Fundraising link:

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Serena-howell1?utm_source=Facebook&utm_medium=fundraisingpage&utm_content=Serena-howell1&utm_campaign=pfp-share

Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself

Im opening blog number two with a lovely quote from Miss Hermione Granger for two reasons. The first being that CANCER is a scary word, we need to talk about it more and raise awareness. The second reason is to introduce you readers to Brian. Brian is my tumour. When you give something a name it seems slightly more friendly I think. He is named Brian as a bit of a word play on Brain, and I just thought it was a good name for him... That's my sense of humour anyway. For those of you who have seen pixars film inside out, I imagine him to be a bit like a grumpy old man sat in the courner. Brian isn't very happy at the minute anyway because I have just completed my second week of radiotherapy! Hurrah, that's a third of the way through treatment now. It's going pretty quickly and I'm doing fine so far. Hopefully Brian is losing a bit of weight! Unlike myself who is munching through as much comfort food as possible! I can't believe how much money we have managed to raise so far for brain tumour research, £500!! Me and my family are so thankful to all of you that have donated so far, let's keep going! It's such an underfunded area of research it's amazing to think that we are now really helping and one day they may find the cure that lets us cut down on using words like cancer and tumour. I will leave you with that for now. Again if you have any questions about the fundraising, research, treatment etc I'm happy to talk to anyone.

Thanks again for reading :)

The Big introduction

So, here goes.

Firstly I would just like to say thank you for giving this a read. I feel that when writing, it is important to make your intentions clear. This blog is not aimed to collect sympathy or cause upset to any of you readers, that is the last thing I want. After that line your probably wondering what this is all about! Well, there are three words that are becoming ever more popular in this world and its devastating, I certainly never imagined they would be something I was saying any time soon! But here they are... I have cancer. I was diagnosed with a tumour in my brain stem about a month ago now. As of today I have finished week one out of six of a radio therapy course at the QEH in Birmingham. What they are doing is fantastic but more research needs funding to start trying to find a cure! There are some fantastic charities supporting me, Click Sargent, Teenage cancer trust and Macmillan. As fantastic as there charities are, I wish we didn't need them! My intention with this blog is to raise awareness and some funds to help brain tumour research. I have been struggling knowing who to tell about my illness and how to tell them. Some of you reading this may not have spoken to me in months or years! I really don't want to upset anyone and so even though you may be finding out this news through the blog, I am happy to chat and answer any questions! At the same time don't feel like you have to say anything at all. I'm going to make the most out of this bad situation and try my best to help others in my situation. My step-mother is running a triathlon next month in aid of the fantastic charity we have decided to back. On this blog I will be posting her just giving page, and hopefully some other fun stuff to raise some money! Help me out if you can! I will be updating this blog occasionally with a bit more information about my story and how I am getting on. Last thing for now... before you all ask, I have so much support around me and right now I feel absolutely fine :)

Thank you for reading!

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade" is a proverbial phrase used to encourage optimism and a positive attitude in the face of adversity and misfortune.