bone. It really upset me when 1 week after my "Brain cancer scare" last october I logged on and found out she had been in for brain scan results the same day as me but had come out with results that diverged us off on different paths and sent her down the route of brain surgery and me on the route to normality. I was really impressed that despite in October 07 being told she had 6-9months to live she had battled on and seemed to be holding her own and fighting to get on a clinical trail and the treatment she wanted. It wasn't to be. Her liver became too badly damaged as the tumours grew. Her journey had lasted 3 years. I don't know whether I should be writing all about her here on my blog, but I just felt I wanted to say something and just express how important she had been to me - even if she didn't know it.

Up to date.

Well, I guess it is about time for a little blog update.

A good place to start is the lovely wedding I have been to this weekend. It was really nice; great weather, lovely setting (garden party at the parents house), delectable champagne and yummy food. They had a hog roast and you know how James and I are partial to a good hog roast, ooh it was good. Also it was a lovely catch up with my university girlie friends (+ growing numbers of children too).
























































Everything else is progressing along nicely. I am working 4 days a week (that's 4 days in work with my 2hour/day commute). I am doing well and although I am not the girl I once was energy wise I feel pretty much back to normal. Although just how ready I am to take on the world depends on what day you catch me. On Monday and Tuesday I feel I could be working full time, I am running around here and there, juggling many an activity.... but then come Wednesday (my day off) things seem to slow down and by Thursday and Friday I am struggling to get up in the mornings for work and don't know how I am ever to get back to full time again. But that doesn't last long, after a weekends recharge I am running around taking on the world again.

I have also managed to loose 1 stone in weight since the end of treatment (which is just coming up to a year now - my god!). I think I have lost this weight mainly by being active and going to work and going for walks rather than stopping eating all the things I like. The best way to do it if you ask me.

Generally as things have been going well there is not much more to report.

My Honeymoon Shower Shocker!

I'll tell you what was a shocker - seeing myself on the front cover of the magazine alongside the title "My honeymoon shocker in the SHOWER". I didn't see that one coming. Well actually that's not quite true, I had joked that I might be on the front cover and could you imagine the headline... "my honeymoon horror" - turns out I wasn't that far from reality.

It's good to see that I am alongside such quality articles as;
"Hacked to death as I slept in the next room"
"Broke cos my fat friend was living as me"

....and my number one favorite

"Labour horror - I pushed so hard I blew up!"

Genius!!!

It's quite funny to read about myself in an article that I haven't written.... I think my favorite line in the whole bit is about my wedding day and is as follows;

"I'd sailed down the isle. It sounds so corny, but I felt like a princess"

he he.

and I just love the part where it says;

"James was great. He'd dish up pasta when I felt well enough to eat and kept the house clean" as if a man would never, unless his wife was mortally sick, do the cleaning!!!

Actually, I am happy because my charity bit to promote Breakthrough's 5K run was left in the article, and I was able to plug 2 great charities (Breast Cancer Care and Breakthrough) so I have done my job and I can hold my head up high for those very reasons. And I now know that things are going to turn out alright for me, because Pick me Up says I am clear of cancer and have the rest of my life to look forward to! Don't you love a story with a happy ending.

hmmmm I may now have wet your appetite to read it - doh, that was a mistake! You will find me in doctors waiting rooms up and down the country.