A GENEROUS CHEQUE AND THE END OF MY COURSE

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.