Another 365er completes her 365challenge ...

On Sunday, January 23rd 2011, 3 days ahead of her target finish date of January 26th, Australia Day, another of our 365ers has completed her 365challenge successfully.

Heather Kelly, an Aussie living here in Chester, England, contacted me just over a year ago to find out how she could take on a 365challenge to support Cancer Research UK. We kicked around a few ideas, and then Heather came back to me with her final plan. And I was stunned at its ambition!

She wanted to create something that helped connect her with her homeland, so … quite simply … she decided she was going to walk from her hometown of Geelong, just outside Melbourne on the south coast to Australia’s northern-most point at Cape York in Queensland … just 3000 miles along the east coast of this enormous country! That’s an average of 8 MILES A DAY! She told me she loved to walk and usually walked at least 4 miles most days anyway, but this was going to need a bit more of an effort on her part.

And you know what? She’s ploughed through the miles, in all weathers, and on Sunday, I was honoured to be asked to join her and a few friends for her final few miles. We successfully negotiated the river, canal and cycleways around Chester on a mild January afternoon to cross that incredible finish line … 3000 miles walked in ONE YEAR, raising, so far, £1130 for the wonderful work of Cancer Research UK (you can add to that total if you want to … click through here to her JustGiving page to donate)

We then adjourned to The Ship Inn in Handbridge in Chester for a celebratory tipple to acknowledge Heather’s wonderful effort.

Congratulations, Heather, that is an amazing achievement and you’ve done the 365challenge proud. Thanks for being willing to take it on and now … put your feet up for a few days and have a well-earned rest … before you set your sights once more on this year’s SHINE night marathon walk for CRUK in Manchester May 1st! What a trooper 

Chemotherapy: DONE!

On Wednesday, June 16th, I completed the mini-marathon that is Chemotherapy treatment, with my 6th and final session of ABVD at the Countess of Chester Oncology Suite. I have to say a huge thank you to all of the girls over there - I'm sure they'll appreciate the term (honest, I KNOW they will) - for their wonderful care and support across these past three months of treatment. Their sense of humour coupled with a truly practical approach to the business of cancer made a massive difference to me in how I came through this - and I hope I gave them a few laughs along the way too :D.

Also on Wednesday, I had a meeting with my oncologist, Dr Tueger, who, after a physical examination, declared that he could find no trace of any lumps, adding "we're all good here!" 

Gulp! 

Okay, so I know there is still a PET scan needed to confirm this, and a course of radiotherapy to "mop up any lingering nasties", but it looks like we're close to being able to declare a winner in this battle - and it ain't gonna be Hodgkin's lymphoma. Hah, take THAT!

There is a palpable feeling of relief in our house, as you might imagine, though coupled with a lingering "it's still not finally confirmed" caution, but it really is looking very good from where I'm sitting :D

Flame of Hope Awards

And what a way to celebrate finishing chemotherapy! On Friday June 18th, Mrs 365er and I hopped on a train down to "that there London" to the Russell Hotel for the Cancer Research UK "Flame of Hope" Awards. These are nominated for by the CRUK staff and acknowledge the efforts of the many amazing fund-raisers out there doing their thing to support this wonderful charity (thank you, David, for thinking I deserved to be in the mix). 


And wouldn't you know it, your very own 365challenge has only gone and won a Special Commendation in the "Fundraising through Sport" category (!), so I am looking forward to having  the pleasure of collecting my award from none other than the Chairman of CRUK, David Newbigging, OBE. 

Have to say that I'm just a bit pleased at this - and I hope it helps push the 365challenge forward in the eyes of CRUK as I continue to try to negotiate a higher profile for it in their fundraising activities in general.

Now then, when do we get to go to the palace ... :)

2/3rd of the way through chemo ... and still running (well, just a bit!)

On Wednesday, May 19th, I completed my 4th session of chemotherapy, which completed my 2nd cycle (2 sessions per cycle), leaving just one more cycle to go (hooray!). As long as I can have the treatments as scheduled, on June 2nd and 16th, I'll be done this part of my treatment! After that, I'll have a scan to see if there are any nasties lurking, and depending on the outcome of that scan, I may or may not need further chemo or possibly radiotherapy ... so there is a real chance that all of this will be done and dusted by the end of the summer ... here's hoping, eh?

I've found the chemo generally to have gone well. There is a pattern to the effects. For a couple of days afterwards, I'm fine, then by the end of day 2 post-treatment, my energy levels begin to flag. Mornings seem okay-ish, but by lunchtime, I can feel like a wrung-out cloth, and just need to sleep, which I do for a couple of hours usually. This weariness lasts for about 7 days, and then I start to gradually feel I can do things again, usually for about 5 days before I have to go for my next treatment, when the cycle starts all over again. 

I've mostly been fortunate not to suffer from nausea following the treatment, though on this last treatment, when I had only my second (once monthly) dose of Pentamine, which is given with an inhaler in an isolated room as it is so toxic, I really struggled. Pentamine was prescribed for me as my neutrophils (key white blood cells, vital for fighting infection) had dropped significantly following chemo, possibly in part due to some tablets I'd been prescribed as part of the treatment. The Pentamine was prescribed instead of the tablets and seemed to work, but this time ... uh-uh! It was a real struggle inhaling it, I felt nauseous after just a few puffs, but persevered with it for about 10 minutes, on and off, until I couldn't take any more. I left the room and spoke to one of the nurses, who spoke to the consultant, who said "STOP!" Got about half of the dose in, so we'll have to see if it worked, but I walked home from the hospital yesterday pretty shaken by that one. Hopefully I won't have to have it again, as it is only monthly and by the time it is next due, I'll have completed my final chemo cycle. Fingers crossed.

The other promising news about the treatment, however, is that when I saw the Senior House Officer a couple of weeks ago, he gave my neck a thorough physical examination and announced that he couldn't find any evidence of the lump that started this whole episode! So that was great news ... clearly the chemo has broken up the nasty little bugger, but we'll have to wait for the scan to see if it has killed it off completely ... here's hoping.

On to other things now ... while clearly, I'm not my super-fit self any longer what with being put through the wringer every fortnight, when I DO find I have some energy, I have been able to get a few runs in still, adding just a few more miles to my 365challenge total. Yesterday, Thursday morning, the day after my last chemo, I managed a 3.5 mile run, but my total for April and May to date is only about 32 miles, so I suspect I'll have to extend my challenge this time ... I hope you can all understand why ... :)

As for the "will he or won't he lose his hair" bet scam ... well, I'm delighted to tell you that so far, 4 treatments in, I still have a full head of hair (see last blog post for photo evidence - hope its not too shocking for you all). Even better though, is the fact that this little ruse has raised a whopping £935 so far to add to my personal 365challenge pot! Now, I'm just £134.45 short of hitting the £10K mark, which would be quite a milestone. If you'd like to help make that happen, please visit http://www.justgiving.com/365challenge or go and read that "hair challenge" blog first for a laugh!

Overall, the 365challenge has now raised over £30K for Cancer Research UK, and there is more to come ... further announcements soon, I hope. As part of further promotions for the 365challenge, I've recorded a series of videos that you can watch on YouTube anytime. I'd love to hear what you think, so when you have a moment, maybe you'll pop along and have a look - if you click on the "3 videos" tag just below the title on that page, you'll see the other videos in the series ...  there are some other 365 videos listed down the side of the page, however, that are NOTHING TO DO with my effort, so please don't worry about them!

Well ... I'll stop there, I think ... there is more, but I'll save that for the next time. Feel free to send thoughts, questions or comments, as I love to hear what people think about these adventures of mine! 'Til next time ... stay well, and please, if you find a lump ... get it checked out. Believe me, early treatment can make ALL the difference.

Cheers for now

Colin

chemo is taking it's toll ... but not on all fronts!

I've been a little quiet on here recently. I guess I've been finding the chemotherapy treatment pretty knackering, really, and this has spread into my ability to attend to my blogging duties!

I've had 3 (of 6) chemo treatments so far, with the next one due tomorrow (Wednesday May 19th), and I think I've fallen into a familiar pattern. For a couple of days post-chemo, I'm okay, but then the weariness starts to hit, and I'm pretty shattered for about a week or maybe a little more. Then my energy levels start to creep back up, just in time for my next fortnightly dose of chemo ... and the cycle starts all over again.

After session 2, I was really floored and didn't run at all during that fortnight, but since my last treatment, I've managed 3 runs, getting around 3 miles in each time, which I've been really pleased with. If I can keep that up, at least when all this is over, I won't be starting back into my running totally from scratch.

And I really do want to get back running again properly when this is all over. I went along to watch the Chester Half Marathon on Sunday - which I should have been taking part in - and just felt that I wanted to be a part of all this once again ... roll on July/August, when treatment should be complete and hopefully, I'll feel normal again and my fitness can get back to where it was just 6 weeks ago.

And just for the record, as I await session 4, I'm pleased to report that I'm still hanging on to my hair! So thank you once again to all you folks out there who have contributed to my "bet on my hair loss" fund-raising effort, which has raised £850 or so to date, helping bring the 365challenge total to over £30K raised for Cancer Research UK, and I hope that those of you who bet my hair would be gone by now aren't going to feel too short-changed!

"call to arms" for Cancer Research UK and the 365challenge

I've been in discussions recently with a small but hopefully growing gym group who are looking at adopting the 365challenge for Cancer Research UK (CRUK), and if that happens, then there is a real possibility that the 365challenge could take off quite significantly, which has been my goal all along, as this could see a huge boost in funds coming in to support the charity. 


In discussions with the MD of the company (details of who they might be later, as things get finalised ... be patient *GRINS*), he asked me if I'd be able to make a video to explain the 365challenge concept to his staff and potential 365ers - a sort of "call to arms" to people out there to take it on and do something amazing for Cancer Research UK. 


"Of course", I said ... and then began to wonder how to go about it! I borrowed a friend's video camera, but couldn't quite get the look and sound I wanted, so thought I'd mucked it up.  However, then I thought I should have a look at the capabilities of my new MacBook Pro, given that Apple are said to be the tool of the creatives of this world. And what do you know ... this beautiful machine had most of what I needed as part of the free software already installed.  


I used the Photo Booth video facility to make the recording, using a programme I'd downloaded for free, called Prompt, to create a tele-prompter into which I pasted my "script", so that I could read it off screen as I went along. It worked pretty well, but I do think I'll need a little more practice before I can expect calls to take over from my local newsreaders :) 


I then posted the resulting video to iPhoto, opened iMovie and imported the basic video into this, where, by trial and error, I learned a little about the process of editing, to create the 7 minute video that I've posted below.  


I'm planning several more, including a shorter, bullet-point 2 minute version, but if you have a moment, have a look and let me know what you think of my efforts. Anything you'd change or have i got it just about right? All comments welcome.