Following the completion of my radiotherapy treatment, I had my first follow-up scan on Monday (28^th July 2014) – and today’s doctors appointment confirmed that it was as good as I could hope for, BOOM!!! The original diagnosis still stands, a grade 3 anapaestic astrocytoma, and my life expectancy is still 3-5 years, but lets hope its the later of the two, if not, longer than 5 years!

Being realistic about the situation, I will never be rid of my little friend, but will manage it by keeping a close eye on the tumour by having MRI scans every 3 months. This will allow us to design treatment options as soon as we identify any changes in the scans. From one scan it is hard to know how effective the treatment was, so the real results will come in the next three and six month scans.

But from today’s news, I can’t be any happier and I now look forward to the physical and cognitive recovery… and enjoy some well needed holidays!!!

So radiotherapy finished up at the end of last week but I’ve been to fatigued mentally and physically to do much this week. It’s only the last few days that I’ve not need in bed all day. Now the radiotherapy has stopped, I can feel the slow recovery process showing signs of physical progress. The cognitive and mental recovery may take much longer but I’ve been told not to push myself… dammit! But its probably the best excuse to slow down for a bit! The next few months may be just as important, if not more important to my recovery process than the past few months. Click ‘Continue Reading’ below…

I am sitting at the coffee shop in the Christie Hospital (Manchester, UK) between my 21st radiotherapy treatment (of the 33 course treatment) and a support group to prepare me for ‘life after treatment’. I’ve been setting up this website for past few weeks when ever I have spare time, but I am not trying to set timelines to get it done so that I can focus on relaxing, recovering and living in the moment. This was one of the several tips I was given by a new friend, Julian Huxley. Julian is a former professional rugby union player in Australia who was diagnosed with a similar brain tumour in 2008, and an ambassador of The Cancer Council NSW (New South Wales, Australia). Click ‘Continue Reading’ below…

May was a month of recovery, hospital appointments, seeing friends and the start of radiotherapy. My radiotherapy treatment was delayed by 2 weeks because of the clinical trial and the drugs I was on at the time, but it finally commenced on Monday 19^th May 2014. The first two weeks wasn’t as bad physically as I had expected. I was still able to do light exercise, knee rehab and see friends for more than just a few hours, quite easily.

My parents were travelling around the UK on a tour for a few weeks, were back in Manchester with me for a week, then off to the Baltic Sea and North Sea to see Scandinavia and Russia. As I was feeling quite good, I convinced them to go see some of Europe while they were on this side of the globe. It was good to get them out and to stop worrying about me, and to see new cities and countries they hadn’t yet seen – and they loved all the cities and countries that they visited.