Hello supporters and readers. This update will cover the past 2 weeks, as it has been a fairly normal period of time.

From the health perspective, I have been noticing a gradual increase in my back pain and that pain appears to be moving around different parts of my lower back. It has peaked at different levels over the past few weeks, but is certainly notable and impactful. I am not one for taking medication generally (this disease has obviously changed that!) and have not gone down the painkiller route yet; something I intend to avoid unless absolutely necessary, preferring to work through the impact. I have been carefully monitoring what has been unfolding and tying that back to any changes. The main change, since around 3.5 weeks ago, was the introduction of the supplements, advised by the Consultant. During that assessment, both Sandra and I have taken the decision to halt the use of the supplements for the same time frame (the next month) and determine if the pain eases any. If it does, we should have a partial answer. If it does not, it may just be part of the general decline, connected to the cancer and the fact that we know it is in my bones, most notably, in the lower back locations; we’ll see and further updates to follow.

I also had my latest 3-month hormone injection, the one that keeps my PSA at bay and hopefully is helping to extend my remaining time frame. The last blood results still show a less than 0.01% PSA level, which means it does not really exist anymore. The arm is sore, following the injection, but the pain levels for that are nowhere near the troublesome injection received 6-months ago now, which gave me a painful arm for months and a large swelling for around 6-weeks.

My other health-related focus has been on the short, but intensive walks near my home. I have managed 2-3 walks each week now and I have even managed to extend one of those each week, to a 2-stage walk, which takes me higher up the steep hill and allows me to continue to ensure my leg muscles are kept in reasonable shape and that my cardio is getting a little workout. One year ago (during the first 2 weeks of July), I had been out of hospital one week and was still in the midst of the self-administered stomach injections, which were aimed at boosting my neutrophils, ahead of my final chemo session. It was also one year ago that Dr. Rahman phoned to cancel that final session and halt all chemo treatment. Jump forward to this year and a very long way away from there, thankfully. The muscle wastage was a very notable impact one year ago, so my current focus is to combat that and take me closer to where I was pre-cancer diagnosis.

I have had a variety of mental challenges over the past 2-weeks, mostly around the general situation, where I may be in the overall journey, how long I may have left, how mobile I will remain and other key aspects such as what the end may look like. These mental aspects are a constant and the only variation is how many times I am mulling them over and for how long. Some weeks take up more thought time than others, with some weeks having minimal impact; the past 2-weeks have had a larger than normal impact, for no discernable reason. I guess this is just part of the overall fight with a disease such as this. What keeps me grounded and focused is, I am still breathing and still capable of doing most of what I plan to do, so I focus on that. In the words of Andy Dufresne / Tim Robbins (in the incomparable ‘Shawshank Redemption’, “I guess it comes down to a simple choice, really. Get busy living, or get busy dying.” For my personal journey through this disease, I am focusing on living…………….

Around the health situation, my main focus has been the completion of Volume 6 of my multi-volume series of history books. I am in the final conversations with the printer and they have the first versions of the files for Volume 6 and the reprint of Volume 5. There are always adjustments to be made to the book cover file, which will hopefully be sorted at the start of this coming week. Great to see that book get to this stage, it has taken a lot of work and it is the thickest volume to date at 500+ pages. Work on the Fritz Witt book continued in the background and a very nice addition was secured from Germany.

The UK weather has been very poor, with lots of heavy showers and very little sunshine. We did have a couple of meet ups since my last Blog post. The first of those was with Marian and Anneka (photo attached). Marian is one of the people I met with recently and Anneka is also a former work colleague, who initially worked within Marian’s team, but for the last 3-years of our time at the holiday company, Anneka and I worked directly alongside one another, creating and delivering the innovative customer insight program. In this past week, Sandra and I had another meet up with Martin, my colleague from the auction company. There was at least one other meetup planned, but that had to be postponed. Nice to be out and about, meeting up with friends like this and catching up on life. Normal activities that make a difference are always nice when we can find the time and put in the effort to ensure meet ups like these take place.

These meetups are perfect examples of one of those old adages, ‘Don’t wait until my funeral to show me that you cared’. We all encounter thousands of people during our life journeys and whilst a number of them may be people we would not wish to socialise with, there are a long list of those that we would. I am personally grateful for everyone of my contacts who take the time to meet up face to face, contact me on social media, or interact with my various posts. They are all positively impactful and I am grateful for them; I will thank every one of you for taking the time you have, via whichever method, to stay in touch and help ensure this phase of my life journey is still an enjoyable one.

One last aspect is my ongoing ‘Just Stop Custard’ campaign, with increasing numbers of you getting involved and commenting (although many of you are clear custard lovers!). To remind you, this is a purely light-hearted activity and it is fun to see the reactions it is creating, plus the comments you are sending. I have compiled some more videos and the first of those has been posted. Go to the following link to view that one - sensitivity guidance is advisable!.

https://youtu.be/_NEcCdZtR-g?si=ayGyo3YndLnVN9yL

Thanks for the interest, interaction and involvement in my journey, I hope there is much more to come.

Regards, Peter