Happy Christmas!

Well, it's almost Christmas!  Four more days and it will all be over...I have been very well organised this year for presents/gift giving.  Starting early in January definitely is a recommendation - I can relax now without needing to run round the shops, dashing about like a mad woman!!

I am now two years cancer free....I am so lucky. On 19th Dec 2013 I was told the cancer was away....on the 18th Dec 2015 I found out my mum-in-law's lump in her ovary had turned out to be cancer after all. She'd had a hysterectomy the month before but they still needed to examine the lump - which apparently was the size of a grapefruit.   So they've given her a date for chemo - 4th January!!
At least she shouldn't lose her hair as she is getting a single chemo drug....poor woman. I remember my ordeal with chemotherapy all too well....not at all pleasant but then again mine was a very aggressive form of treatment - a combination of Cisplatin & Docetaxel....I suffered every side effect  under the sun from severe painful constipation, to hair loss to a mouth riddled with ulcers and I had lost two stone because of the ulcers.....Chemo is very very tough on the body.

RIP to the victims of the Paris shooting om 13th November 2015...it's so sad that these innocent people died....especially in my most favourite city of all time....Paris.

I really hope all readers will have a blessed and happy Christmas, and a fruitful and wonderful new year 2016!!     Take care - until my next post xxx

New Job, new start!

I am so sorry for not updating this for a while... it's been almost a year.    On May 7th 2014 I went for a job interview at my local university for a catering job. I got the job but didn't start until 26th August 2014. What an experience that was..
Hearing I'd got the job was the most exciting news I had had for a long time...it was term time work. As I type I am still working there. Three more weeks then I will be off for the summer, and don't return until the autumn. It has all pretty much worked out for me.  Thanks to God and for the support of my family & friends, especially my mum....who still does quite a bit for me....I am only starting to process my cancer experience now. Yes ...almost 2 years later...tell you something interesting ...in February 2015, I put my name down for the Northern Ireland Hospice sponsored charity walk event and the hospice staff were keen to find out more about why I was doing it so I engaged in a bit of publicity. My story got published in two new local newspapers.  



My write up in the 'Newtownabbey Times'.

 

This picture appeared in the two papers.


Needless to say, I felt chuffed and I even got recognised by customers at work, so it was a good, good feeling!
At one point my article had more 'likes' on Cool FM's Facebook page than teenage hit band sensation One Direction!!

 

My family (Andrew, Ryan and I ) visited Salou, Spain for a week in August. We enjoyed it very much. I do feel so much stronger physically and mentally these days. My hair regrowth has speeded up....thinking of growing it long again..we'll see..

 

I was also following the Amanda Knox story in the media...just before Easter I sat tentatively beside my laptop on the AK online forum and the TV for the final verdict ruling by the Supreme court in Italy....to my absolute shock but sheer joy she was found NOT GUILTY and was EXONERATED!!!!  FREE at last!!   I felt so happy, upon hearing this news I cried like a baby. My partner and son were in the same room as me when it happened and they gave me very strange looks!! The poor girl, I knew she was innocent all along...and the justice system in Italy so far had failed her right up to that point. I couldn't even begin to imagine her horrifying experience of being in prison for 4 years for something she didn't do!!

 

My youngest sister has got engaged, well done Diana.....it was no surprise as she and her boyfriend Karl have been going steady and always seem very happy. I am happy for her.

 

Another night of surprises was Ryan's BB display night. my little son won not one, not two but FIVE trophies. What a proud parent I was that night!!!!!   Really wasn't expecting his name to be called again and again!!

 

Here are some pictures from Salou 2014 (except the last one which was taken in Glenariff Forest park recently):