As my tumour ‘woke up’ and start to grow in mid-2015, my scans became more regular. This kept a closer eye on what my tumour is/was doing and also to help manage my chemotherapy.

After a great week enjoying life in Victoria, Australia, with my friends in Melbourne and also renting a house in Apollo Bay to see the Great Ocean Road and all the amazing attractions down south, I flew back to Sydney for my scans. Dad picked me up from the airport and we went straight to get blood tests, then to the hospital to get my contrast MRI scans. The next morning at 9am I saw my oncologist in Sydney, Dr Mustafa Kashraw at the Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH).

On Remembrance Day, 11^th November, my results were good. Dr Kashraw was happy that the tumour is going down, back to what the dormant state was earlier this year. This is the best news I could have hoped for! My tumour will never go away. All I can do is manage it the best I can with my medical team and live my life. Enjoy my life!

I have heard from a few people who know a person recently diagnosed with cancer. As always, please feel free to pass on this website and my contact details. I am always happy to have a catch up with patients and/or their families. This may be for any reason. How to deal with being told you have cancer? How to manage your expectations? How to tell your family and friends or how to live life with cancer, from one cancer patient to another! Something which hospitals don’t generally provide. A service for cancer patients to speak with other cancer patients to know they are not alone in this tough time of their lives.

Enjoy Life!!!

Mex

My last blog tells of my first set of comparable scan results in Australia being good. This allowed me and a childhood friend, Terry, to do our much anticipated 3 week East Coast surf trip of Australia in a van. The Man-Van, Agatha!!! Agatha is a few years old, green and purple, loves dust in her cracks and a few surfboards and two guys in her metallic shell. She is a Jucy van converted into a two double bed sleeper for travelling!!

My time off from work in the UK allowed me to recover from 5 months of treatment including brain surgery and radiotherapy, to then go see much of Europe. But now that I am back in Australia, I can explore ‘my own backyard’, the Australian lands and beaches! Terry and I hired Agatha from the van rental company, Jucy, and set off from Sydney to Noosa and back, stopping in at some of the smaller towns and surf breaks.

Although I am an Aussie, I only learned how to surf late in 2014 in Portugal. So now that I am back in Australia, it’s time I continued this and slowly get better! Terry, Agatha and I stopped of at some great little beaches and towns, skipping the big cities like Sydney, Gold Coast and Brisbane. We checked out some really cool spots, some very interesting locations not just for surfing but also in the mountains, the hinterlands. The main places we explored, from North to South, include:

Noosa, Tea Tree, Sunshine Beach,

The Natural Arch GC hinterland,

Lennox Head, Byron Bay,

Evans Head, Yamba, Angourie,

Brooms Head, Diggers Camp,

Scotts Head, Crescent Head,

Forster, Booti Booti, Newcastle

Sydney

If you ever think of just venturing off in a van and travelling, making it up as you go along the coast – GO DO IT!!! Its easy to travel, plenty of places to stop and stay, a lot of great people along the way and is A LOT OF FUN!!!

After all, enjoy life! Do what you want to do and can do, and share the experience with friends and family!

The sunset on the first night at Booti Booti, NSW.

The stunning view at The Natural Arch, Gold Coast Hinterland, QLD.

Mex and Terry sharing the last wave of the day at Tea Tree, Noosa, QLD.

Terry, carving or falling? At Diggers Camp, NSW.

Capturing the view at Wilson’s, NSW.

Hanging out at Marcoola, QLD.

Coming back to Australia was bitter-sweet. I miss my friends, the fun, the travels and the adventures. I don’t miss the weather though. Coming home to Australia was a great decision. I’m spending more time with the family (as frustrating as family can be) and catching up with my old friends while still travelling. It’s just not international travel for now.

The scans I brought to home from the Manchester Hospitals weren’t the right scans for the Sydney Hospitals. They were from when I was first diagnosed. That’s no use to compare my first scans in Australia too. So my first scan in July 2015 were the new baseline scans for my tumour. Yesterday, 15^th September, was the second set of scans in Australia. As always, it’s a very nervous time in my life. But rather than having to wait a week like in the UK, I got my results the next day, today!!

The first set of scans that we could actually compare to see if the chemotherapy is working. I can’t ask for anything else but that the tumour doesn’t grow. And the doctors here in Royal North Shore Hospital (RNSH) in Sydney were happy to say that the tumour has stayed consistent for the last two scans. The chemotherapy is ‘working’. The tumour has stopped growing!

The world works in mysterious ways! We all know this. While it was a nervous but good week for me, two very close friends of mine in the UK have had gut-wrenching weeks. Two separate instances, for two different people. Both going through a hard time and life changing events. So while I can say I’m off to travel and enjoy my life for another two months, I will be very grounded thinking of my two friends and what they are going through.

I hope this is a lesson for people to take the good times when you have it. Appreciate it. Things happen in our lives that we don’t want to happen, we cant stop that. We have to take the good with the bad, and learn from our hard times. We can then really appreciate the good times after we’ve gone through the hard times.

While I finish this blog, a great song came up on my speakers by one of my favourite artists, Jason Mraz – ‘Living in the Moment’. My computer must know me better than what I thought! Live in the moment, and enjoy life!!!

See the video clip to ‘Living in the Moment’

I had planned to go to India for 6 weeks in July and August in 2015, on my way home to Australia. But the was not what my life wanted to do. The brain tumour came back in the May scan and I’ve started chemo in the UK. I had to forgo my India flights etc, but the yoga teaching course (www.yogapoint.com) that I was to attend understood my situation. They kindly agreed to defer my deposit and my place in the course to a later day, when I would be in a better position with my health. After all, my plan later is to teach yoga, among other things.

I left the UK on the flight I had originally planned on 25^th June. My close friends in Manchester, Becky, Denise and Laura started raising money in my name. The funds were to upgrade my flight with Cathay Pacific, and as I will not be able to work in Australia, to live off while I go through my chemotherapy treatment.

As it played out, Denise, Sarah, Ra and Laura (as well as others I didn’t even know, but thank you) all play their part in consistently speaking with Cathay Pacific to see what they could offer me. Their efforts paid off! I arrived with Becky, Denise, Luke and Laura at Manchester International Airport and they allowed into the executive lounge, but also upgrade me to premium economy. Its no business class, but I was happy, very happy. I did not expect any upgrade, and am very grateful for my friends efforts and for Cathay Pacific to upgrade me.

I’m writing this blog on the plane from Manchester to Hong Kong. I will spend three nights in HK as originally planned, seeing family and friends there. Then rather than continue on to India to complete my yoga teachers training, I will head back to Sydney to see my family, to get home the day before my birthday, and to continue my chemotherapy with the wonderful staff at Royal North Shore Hospital (RNS). Although my appointments are not completely free, Medicare (the Australian version of NHS or public health) will cover much of the costs associated with my appointments when I get back to Australia.

Thank you to everyone I have met and got to know in the UK and Europe. It made my 2.5 years on that side of the world an unforgettable, break taking, emotional and joyous time. I feel like I am leaving a better person than when I arrived, stronger, smarter and much more appreciative of life. Thanks for all the love that everyone has shown me through my experiences!!

Here’s to the next chapter of my life, where anything is possible…