End of an era

Two years ago I was feeling quite overwhelmed but very joyous to be seeing Oscar finish primary school. As I said at the time, the end of primary school is a fairly substantial milestone for all parents but it becomes pretty epic when you genuinely didn’t think you’d live to see the day. Well, it’s two years later and my little Max, who was only 5 and just beginning year 1 when I was told my cancer was terminal, has just completed his last day of primary school.

Like his big brother, I really don’t feel like my bastard cancer has held him back – he has never made any fuss about it and instead has just got on with school. He has transformed from an incredibly shy little boy who managed to spend several years successfully hidden under his mop of hair and his baseball cap to a still hairy but remarkably confident, funny and ridiculously creative boy (never going to be able to say young man – he’s my baby after all!). His drawing has been astonishing me for years and just in case it wasn’t totally obvious that his creativity is all Andy – he is proving to be remarkably musically accomplished too. He has so far refused any music lessons but instead has been teaching himself to play the piano and like his Dad, cannot walk past one without sitting down to play something. So I now find myself being offered both drawing and piano lessons from my ludicrously precocious 11 year old.

So both my boys will once again be at school together and as always I’m feeling that odd mixture of incredibly lucky that I have defied the odds and that the impossible has become possible but also greedy for so much more – I cannot imagine that will ever change.

For now, I shall relish the moment and actually since my last blog I have been doing much more of that – much more enjoying the present, many more treats and generally doing a good job of trying to live my best life.

The four of us had a lovely and indulgent 5 days away in Turkey during the May half-term which was quickly followed by a few days away for me in the very gorgeous Valencia. I was phenomenally well looked after by very lovely friends who as well as being brilliant company, feeding and looking after me beautifully also firmly sent me off each afternoon for a siesta which mean that I came home feeling unusually well-rested.

As well as the lovely holidays I also seem to have a had a bit of run on the patient advocacy work. There have been various opportunities to get involved, offer support as well as attend some really interesting educational workshops and events. The highlight was definitely the brilliant Melanoma Patient Conference which was both very interesting and informative but also a lovely opportunity to spend time with many of my melanoma friends. Whilst cancer is shit and there’s no question that it’s anything else, it has bought me a really lovely group of friends who become more and more important to me as time goes on. I also hosted a tea to raise money for The Royal Marsden and discovered that instead of running or walking ludicrous distances I could just happily bake and still raised over £1000.

And so once again it’s the summer holidays – which I love and in the middle of them will be a couple of weeks away and then it’ll be September and both my boys will head off to to school in their matching uniforms and more milestones will follow….