Results tagged “BIRMINGHAM” from Birmingham Mail - I Will Survive

The day after my first cancer course for Macmillan I managed to negotiate the study from John as I had some homework to do.

I was asked to appear on the Ed Doolan show to talk about returning to work with cancer.
I thought I would be asked about patients' rights and the benefits they were entitled to, so I trawled the Macmillan website for all the information I could find and read the Discrimination Act. I am a mine of information I thought as I went off to do the interview, my head full of facts and figures. Ed asked me not one question on these subjects as there was a gentleman called Keith who was qualified to answer them. We discussed many other aspects of how you deal with cancer and work and he made me feel so relaxed that I was not at all nervous in front of the microphone.

Afterwards I was able to go and have coffee with Yvonne who I used to work with. I still get a buzz from being at the BBC, although I have not worked there for 8 years now.

On that night, at our Solihull Cancer Support Group we had a brilliant talk by Dr. Paul Crowe who told us about Interventional Radiology. Radiologists can now, in certain cases, perform surgery to remove the tumour during the scan. Apparently it is less evasive and you don't have to wait weeks for scan results before you get your treatment. These are exciting times for cancer patients as great strides are being made in this field.

My working week was still not finished, as the next day I was picked up to go to a Macmillan conference at the Paragon Hotel in Birmingham. Amazingly one of the subjects on the agenda was about going back to work and benefits. Everything I had learnt for my radio interview was discussed and I could ask intelligent questions thanks to all my research. So as they say, "no knowledge is ever wasted"!

Saturday morning arrived and this was "me" time. On a gloriously sunny day I caught the train for London, where I met my friend Debbie and her daugher Hannah to have lunch and see "The King and I" at the Royal Albert Hall. Unknown to us it was "The Trooping of the Colour" the same day and Debbie was unable to get across London for a good hour after my train arrived. This left me free to shop in Kensington which was disastrous for my credit card, but when we finally met up what a lovely day we shared together.

John was waiting for me as my train arrived at Dorridge station that evening and I looked forward to a relaxing night in with a glass of wine after my rather hectic week.

When I go away for only a few days, the garden seems to have burst forth with flowers, shrubs and weeds all vying for space. When I start working in my garden I have no concept of time, consequently I am always late for everything and beautifully manicured nails are destroyed as I can't work in gloves.However, the joy of caring for a garden is wonderful and I believe that a well loved, well cared for garden is a happy one. That is how it feels, all the flowers are blooming better than ever and the birds are singing, and working so hard as they swoop onto the bird table for worms and seed to feed their young who are nestling in our bird box. It is such a busy time for them and I only hope we can be around to see our family of bluetits leave their nest. Last year John cleared out the box and I have kept a perfect shaped nest to teach the grandchildren all about the wonders of nature.

Easter was spent with good friends. Thelma and Leno and Jean and Ray who were my neighbours for over 20 years, came round for drinks and on the sunniest Easter I can remember we went to church. Easter Monday, John and I went to our friends Kay and John's for lunch at their wonderful old cottage in the woods and as we sat basking in the sunshine in their garden with great views of Worcestershire, life felt really good.

Easter was always spent with my Mom and Dad and the boys. Another anniversary without my Dad always feels strange and Jonathan being in Canada makes it even worse. Justin was busy, but you have to accept that life is constantly changing and instead of wishing for the good old days, you have to enjoy what you have now.

I am really a kid at heart and so was delighted to have John's grandson James to stay for a few days.What an excuse to do fun things like walking in the park, going on the swings,visiting Sea Life in Birmingham, riding on a train and a tram and watching lots of childrens' videos and doing jigsaw puzzles - I haven't done one for ages but haven't lost the knack! The joy of being grandparents is that you can make the time for things which parents just can't do. Sadly after three days it was time for James to go home, but what fun we had and he said he would like to come and live with us- can't get a better compliment than that from a 5 year old!

A glutton for punishment, I took my grandchildren Ben and Nicky to the pictures for the 1st time.We went to see " Monsters and Aliens" which was in 3D. Equipped with our special glasses which cost £2 something each, we went in to enjoy the show, but they were terrified and after 30 minutes I had to take them out, so I will never know how the film ended and I've got 3 pairs of defunct 3D glasses!

The next day the sun is still shining so I think a day in the garden sounds a good idea after all this excitement!

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The last time I wrote my blog was the 4th December, since then I have been completely pole axed with the dreaded flu bug, following a flu and pneumonia jab! I rarely ever give up or give in, but the only place for me was bed. I am now up and about again, so where was I? Ah I remember, I had been given my scan results.

Just because the diagnosis is not always what you hoped it would be, you still have to get on with life. I had a lump in my stomach that had been causing me great pain and worry. Now the scan had revealed it wasn't cancerous I booked myself in to see a colo-rectal surgeon Mr. Budhoo in the hope he could help. I paid to go privately because I didn't want to wait for months on the NHS. I am used to waiting for 2 to 3 hours outside oncologists' offices, so it was a luxury to find myself being seen by Mr. Budhoo within 15 minutes.The lump was caused by scar tissue from 2 hernia operations that I had to have following the major surgery due to ovarian cancer. He explained that it would not be advisable to open me up again and that I would have to live with it. I will try everything to sort a problem out, but if there is nothing that can be done then I do learn to live with it and that is what I will do now

I'd had enough of hospitals for one week so it was so refreshing to go out to lunch with my old BBC friends, Cheryl and Claire.The food at the Bell and Cross near Belbroughton is excellent and well worth being stuck on the M42 on a busy Friday afternoon. Luckily I managed to get back home in time to go to my grandson Ben's school fair. I even won him the last tombola prize so I gained a few Nanny brownie points!

I love Xmas, especially the build up and each year we go to the Classic Spectacular at the NIA. Our friends Debbie and Gordon came to stay the weekend and equipped with union jack flags we left the Hyatt hotel after a superb meal and walked along the canal which looks so beautiful at night to the NIA. We sang our hearts out and waved our flags furiously to Land of Hope and Glory and marvelled at the wonderful special effects and fireworks during the 1812 Overture. We are blessed to have the marvellous CBSO (City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra) and to have so many entertainment venues in Birmingham. We left that night happy and elated after watching a wonderful show.

The next day we were off to Worcester to celebrate my friend Geoffrey's 60th Birthday party. He was a music producer in Popular Music at the BBC and I spent four of the happiest years of my BBC career working with Geoffrey. He has a wonderful dry sense of humour and gave my leaving speech when I retired due to cancer.It was great seeing old friends and colleagues that I had not seen for 7 years. I have to say that the ladies seemed to wear better then the men, but then I would wouldn't I!

After a lovely afternoon we raced back home to Solihull to go with other friends to an Old Time Music Hall at the little Dovehouse Theatre. We all sang along with the songstress, laughed continuously at the comedian's jokes - no swear words or sex, just pure unadulterated humour. Then one of the former members of the Morton Frazer Harmonica Gang came on looking incredibly young, especially as they were famous many years ago.As he played with great skill I remembered all the times my Dad played his harmonica. He died in August this year and when I went to his flat I found 15 harmonicas including a very tiny one. He always rang me up on my birthday to play me Happy Birthday, followed by The Flight of the Bumble Bee, so when this talented gentleman started to play it I could feel tears dripping down my cheeks. I guess I am going to get many of those moments, but when he started playing his tiny harmonica just like my Dad's, I realised how lucky I am so have so many wonderful memories of my special Dad.

All in all a very good week, but what a busy one. The next week proved to be different altogether.

Monday morning was sunny and bright and as I hopped on the train to Birmingham where I was going to be presented with a cheque from Marks & Spencer, I knew this was going to be a good day.

Thanks to the generosity of the staff and management, £2,000 has been raised for Ovacome, the ovarian cancer charity which does so much to help people like me. They are always there on the end of a 'phone if you need advice or have any worries and they send out a quarterly newsletter free. One of the aims of Ovacome is to try to get ovarian cancer a higher profile so that diagnosis can be made earlier and so that less women tragically lose their lives unecessarily. They are also on steering committes to ensure that women's views are taken into account and heard.

Breast Cancer has an amazing profile and so much research and progress is being made with great results and that is wonderful. Sadly Ovarian Cancer is definitely the poor relative so for M & S to give their support to Ovacome is marvellous.

One of their staff Mary Hughes, who is a lingerie advisor, was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in October 2006. Like so many of us her early diagnosis in April was IBS(irritable bowel syndrome), as the symptoms are very similar, but sadly 6 months on Mary was told she had ovarian cancer and that it had spread..

Thus started her journey with major surgery,numerous hospital visits, chemotherapy and scans. In 2008 she was told that the cancer has returned as so often happens with this type of disease and once again she is having to go through chemotherapy.

Having met Mary I can understand why all her colleagues at M & S have supported her and raised this money on her behalf. She is a complete inspiration to them all, she is positive and retains a great sense of humour despite her illness.So with all this and the great support from her friends at M & S and her family she has all the ingredients to beat
this cancer yet again and I wish her luck. The good news is that Mary and I are going to keep in touch.

Once again I digress. I gave a speech and the cheque was presented and it was so large (just like the ones on Children in Need) my immediate thought was "how am I going to get this on the train" and then "how am I going to send this in the post to Ovacome". Silly me, of course they send a real cheque to Ovacome this was just for publicity!

The Birmingham Mail photographer, Geoffrey was there and the article was going in the Mail one day this week although I haven't seen it yet, After a lovely buffet and enjoyble company I left to catch my train home - without that enormous cheque, happy that M & S will probably do something to help us in March 2009 which is ovarian cancer month - not a lot of people know this, Thank you so much M & S Birmingham for your generosity to Ovacome and to people like Mary and me.

Tuesday was the last day of the "Macmillan Living with Cancer Course".Where have those 6 weeks gone? I lit a candle at the beginning of the session and at the end we all held hands in friendship and blew it out. There were some tears at leaving as new friends had been made and we had all become very fond of each other and helped each other. The participants had gained so much in the way of knowledge, self help and had now been able to take back control of their lives .Consequently, for Mike, my co tutor and I it was a very rewarding moment and we suggested that the group continued to meet up and support each other and this is what they are going to do.

I had 2 great days but now I was worried. I was not looking forward to Friday when I was going to see the oncolgist for the result of my scan. Hence Wednesday and Thursday I spent the time enjoying the company of my husband and friends and a little "retail therapy" to try and forget this world of cancer for a short time.