Leukaemia

This day last year I started chemotherapy for my relapse of Hairy Cell Leukaemia. It’s hard to believe it’s been 12 months but thankfully, here we are! At the time, my calendar was filled with chemotherapy appointments and blood tests, every two weeks running until end of May, but in our minds, we were taking it one day at a time. Looking forward at the time, all we had to go on was what happened during my initial treatment, neutropenia,…

Ride London 2023 Done

June 13, 2023

It’s been a couple of weeks since the ride so about time for me to do a write up! In summary, this year it was a very smooth ride, in that I wasn’t held up by any incidents, there were no warnings of thumb tacks on the road, the weather was just right, wasn’t too windy, wasn’t too warm.. just right. I set off from the house shortly after 5am on the morning of the ride. In previous rides, I…

6 Month Update

May 26, 2023

This weekend is more or less the end of the initial 6 month period that I was informed I would be having treatment. Cutting a long story a bit shorter (sorry, I do waffle a bit), I responded well to treatment so didn’t require the 13 or so cycles of treatment that I was expecting in that 6 month period. Since my last blog, I’ve had 2 more cycles, at the beginning and end of April. I had a blood…

Hairy Cell Treatment Latest Update

April 5, 2023

Time for an update! It’s been a while 🙂 In my previous post was written just before cycle 4. I went on to have 3 more cycles before my consultant suggested we take a break and do a biopsy to see where we are. Only so much can be analysed from blood results so biopsy it was. I had the results from this a couple of weeks ago, where my consultant informed me I am responding very well to treatment,…

Hairy Cell Leukaemia – Treatment Update

January 21, 2023

It has been over a month now since my last update, so I thought it was about time to gather my thoughts! Looking back to my first post on this relapse, I was due to start my treatment on November 17th and would be approaching cycle 6 this week, however, this isn’t exactly how things have panned out. The original start date date slipped 2 weeks to December 1st as pharmacy at Lister did not have the chemo drug I…

HCL Relapse – Treatment Update

November 12, 2022

I start my treatment for my HCL relapse this Thursday (17th Nov). It seems quite a long time since the initial warning signs were found in my annual check-up in July, but as bizarre as it sounds, it’s good to finally have a start date, because, a start date, means an end date! I am facing 6 months of fortnightly chemotherapy (at the Lister in Stevenage) – where I will be given Pentostation by IV drip. This is a very…

Wiltshire & New Forest

September 29, 2022

Leukaemia, Photography, Travel

Another year, another holiday in the UK. We’d planned to go abroad and were looking at Split in Croatia but I couldn’t get travel insurance (more on that below). MrsQ put out a request for recommendations on Facebook and received lots of replies. We chose to do a 2 location trip, with very different accommodation at each! Shepherds Hut Yes, we went “glamping” for 3 nights at a location just outside Tisbury in Wiltshire, a Shepherds Hut with nearby kitchen…

Ride London – Essex 2022

March 11, 2022

I am delighted to announce that I will be riding in Ride London – Essex 2022 raising funds for Blood Cancer UK again. This is my 4th time participating in the event and my second time raising funds for Blood Cancer UK having been diagnosed the summer following my first ride. I originally had a place on the pandemic Ride London – Surrey event which would have been on the “traditional course”. This years event sees the ride head out…

50 in February for Blood Cancer UK – Half Way Report

February 16, 2021