27th April 2008

I don’t know how many ‘Woo hoo’s!’ to include in this blog.  I was going to start it with banalities like me having a job and a car finally.  However, I think I’m just going to start it with one big ‘woo hoo!’ as the last month has been great.  So here it comes – one big woo hoo:
Woooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo Hoooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!!  First I got the job I wanted, THEN a car, THEN Boots decided to support Breast Quest 2008 in a really huge way, THEN we were offered bikes for the trip!! 

I’m trying not to be too excited about all this because a). I’m trying to be cool, (but never managed this yet), and b). when I feel that things are going too well, I try to keep a lid on my excitement just in case…  The lid is not doing a very good job of containing my excitement – I have insomnia again.

At the beginning of the month I had a meeting with the Cause Related Marketing Manager at Boots.  Here’s a stroke of luck – Boots support Breast Cancer Care and are looking to support the Lavender Trust, (one of our chosen charities), which is a part of Breast Cancer Care for younger women.  Now, Boots don’t normally support individuals but they had mentioned sponsorship and some funding for the trip in our email exhanges.  So, I went along to Boots World with low expectations and a smart shirt, (I call it Boots World because it’s such a huge place and you can even order your own bread on site).  I was thinking maybe they would offer £1000 for charity and a Boots T-shirt or some anti wrinkle cream.

I felt a little conspicuous as everyone was wearing suits and there I was in my smart shirt and jeans looking a bit casual.  Anyway, I had no need to feel uncomfortable as the Cause Related Marketing Manager was lovely and after we got stuck in the security turnstiles for a while, I spilled out all our hopes and aims to her over a coffee.   I was thinking what a difficult but satisfying job she must have deciding who to support when, to my surprise, she offered £5,000 for the Lavender Trust and agreed to fund the fuel costs of our trip – £70 for 21 days!  I was over the moon and afterwards I phoned Ali to tell her the good news.  By the time I got home and switched on my computer there was written confirmation of the offer but instead of the £5,000 figure there was a 10 and then some zeros so I felt a little confused and wondered if it was only £1,000 after all.  Suddenly, I realised it read 10 GRAND and I went straight and made myself a cup of organic tea to get over the shock. 

I rang Ali to tell her and then I had a conversation with my other sister in law that went like this:
Me: “£10,000!” Silence…. Her: “£10,000!” Me: “£10,000!” Silence…. Me: “£10,000!” Her: “£10,000!” and so on for quite some time like a slow game of ‘surprise’ tennis. 
My mum was a little emotional when I told her.  Later, I realised that whilst my shirt was smart it was also quite tight across the chest and as a result it gaped and I had been flashing a bit of the offending breast, (the one that started all this), at Boots World.  I thought it was sort of ironic and wasn’t too worried – lots of people have seen it to date, (in medical settings of course). 

I have to say we owe a lot of Breast Quest 2008’s recent progress to a lady who had breast cancer herself 8 years ago.  She not only offered me some good advice about dealing with cancer but she also gave me some fantastic contacts.  This resulted in offers of support such as free design services, a PR company donating some of their time to contact media on our behalf, (we are hoping to get into a woman’s magazine or Sunday supplement), and the Boots offer.  All in all, it feels like our quest has been given a huge boost or a big helping hand.  This is fantastic because I have to say raising funds for charity is extremely hard work and I never appreciated this until now.  I take my hat off to fundraisers.  There are so many unforeseen problems like the time it takes to find the right contact person, then persuading them to read about or listen to the quest and say yes to what you are asking for.  It keeps you very busy.  There is also the added challenge of learning to ride a big motorbike when you are financially stretched.  

So there we go.  To date we have some £15K for charity in the pot, our fuel costs are covered and it looks like our accommodation costs are covered too.  I am still having my advanced lessons from Nottinghamshire Advanced Motorcyclists and Tristan, the photographer, will be having his soon.  Ali will also take up the offer of advanced driving lessons.  Training has been tough, I passed my test in freezing cold conditions before Christmas and since then I’ve had a lot of bad weather on my Sunday lessons which makes concentration harder in the wet conditions.  I feel pretty drained after a lesson and I need a lot more practice before I head off on a 3,000 mile trip around Europe.

We still need to organise the ferry crossings and obtain sponsorship for these as well as stuff like visits to some Breast Institutes in Europe, communication equipment etc.  There are other developments that we are working on at the moment.  It’s a bit like plate spinning.  We still need to find more sponsorship for our charities – there is still room on my size extra small t-shirt for sponsors!

In my personal life, I have been having some good luck too.  Nearly a year later after my diagnosis I finally started the job I was working towards as a student.  I am a Community Nurse.  Now, I know there are not many of these jobs around so I feel very lucky indeed.  The bank breathed a sigh of relief and so did I. 

Finally, I received my first yearly mammogram results.  I asked the radiographer how long they would take and was told 2 to 3 weeks.  “3 weeks!” I exclaimed, “They give you your results the same day in France!”.  The radiographer defended this practice by explaining that they needed to carefully compare results with my previous mammogram.  “I’m sure they do that in France too.” I said.  Then she added in defence that there was no urgency to having the results this time.  I thought, well, that’s easy for you to say lady, try putting yourself in your patient’s shoes!  I spent 2 and half weeks checking my breasts for lumps I might have missed before receiving a letter which said the results were clear and a booklet about being breast aware.

Hard to believe it is a year since my diagnosis.  The daffodils reminded me of that time.  I can clearly remember how I was feeling the day of my diagnosis when I went for a run along the River Trent before heading off to the Hospital to get the bad news.  A lot has happened since then.  I’m fitter, happier than ever and trying to keep a lid on it. 