I suppose it’s about time for another
blog post, in fact I think its way overdue. I’ve just been so busy of late I’ve
barely had the time to process my own thoughts, let alone put them down into
words! It’s probably been pretty hard to miss the fact that I’ve been doing a
lot of challenges to raise money for Maggie’s, I’ve not exactly been quiet
about it on social media (my apologies if it’s starting to get boring!!). I
started the challenges back in February with the aim of doing a different challenge
every month for a year, I started modestly but as time has gone on I’ve found
the challenges getting more and more difficult or extravagant! In February I walked
10,000 steps every day, in March I ran 5K, in April I managed to rope my
friends into hosting Kitchen table days (and of course did one myself), in May
I swam the length of Loch Ness, In June I did a 40ft bungee jump, in July I
climbed Ben Nevis and in August I walked the West Highland way! Are you tired
yet?? I know I am! But don’t worry, the year is not yet over and I’m far too
stubborn to quit now!! It helps to see the amazing amount of money that has
been raised, I’m genuinely astounded by peoples’ generosity and not just that,
I also feel incredibly privileged to have had so much support with these
challenges from friends and family, from donations, to hosting parties, baking
and even crazier joining me on some of these mad adventures, I know I couldn’t
have got as far as I have without you all.
I’ve often heard that facing a Cancer
diagnosis is a bit like climbing a mountain, I’ve heard various analogies along
these lines, and I couldn’t agree more, but what a lot of people forget is that
once you’ve reached the top of the mountain, you still have to get back down again
and believe me that’s where the hard work really begins! Just ask my Dad, he
joined me, together with my cousin on the Ben Nevis climb. I have to admit I
was a bit nervous about that, he’s not as young as he used to be and he is the
person from whom I get my (charming?) stubborn streak, but when the day arrived
he walked up that mountain as though he was going for an afternoon stroll,
whilst I was huffing and puffing and stopping every 5 minutes to power up with
snacks! For me watching this I was, of course, very proud of him and a bit
relieved, but also if I’m honest, incredibly annoyed! How could he find it so
easy when I found it so hard?? I was reminded several times that at the same time
last year I was still undergoing treatment. In fact, I only really finished
treatment in April this year and that last treatment has had an effect on my
heart function. Hmmmmm, I guess he had a point. But still, he’s 65 to my *cough*
*cough* thirty……*cough* ……! Anyway, when we got to the top of the mountain I
was almost in tears, I was so relieved! We did it!! Yey! All we had to do now
was turn around and go back down. It’d taken us 4 hours to get up so surely only
about 2 to get back, right??? Wrong! 3 and a half hours later, soaked to the
bone, joints and feet aching, tired, hungry and cold we finally made it back to
our camp. The rain had made the path down difficult to navigate and between us either
age, injury or treatment had made our joints a little less tolerant than they
used to be! On the way up the mountain my companions found it interesting to
constantly check how far we had come and how far we had left to go, I tried my best
to zone them out, I didn’t want to know, I just wanted to put one foot in front
of the other until I got to the top. Once on the way down it was a different
story, you knew where you had been and how far it was until you were back at
the beginning, but somehow it all looked different on the way back down, the
path had changed and become slippery with the rain and although we seemed to
have been walking forever that camp site down below didn’t seem to be getting
any closer. Yep, climbing a mountain is a perfect metaphor for Cancer treatment…….although
we did eventually get to the bottom, and we were able to stop in the camp site
with a well-deserved cup of tea (OK…beer!) and look up at that mountain covered
in cloud and congratulate ourselves on what we had just achieved, I’m not sure
if that will ever quite come with my treatment. I do keep putting one foot in
front of the other, I do keep looking up and seeing how far I’ve come, but some
sneaky so and so came by whilst I was up that mountain and demolished the
campsite, so I just keep walking, hoping I’ll eventually find something that
resembles it.
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| Ben Nevis |
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| Ben Nevis with my boys! :-) |
I’m sorry if I’m stretching the
analogy a bit far, and also if I’m confusing my metaphors, analogies and similes….I
never did quite get the hang of all that stuff at school! If you forgive me
though I’m going to keep going! Oh yes, it’s not over yet! Just like with my
treatment, after you climb the mountain there’s another challenge put in front
of you, it’s different, it’s not as steep and immediately daunting but man does
it go on…….and on……and on! I am of course talking about the West Highland Way!
For that challenge some wonderful (I’m no longer allowed to say crazy 😉)
friends flew in from the Netherlands, for those of you that don’t know much about
the Netherlands here’s how Wikipedia explain it:
“"Netherlands" literally means "lower countries", referring to its low land and flat geography,
with only about 50% of its land exceeding 1 metre (3 ft 3 in) above sea level”
Yep……they literally came from the
low lands to walk 96 miles (154 km) in the Highlands of Scotland! (See! Crazy
right??). I’m going to try not to bore you too much with my long winded comparisons
of how the WHW was similar to my treatment, I could go on and on about the
blisters on our feet making everything so much more difficult (mouth ulcers
anyone?), about the weather luring us into a false sense of security on the
first day with sunshine but by the final day relentlessly battering us with
cold wind and rain (chemo, most definitely for me!), about thinking you’re
almost at the end then turning a corner to find you’re actually nowhere near (everything
that follows chemo & radio!), but instead of talking about all those things
I want to talk about how as a group we kept each other going. There was a
certain point in every day after which we knew there was no going back, no
matter how tired we were or how much pain we were in, we just had to keep going
until the end of that day. We chatted about random rubbish and sang silly songs
to distract ourselves and keep our spirits high, and just as we thought we were
done, that we couldn’t take much more, someone would appear with a Haribo Strawberry
and the world was good again! It rained A LOT, but then the sun would come out and
we’d see a beautiful rainbow. It was a long seven days, but there were a lot of
laughs, rainbows and perhaps the odd wee dram of whisky along the way too. I
was so unbelievably proud of myself by the end of that challenge, but I know,
as with many of the other challenges and of course my treatment, I wouldn’t
have been able to do it without my friends around me.
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| West Highland Way |
So, after these last few crazy
challenges I should really be putting my feet up and having a rest, but I’ve heard
there’s no rest for the wicked so I may as well just keep on! This Saturday, together
with an equally crazy bunch, I’m going to attempt the Beast of all challenges (literally….
it’s called THE BEAST!!) 10km and 30 obstacles! Lots of mud, ice cold loch water and
goodness only knows what else! I’m doing my usual trick of not really wanting
to know what lies ahead, I’ll just take it one step at a time and face each
obstacle as it comes, a wee trick I seem to have learned from treatment that
seems to serve me well in life just now! It’s good to know there will be people
by my side though, helping each other as much as we can.
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| Saturday's Challenge! |
As I said earlier I am completely
amazed by the generosity of people so far, but all this is for an amazing
cause. Maggie’s have not only helped me but so many of my friends through
incredibly tough times. If you’d like to support me and my crazy bunch of
friends for any of the challenges, please go to my JustGiving page. Thank you
so much!!
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