So I haven't posted in a while now, I have been focus in on recovering from the radiotherapy and doing my best with all the wedding plans. It still feels odd not going to hospital every day. The last treatment was quite odd. I was lying on the bed when the nurse leaned over and asked if I wanted to keep my radio therapy mask... I thought why not! There is now a plastic cast of my head living in my room. We are thinking of alternate uses for it. Best suggestion so far is to use me as a fruit bowl.... To be cherished forever I hope. I feel a lot better now, less tired. I still feel a bit battered as the steroids have had bad effects on my joints and my skin has gone super sensitive. Because of the sudden weight gain I have developed really bad stretch marks too. My hair has stopped falling out though, just two little bald patches above my neck. That's it about the radiotherapy really. If anyone is interested in learning anything about it please ask. I have just got back from a family holiday to Cornwall which was lovely any relaxing. I even went in the sea without a wetsuit! Only negative was burning so easy because of my sensitive skin. The best day by far was a wildlife trip brought by my parents for my birthday. We saw wild porpoise, seals and a large pod of common dolphin, it was incredible. One thing to tick off the bucket list!
Talking of bucket lists... Please comment some suggestions... I'm struggling for creative ideas! So what's next... I have an MRI at ridiculous o'clock in the morning on Wednesday. I then get the results in a review from my doctor the following Tuesday. I'm ridiculously nervous as that is when I'll find out how long they can keep me healthy for with the treatments available... Which is limited unless I can find a new trial of some kind. As always... Fingers crossed!

You will hear from me with an update soon! Please keep getting in touch and asking questions it's been lovely hearing from all of you. X

Good news for a change!

I was expecting this post to be full of depressing information about radiotherapy and my treatment progress. However... I'm now engaged and I have never felt more energised in my whole life. As far as treatment is concerned I have had two tiny patches of hair come out but it's completely unnoticeable. Having something to keep you busy is great in a situation like mine and now I have soooo much to do. I'm so excited and motivated that everything else seems to have slipped into the background. So that's my update... At the time I'm meant to feel pretty awful.... I've never felt more amazing. How lucky am I? Thank you for all your messages from the both of us. It's such a nice change to be spreading good news!

Also... Thank you for all the donations to just giving for brain tumour research. We have now smashed £1000!! All of the money is going to my specific type of tumours research. They are incredible at what they do.

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.