Very proud of our Lynne, speaking from the heart about how #Hasag supports people diagnosed with mesothelioma and the valuable service they offer. Great to have the very knowledgeable Dr Doraid Alrifai medical oncology consultant at St George’s, sharing his knowledge of the landscapes of treatments available to mesothelioma patients. This was the wonderful event Ray and I were privileged to be allowed to attend. It meant getting up at 5am to catch the train to London to arrive at 9am. We caught the packed underground to Westminster to take a slow walk over the bridge to County Hall where in ..read more

A blog with a difference as It has crossed my mind that as mental health is very fashionable to talk about, I’m making this my subject to talk about. I mentioned in the Basingstoke Peritoneal Support Group that I have come to a mental block and the discussion made it one of the best group discussions and I realised there are other Mesowarriors with the same feelings, but we don’t talk about it enough. Last year I was in Chemo and it did shrink my mesothelioma ok but I went down with COVID, so I locked myself away. My Oncologist phoned me and I said that as I had had 4 sessions with a good repo ..read more

Ray and I would like to wish everyone a very Happy Christmas. We are spending it with our family so all the presents are wrapped and ready to be loaded into the car for the off on Christmas Eve. Its been a hard year what with Chemo trying to push the meso back and then we got the dreaded COVID which shut us down from doing anything. I must admit the wonderful NHS stepped in and the GP phoned me then the hospital phoned me and sent the anti viral tablets that first day. It took 5 days to test negative and then we tested positive again. I called a halt on my treatment as I couldn’t go to a hosp ..read more

Winter Wonderland in Glasow. We travelled to Scotland on Friday. All day travelling shattered us, but we made Glasgow after 3 trains and 2 taxis but such kindness shown to 2 old codgers by so many people. Taking my case off the train or up steps was such a great help. We have got to agree to any kindness shown as people get hurt if we say no, bless them. We had made the journey as easy as we could by going to Kings Cross and train to Edinburgh then with minutes to spare, we got straight onto the train to Glasgow. A fun fare greeted us so pretty. We arrived at the Hilton Glasgow where we were ..read more

The Venue was at the Van der Valk Hotel Oostzaan, the Netherlands. We had travelled to my family in Luton to stay the night before and our son drove us to Luton Airport. We had planned on driving up there, but the protesters were being silly again at Dartford at the Dartford Crossing, we gathered everything up, called a taxi and got to the station in time for a train to London then Luton. We got to the airport in plenty of time and was already to fly to Schiphol Airport. We had a easy flight on Easy Jet and arrived at the hotel in the evening. The room was very nice and we soon settled in and ..read more

So after dodging COVID for years we got caught and got through it. When it came to it though we had to work through it on our own as there is so much information and yet not a lot for COVID and Cancer. Our GP was great in helping with medication. We had the antiviral drug and that got us to a clear 10 days of feeling very low, I had decided to contact my Oncologist through my Meso Nurse and ask to come off Chemo. I had messed about for so long with Bloods being out 3 times and delayed treatment I was in such a muddle to where I was. Then I checked and it said to stop Chemo until well clear of ..read more

I thought September was madness, but October is even more maddening. COVID has struck our house. We went to MesoUK’s Patient Carers Day last week and had a great time. It was so lovely meeting up with all our friends and really had a ball. We travelled up a day earlier to Nottingham to miss out on a train strike. That meant we had the Belfrey Hotel to ourselves, and the staff were so friendly, so we spent a pleasant time there. So many friends arrived the next day it was great catching up with everyone’s news. A lovely meal out in the restaurant next door only we didnt know that but found out ..read more

September is almost over, where does the time go and why does it always rush to Christmas and creates that mad panic once a year. Its been a month where Chemo has overtaken my world, with visits to the hospital for bloods and treatment. I do still enjoy Zoom meetings when I can where I learn so much, I do hope they carry on using this tool. My fav one is with Andrew Paten Co-Founder at UKNAR – UK National Asbestos Register who wrote in Linked in – WOW!! I am delighted and astonished – this single upcoming webinar has attracted representation from 5% (1500+) of all the UK’s 32,000 schools. 85 M ..read more

The picture that sums up the day is the corgis waiting for the queen’s hearse -so sad Even though it was a Bank Holiday I had an appointment for the results of my scan. I watched as much as I could of the Queens funeral, but I had to turn the telly off as we had to drive to Canterbury. The roads were empty we couldn’t believe it and was soon turning into the hospital carpark where they had the telly on in the waiting room, so we carried on watching. I didn’t see my Oncologist I was called in by a dishy young Doctor who was helping out with the list of patients. He welcomed me and said that my ..read more

August has been a long hot month and we have enjoyed every day. Lots of sunbathing and relaxing but also long chemo sessions on Monday (Bloods) the Wednesdays in chemo twice but I still feel great. We have worked in the garden and straightened it up. My Son chopped 2 trees down for me and then Ray and I worked together I sat down on a garden chair to rest then did a bit more sat down, then back to work for a while then sat down again. I saw it as a great work out but it was more like a battle of wills. I didnt always win but over the weeks the garden looks great. Just a little bit more and we ..read more