Cancer Charities

The following charities have been an enormous help and support to us since Ryan's diagnoses and before in some cases. They all deserve the utmost respect and recognition.

Latch - Welsh Children's Cancer charity. Supporting children and their families when they need it most.

Teenage Cancer Trust - Creating world-class cancer services for young people in the UK, providing life-changing care and support so young people don’t have to face cancer alone.

Lymphoma Association - Supporting people affected by lymphatic cancer.

Macmillan - Supporting you and helpping you take back some control in your life. From help with money worries and advice about work, to someone who’ll listen if you just want to talk, we’re here.

CLIC Sargent - Young Lives vs Cancer. When cancer strikes young lives CLIC Sargent helps families limit the damage cancer causes beyond their health.

Missing Education due to Illness

The Importance of Attendance If you read any news articles on education, correspondence from your child’s school, or are simply clued up on parenting then you will know the importance of school attendance. Schools place a great deal of focus on targets and will often offer incentives and competitions to encourage and increase attendance figures, but what if your child has a serious illness. What happens if they really are not well enough to attend school. What happens then? Attendance targets at Ryan's school are currently set at 95% attendance for the school year. Therefore realistically your child can only miss 10 school days due to illness. Medical appointments such as GP or Dentist do not count, but you are encouraged to make these appointments outside of the school day where feasibly possible. If your child consistently misses school, even if it is only one day a week, that equates to 39 days over the school year. Even missing one day in a week results in pressure on the

Questions to ask after Cancer diagnosis

Cancer Sucks I have shared with you Ryan's lymphoma journey where we have talked about the ups, the downs, the protocols for drugs, the side effects, but I realised recently I have never shared the questions. This post is all about what to ask when you receive a diagnosis of cancer. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is never ever going to be seen as good news. It can never be dressed up or made pretty. It is devastating, it is gut-wrenching, it is life-changing. There is so much information to process you will not think of the questions you need to ask or you will have hundreds of questions you want to ask all at once. These are just some of the questions you can ask once you have processed the news, in order to gain a better understanding of your fight ahead. General Information What type of cancer do I have? Where is it located? What are the risk factors for this disease? Is this type of cancer caused by genetic factors? Are other members of my family at risk? What lifestyle c

Chemotherapy Cycle 5

What is Normal? With this being our penultimate cycle of chemotherapy I have had several family and friends comment to me “oh I bet you can't wait to get back to normal”. This has really thrown and upset me because it seems to come across that they have failed to comprehend the fact that we have 2-3 years of maintenance ahead and at least two more general anaesthetic surgeries. Not to mention physiotherapy as it is expected Ryan will take 12+ months to heal from the effects of being poisoned from the inside out. Normal is long way off yet. While everyone else appears to all be getting excited that Ryan is coming to an end of his chemotherapy protocol treatment, Ryan himself is becoming more and more tired with the cumulative effect of the onslaught of the chemotherapy drugs and is spending long periods of time in hospital after each cycle with infections due to his impaired immune system now as a result. Ryan is far from excited. Ryan is exhausted. We still have one more cycle t

Worrying About the Future

Worrying About the Future. Ryan said to me recently. "Childhood gave me Autism. My teens gave me cancer. What will adulthood bring?" Big worries for someone so young. So much pressure and conditioning are placed upon us about the importance of education and the set path that the majority of us will take through the system to university and/or the job market. What happens if you do not follow that path or miss so much education that the path is no longer open to you. How do you plan for the future? What options are there available to you? Ryan was excluded from his primary school in year 2 and I home schooled him for a year while we worked with the Educational Psychologist to find a placement that would suit his complex needs at the time. Due to his speech, language and communication difficulties the decision was made to withdraw him from Welsh-medium education and focus on English only which meant our choices were limited in the area of Wales that we call home. We

Cancer Survivor Story

Cancer Doesn’t End When Chemo Does Ryan finished his chemotherapy treatment on his brother's 18th birthday in May 2017. The last two years and eight months were a blur of stress. Yet coming to the end of treatment coincided perfectly with Cancer Survivors Day on the first Sunday in June, each year, so what better way to mark this day than with our own survivor story. Ryan's weight at diagnosis was a staggeringly poor 42kg. He had lost so much weight not being physically able to eat due to the tumour in his throat, but with thanks to his own determination and the feeding tube that he had. Ryan's weight as we start his final chemo cycle....drum roll....prepare yourselves.... was an amazing 57kg. A year on in 2018 and despite going through treatment for the second time after relapse. Ryan weighs an impressive 65kg. Chemotherapy Cycle six Started on Monday, 1 May 2017 for hydration and the week went well without any drama. His final chemo took place on Friday, 5 May wh

There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

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