Two reasons for my survival...

Friends and family...I can honestly say they are the key to my sanity!

It goes without saying that Joe is at the top of my list but right by his side is my Mum. She keeps telling me it’s our journey. This of course gives her the right to come to all my appointments in case she misses something, take over my housework to make herself feel useful and generally try to be my protector, but I don’t mind she’s like a best friend really. We’ve laughed and cried from day one. The day before my prognosis in January we were sitting watching Die Hard and she randomly asked “I wonder what they’ll do if the chemo hasn’t worked?” I was so engrossed in the movie and exhausted from thinking about that same scenario myself that I just replied “they’ll probably say yippee-kiy-yay mother fucker, shake my hand and show us the door”. Realising the dry tone I’d said it in, we both creased up laughing till we had tears in our eyes. It’s not hard to see the funny side of something when you’ve got a sick sense of humour. So guess what? As lovely as Dr Emma was, it was just like that. There’s nothing else we can do...goodbye. In the car on the way home Mum was really upset and I was just frozen so I said...”yippee-kiy-yay mother fucker” and we both burst out laughing. It works you know! Laughter truly is the best medicine.

On that note comes everyone else. I have the most fantastic friends and family and through Facebook it has become their journey too. Up until 2 years ago I didn’t know how to use Facebook and to be honest I wasn’t interested. It seemed a bit too public for me with the open squabbles and gossip but with such a large group of caring family and friends it was costing me a fortune texting everyone with each little update. So one afternoon while I was recuperating from the groin resection surgery and had started Radiotherapy I signed up and found I had all my family and friends in one place. I started with an email that went out to everyone and then one day I just put my results up on my status. It wasn’t morbid or depressing, just the facts and everyone got the same information at the same time. I also figured the more people that knew meant more people to send positive thoughts and prayers in my direction. Each time I post something on my wall now I get comments filled with love and positive energy which lift me each time and I get to share the laughter with them too. They get to see that it’s not taboo to laugh about different aspects of it and this makes it so much easier for people to deal with.

This month has been The Race for Life. It’s held annually all over Britain in all the various towns and is a fantastic fun way to raise awareness and money for Cancer Research. It's women only and they can walk, jog or run the 5k. This year they're trying to raise 60 million pounds to help towards Cancer Research in the U.K. The atmosphere is amazing and next year i have every intention of joining them in this fantastic fundraiser. These pictures are of friends and family of mine that have each done the race in honour of myself and other loved ones. When I first saw these pictures on Facebook it put a lump in my throat and i could have cried my eyes out at how caring and thoughtful the people surrounding me are. Their support has helped me no end and I’d like to thank them all.