The Up’s and Down’s of Cancer.

2017 in words and pictures.

I was mulling over the year a couple of nights ago, thinking about this time last year, and the massive differences the 365 individual chapters in this book have made between then and now. So, in the best tradition of any publication, here's my review of the year 2017, based on my blog posts. 

January –  "Look After Yourself, You Only Get One Go At This........."

Only one short blog that was all about looking after yourself. There were no pictures to follow the blog up, I’m guessing when I wrote it I was feeling in my usual “It’s January” malaise. So here’s a pic I took in January of Arnie and Danny, separated at birth, but reunited on Burns Night.  

February – "Runners 'n Writers"

The month’s two blogs were all about raising awareness of the guys ‘n girls who were going to run the Reading Half Marathon in March to raise funds for the Berkshire Cancer Centre. It was also the anniversary of me finishing my first course of treatment for cancer, as the time I hoped it would have been my only course of treatment. How wrong I was. 

March – "Run To The Hills"

Four updates in the month, two about the wonderful success of the Half Marathon (Watch out for the links this coming year, a different, but equally worthy, cause!) One post about the fact I was feeling quite down and in quite a lot of pain during the month. I think the cancer was showing it self again by March. I also had my tattoo done. The other post was a sad but not unexpected post about the death of Lisa Magill who had written so brilliantly about her own battle with cancer under the tag of Terminally Fabulous 

April – "That Difficult Second Album"

Again, just the one blog post. I’d recognised the fact that my voice was becoming weaker and weaker. Communication was becoming more of a challenge. The throat was becoming more painful. I met with More Scary than Scary and he put it motion the process of a fresh PET Scan over at Churchill Hospital in Oxford, a place I’d become pretty familiar with over the next few months. My post said that I wasn’t worried, I lied, I was crapping myself. The upside to the month was the end of the rugby season as some great photo’s from the Rams Mini Festival 

May – "Stalking on Sunshine (Or The Last Days of Summer"

The May blogs were real contrasts. Carol and I had our first holiday of the year, back to Fuerteventura again. It was a wonderful break full of food, exercise, and sunshine.

 

After the holiday reality kicked in. A PET Scan, followed by yet another biopsy confirmed the worst. The cancer was back, it needed major surgery and my life would be changed for ever. The remaining blogs of the month were reflective and progressive. I became involved with MacMillan’s “Life with cancer is still life” campaign. I started to look forward to getting the cancer cut out.

June – "This Is Getting Real............. My Friend"

My busiest blog month, and my longest blog at the end of the month once I’d gone under the knife. The other blogs were shorter and quite dark in places. Reading back now to the beginning of June it was obvious I was in a fair amount of pain and discomfort from the cancer. I’d stupidly driven down to Bournemouth to photograph the Badgers at the 7s festival, but had to leave after only a few hours as I was feeling so rough. The final blog of the month described in detail my first week in the Churchill, I must have been very, very bored as I seemed to have described every day in detail. 

July – "All The Best Freaks Are Here - Stop Staring At Me" 

 Another month of four blog updates, the first contained the great news that I was now Cancer free…………… (Again)!!! Albeit, this time I was left with some permanent reminders and not just memories that fade with time. The rest of the month was spent recovering and the remaining blogs described the process of coming to terms with Lary, along with my plans for coping. I seemed quite upbeat for most of the month, the only “Downers” were really when I pushed my luck a bit far and overdid things, such as the Fat Boy 7s. But there was always the memory of being at OBR when the Lions drew the series in NZ  

August – "Where Do We Go From Here?" 

 Four posts, the first of which was very, very depressing. Reality of how my life was now changed forever really began to kick in. I was more positive for the remainder of the month, slowly but surely learning how to manage Lary, and to realise that full recovery was a long, long, long way off.  We finished off the month with “The Great Cornish Jammy Doughnut Controversy” when Carol, Max, Laura and I disappeared down to Porthcothan for a week. We met Sidney for the first time and so without knowing it the wheels began to turn that would eventually bring Neville into of lives. 

September – "Hi Ho, Hi Ho, It's Off To Work I Go..........." 

 Five blogs in the month, I must have been getting better. The beginning of September brought the start of yet another rugby season for the Clark family. It saw Anna graduate proudly from Lincoln Uni and start a new life up in Leeds with Tom. By the middle of the month I was back to work, on a very part time basis, but it felt like a massive leap forward for me. I also had a severe case of Man Flu, but I didn’t go on about it, well ok I did, but it was severe man flu. By the end of the month Sidney had sewn another seed by officially making me a MUG (Mighty Uncle Group). 

October – "Bookends" 

By October I’d moved from weekly blog post up to two a month, there just wasn’t enough to write about to post weekly. Another lump had been discovered around the same area as my cancer so to be on the safe side a further biopsy was arranged, all passed smoothly and luckily this time there was nothing to be afraid about, benign is a truly wonderful word to hear a surgeon utter. I was still having problems at times with speaking, and I was still having problems with my suppliers, Countrywide. Both problems are still ongoing now. Two work related meetings up in London stretched me to the limit and upset me to a degree. I wasn’t able to perform anywhere near well enough to be considered “Fit for purpose”. Carol received her signed copy of Why Mummy Drinks from Gill Sims, awarded to her for services to the British Gin Industry whilst she's been abroad. 

November – "Leaving On A Jet Plane"

The first overseas holiday with Lary to Gran Canaria, an interesting place, not sure we’d go back to the same resort and I discovered that fine sand and Lary do not make for good bedfellows. I also started on the three weekly cycle of having to have my valve replaced due to it leaking fluids through to my lungs, which in turn leads to coughing and then a chest infection. The final blog of the month was all about someone else. In 2018 if you keep reading my blogs I suspect you’ll see the #DoingitforDani hashtag on quite a few occasions. 

December – "Every Dog Has It's Day"

The beginning of the month was quite flat, I was having problems with my valve still, I was struggling to make myself heard when in company and we’d reluctantly decided that we couldn’t take on a Kromi puppy as I wasn’t really fit enough….

….. then we decided we could and brought the bundle of bouncing energy that is Neville home to Berkshire with us.

 I’ve found December to be quite difficult over the last few years. I had a case of depression a few years back, followed by a hospital admittance for an abys three years ago, then two years ago cancer made it’s unwanted debut, hence my letter to Mr C. telling him to politely sod off. Thankfully this year was pretty uneventful. A family Christmas with our new puppy.

Happy New Year to everyone, I hope it’s peaceful and rewarding.

As always, thanks for reading.

To be continued……………

#Shoulder2Shoulder