Please help

One of my club of cancer bitches, the beautiful Andrea, is campaigning for a change to the way benefits for cancer patients are calculated and paid.  I asked her to explain what the issue is. So in her own words, here it is: After finding out that my children are not entitled to free school…

Details

Hatched, matched and dispatched

Like many of my tribe, I’ve always been a teeny bit obsessed by the social and personal column in the newspaper. Whilst normal people call this the births, marriages and deaths section, in our family this has long been known as the “hatched, matched and dispatched”.  It has been a measure of the years rolling…

Details

Jojo

My incredible friend Jojo died last night.  Jojo and I were online friends but we’d also met in “real” life.  Like me, she was a regular feature of the online breast cancer world, through various groups. Like me, she discovered a second breast lump just by the site of her first, when she was finishing…

Details

Once Upon A Time

I have a small secret. I have a guilty pleasure. One that I think about lots, even dream about. I am a teeny bit obsessed. The object of my obsession? I blush to write it down. A U.S. TV show called Once Upon A Time. It’s available on Netflix and I am addicted to it. …

Details

The Rosie Project

Last year I read a novel called The Rosie Project. It’s a sweet story, about an autistic man looking for a girlfriend. The title stuck with me, for obvious reasons. Today I feel like it’s an apt way to describe my life at the moment. Life is no longer a series of events. It is…

Details

Sadness and happiness

Yesterday was a tough day. I awoke to the news that one of my online friends had passed away. She was a beautiful and very special person, with an inspirational attitude (I don’t use the “i” word lightly). She had made her peace with the fact that she was dying and had found ways to…

Details

Paying it forward

A few days ago I had a blood transfusion. This was the second one I’ve had since starting on my current chemo regime. My haemoglobin and platelet levels had both sunk very low, leaving me even more exhausted as well as breathless, and jeopardising my chances of having more chemo, at least until the levels…

Details

Wowzers!

Wow! This blog has been shortlisted for an award!! It’s the BritMums Brilliance in Blogging award and it’s in the Inspire category.  Now you know how I feel about the word “inspirational”. Nonetheless it’d be kind of great to win it. So if you like what I write, please vote here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/bibs2015 Here are some…

Details

Signs

A very religious man was once caught in rising floodwaters. He climbed onto the roof of his house and trusted Gd to rescue him. A neighbour came by in a canoe and said, “The waters will soon be above your house. Hop in and we’ll paddle to safety.” “No thanks” replied the religious man. “I’ve…

Details

The truth

I saw my counsellor today. It was extremely cathartic. And I realised that I find it easier to speak the truth to a stranger than to my loved ones, easier to type it into my blog than to say it face to face. I’ve not been feeling great since my Big Chemo day last week.…

Details

A guide to the afterlife

I had my chemo today. It was hard going and I feel absolutely rubbish now, but having had it delayed for three days due to low platelet levels I was still very glad to have been given the go ahead.  The first day of each chemo cycle is a very long one. We start with…

Details