Hello everyone and thanks for your ongoing support. The general health situation took a turn for the worse this week, in two main aspects. Firstly, the back pain was noticeably more intense and may be due to the increased physical aspects of work. Whilst my work colleague does a superb job of shouldering the majority of the heavy lifting / moving burden, it is impossible for him to be in two places at the same time. We had two full lorry loads of pallets (around 50) to ship out this week, both done in the same day. Whilst he loads them using the forklift, that volume of pallets has to be stored in various parts of our warehouse and they need moved to the staging area, where he takes them out to the lorry with the forklift. Some of them were very heavy and the pump truck was hard to get going. Alongside that, the dismantling of the shelves and also moving of the shelf stock onto pallets, also had to be done; all physical and necessary. The impact on my body was telling, but I am hoping that it will ease, as our heavier tasks diminish. The knock-on effect on my rusty fingers was there too and evident that the more physical a week I have, the more I can expect the pain in my hands to increase accordingly.

Secondly, the psychological impact of the overall disease, the impact on my body and the reduction in overall physical abilities, is more to the fore over the past week or two, but certainly in this past week. I have made a point of focusing on the positive elements of my remaining time I have, what I can do, how do I work around the impact of the disease, etc. However, to be able to stay positive continuously, is impossible. This past week has been one where the positivity has been diminished. I am also very aware that Sandra is going through a similar challenging mindset of late. It is now one year since the chemotherapy treatment began and the deep physical impact from that, started to be felt. It is also more than one year since the initial diagnosis. I know we have both (as has our close family) done very well to seek the best we can from this situation, the inevitability of the end result is always there in our minds, constantly. I guess this past week, it has just seeped through more than the past 50+ weeks.

As most of you will know from the previous week, my sister arrived towards the end of last week and was with us up to Friday. The majority of the week was spent taking it easy, with all three of us (Sandra, Susan and myself) all suffering from various health issues. We collectively made the decision to take it easy and rest up, enjoying time to catch up with one another. We had booked various days off, to ensure both Sandra and I had days off with Susan, alongside Alanna having time with her too. The decision to not run around to various places was another reminder of the current situation and a further knock on impact to the prevalent mindset. It was very nice to have Susan visit with us again, the third time we have been together since the diagnosis was made. A chance to talk, catch up and also create new memories; last week’s show and Alanna’s birthday being some of those.

This disease is indiscriminate and countless individuals are impacted by it every single day, worldwide. One high profile individual who was diagnosed with cancer recently, was King Charles the III. Being very conscious of the ‘loneliness’ of being diagnosed, which led to this Blog you are reading, I took the decision to write to him to share my situation, as well as a link to the Blog. I have no idea if the King, or any of his team, have decided to read this. The main point I highlighted to him, was that although he may have a team of key advisers and medical professionals around him, how many of them are enduring the disease itself. That is an unknown, but I felt it may be helpful for him to know what life may be like when having to deal with the impact of him receiving the diagnosis he has. My letter was sent a few weeks back and it has been reported that many, many people took the same route I did; write to him and offer their support. On Friday, just prior to my sister returning to the airport for her flight home, a card arrived from Buckingham Palace. That card contained a thank you note from the King, for my offer of support, together with his signature. It is a printed message and no doubt send to all of the others who took the time to contact him. I was pleased to receive his acknowledgement and irrespective of how much of an impact my offer of support may have had on his life, it is further confirmation of the purpose of the Blog; to help anyone else who is dealing with cancer, in any small way. Over the past year, a number of you have reached out to confirm exactly that, the helpfulness of me sharing my insights into life with cancer. I am content to continue to share my ramblings and am pleased to see many of you continuing to read them and offer your support. That support and interest is as helpful now, as it was when I wrote the first Blog post; time has moved on, but the importance of the support and input from all of of you has not diminished.

I will sign off now, but will thank each and every one of you.

Regards
Peter