Hello to you all and hope your Spring is unfolding nicely. For me, I will cover off the health aspects to begin with. The week started with a call from the team managing my care, to inform me that my radiotherapy begins on Monday 20th (as many of you will be reading this, my first session should be complete). Great to get dates at last, following the weeks and weeks of waiting. The plan is to conduct 5 sessions during this coming week, with the sessions lasting 15-20 minutes each. In preparation for those sessions, I had to travel to Maidstone on Wednesday, for a pre-scan and to be tattooed / marked for the radiotherapy machine.

The dates confirmation is welcomed, but as you may imagine, there is a large degree of apprehension. Dr Rahman told me to expect extreme tiredness and also to stay close to a bathroom. I have not undergone radiotherapy before, but some of those I know have had family members, or friends, who have and they have commented along similar lines. I do not know the exact impact upon me (personal physiology dependent - like the chemo?), but we have prepared as much as we can.

The psychological impact upon the family is there too and took a notable increase for my daughter specifically. The anxiety amongst the immediate family is palpable and despite trying to behave normally, that approach is not working as well as we hoped. Each of us are choosing different coping mechanisms, to work our way through what has unfolded over the past 3+ years and this new phase is no different. We are varying between hope, confidence, apprehension, fear and harsh reality that this disease is always there and constantly attacking. The plan and the hope is that this new course of treatment will buy me more time and allow me some more normality, after I get over the impact of the side effects of the treatment itself. Despite the deep apprehension and fear, matched with high hope and confidence, what is very obvious is, to do nothing is simply not an option. Whatever unfolds next, we just have to try this new treatment recommendation and hope that it helps to delay the disease a little more. To watch the physical impact on my family, is certainly not easy and sits along my own thoughts and physical / psychological processing.

The discomfort has been increasing and it is time to get something in place to hopefully shrink the new growth. However, on Sunday morning, following nearly 3 weeks of no walking, I decided to undertake one and see how far I got. Pleased to say that I did a full normal walk and the time was 13:21, which I was very surprised at, as I was not pushing myself, just trying to see how far I could get, without adding to the discomfort. I have missed the walks and it was really nice to get this one done prior to starting the radiotherapy. The Grandkids had also been asking to do a bike ride with me and the intention was to do that on Thursday, when they were with me. However, we had variable weather reports, so chose not to. We met up with them for a couple of hours on Sunday afternoon and I took my bike with me. I therefore also done some cycling with both of them, at a nearby enclosed field / park, which is nice and safe for them to increase their confidence on their bikes. Jameson and I went zooming around the large field a few times, so I got further exercise there too.

In between the call on Monday morning and the scan on Wednesday, I focused on the ‘117’ project with another indepth and complicated biography completed. Connected to that project, I have been liaising with a fellow collector in Europe and the result of those liaisons was me securing a hand signed letter and some related photos from one of the ‘117’ men; he was KiA during the war, so obtaining a signed item will go nicely with the other ‘117’ signed items in my own collection. Work was also done on the Münkemer project, but less so in the past week, due to the indepth nature of the above mentioned biography. I also gave some time to updated my signed RKT photos website, adding a number of new additions there.

With the upcoming treatment now confirmed, Sandra and I have been focusing on some key tasks and getting them covered off, as we do not know the duration or depth of the side effect impact to come. Besides some key home admin, I weeded the front and back gardens, plus gave the grass a cut, which should see us through the 2-3 weeks.

Due to what we had / have planned for April, our usual routine of seeing the Grandkids has been out of sync. Connected to that, I spent a few hours with Alanna and the Grandkids on Thursday. They came to me and the day included some retail therapy for all of us (plus some small gifts for Sandra and Karl), then some nerf wars and sword fights in the garden. Both Grandkids are certainly perfecting their aim and some crack shots came flying across the garden! During the sword-fighting phase, they combined forces and employed some psyops in their attempts to take me down. A nice fun afternoon, in good weather.

Sandra and I had booked an exhibition in London, before Christmas and the date for that was Saturday. The exhibition was showcasing items from Ramses II reign and that was at Battersea Power Station in London (this week’s photo shows us both outside that iconic former power station). Sandra had suggested taking one of the boat taxis to the event, so save us getting the train, then taxis, through the city. Thankfully the weather remained good and we drove to the O2 arena in the morning, parked there, then started the river journey at the nearby pier. There were multiple stops along the way to Battersea, with the journey taking around 1-hour. If you have not done that type of thing yet, we can thoroughly recommend it. A great way to see many of the sights of London, with the hustle and bustle of fighting through the throngs of people. We have visited many of the key sites over the years, with our children and family members, but seeing them from the river angle was a good experience. We have undertaken similar water journeys in Paris, New York, Rotterdam, Chimsee, Wörthersee, San Francisco, Hawaii and Dubrovnik; adding London was a great choice.

We rounded off the week with some time with the family, ahead of the unknown and key week to come. The cycling with the Grandkids was another one of those ‘do this before the unknown’ kinda things; important for me, and them.

In summary, another varied week, with key aspects confirmed and some new and enjoyable experiences undertaken.

Thanks for continuing to tune in. Do the same next week and I can hopefully update you all on what undergoing radiotherapy feels like.

Best regards

Peter