Before Christmas 2015 I promised myself that I was going to post here on a regular basis and would start in the New Year.
Yea well, now you know why I don't make NY's resolutions!!!!
Anyway, its only 10th January so I guess I can catch up and try and keep up a regular posting habit!
So what am I going to find to blog about? Well, allsorts really. As some of you may know if you've been following my somewhat erratic blog posts over the years, I was diagnosed with womb cancer in late Dec. 2009 and although I am now technically 5 1/2 years cancer free I have been left with serious long term side effects from the treatment. So there might be a fair bit of talk about that.
I also help to raise funds for various good causes and charities by making and selling handmade jewellery and other stuff and I donate items to charities and charitable events etc.
On top of that I also run a national not for profit womb cancer support and awareness organisation called Womb Cancer Support UK
I love music of all kinds; I'm interested in lots of different stuff and I love living on my island off the west coast of Scotland.
So hopefully there will be lots to talk about over the coming months.
I'm aiming to post every week but please don't hold me to that.
See you next week - fingers crossed! xx
Sunday, 10 January 2016
Tuesday, 30 June 2015
Peach Postcard Update
In the last blog post I told you about the Peach Postcard Project that I have launched to help raise awareness of womb cancer.
Well, there have been some lovely postcards arriving and you can see them here on the Womb Cancer Support UK website http://wombcancersupportuk.weebly.com/peach-postcard-project.html
The project is open until he end of July so, if you have not yet submitted your postcard then please do so. We really do need to raise as much awareness of this cancer as possible.
It's the 4th most common cancer in women in UK yet there is very little awareness and no national awareness campaign.
Please share the link around and invite all your friends - I want to make this a global event as cancer doesn't respect boundaries and affects everyone.
Well, there have been some lovely postcards arriving and you can see them here on the Womb Cancer Support UK website http://wombcancersupportuk.weebly.com/peach-postcard-project.html
The project is open until he end of July so, if you have not yet submitted your postcard then please do so. We really do need to raise as much awareness of this cancer as possible.
It's the 4th most common cancer in women in UK yet there is very little awareness and no national awareness campaign.
Please share the link around and invite all your friends - I want to make this a global event as cancer doesn't respect boundaries and affects everyone.
Thursday, 4 June 2015
The Peach Postcard Project
As some of you may know I was diagnosed with womb cancer right at the end of 2009 and had a hysterectomy, followed by chemotherapy and then radiotherapy.
Womb cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women in UK yet there is very little awareness of it; I had never heard of it and neither had many of the women who come to Womb Cancer Support UK (WCSUK) which is the national support organisation I started in April 2011.
There is no national awareness campaign and apparently no plans for one either so its left to patients and survivors to do what we can to raise awareness.
WCSUK has done a lot of work over the past 4 years, not only supporting women who have been diagnosed but also in trying to raise awareness.
At the beginning of May this year I launched The Peach Postcard Project It aims to use art and social media to raise awareness.
So far there have been 18 postcards submitted and the word is getting around about the project. Yesterday I sent a link to a lovely blog post talking about the project so hopefully there will soon be some more postcards arriving in the post.
Please join the project and help raise awareness of this cancer. According to CRUK almost 9,000 women each year in UK are diagnosed with womb cancer, that works out at 26 women each day. Women who are Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives, Aunts and Grandmothers.
Womb cancer is the 4th most common cancer in women in UK yet there is very little awareness of it; I had never heard of it and neither had many of the women who come to Womb Cancer Support UK (WCSUK) which is the national support organisation I started in April 2011.
There is no national awareness campaign and apparently no plans for one either so its left to patients and survivors to do what we can to raise awareness.
WCSUK has done a lot of work over the past 4 years, not only supporting women who have been diagnosed but also in trying to raise awareness.
At the beginning of May this year I launched The Peach Postcard Project It aims to use art and social media to raise awareness.
So far there have been 18 postcards submitted and the word is getting around about the project. Yesterday I sent a link to a lovely blog post talking about the project so hopefully there will soon be some more postcards arriving in the post.
Please join the project and help raise awareness of this cancer. According to CRUK almost 9,000 women each year in UK are diagnosed with womb cancer, that works out at 26 women each day. Women who are Mothers, Sisters, Daughters, Wives, Aunts and Grandmothers.
Friday, 29 May 2015
City life is not for me!
Recently had a couple of days on the mainland in Glasgow. Thought it would be nice to have a wee break so we decided to book a room in a hotel in the city centre for a couple of days.
Now as some of you will know my health isn't too good so we rarely go off island these days; just too much to manage but I figured we could do with a break so we went for it.
By the time we had got the bus into town, waited for the ferry and then crossed to the mainland, struggled up from the ferry terminal to the railway station to wait for the train (which was departing from the far end of the station due to station redevelopments) I was shattered!! Didn't help that there were no seats to sit on whilst we waited!!
Anyway, things went from bad to worse. The hotel room was cramped - not good for anyone with limited mobility. We couldn't change room as they were fully booked. The hotel was right beside the main railway station (Glasgow Central) and our room overlooked the main road and every time a bus went past, which approx. every 30 seconds, the whole room vibrated.
After we had checked in we went for a short walk around.
Reality check time - what did people do before I-pods and mobile phones??
So many people charging around, not looking where they are going, staring into tiny machines that seem to control their lives!
Crossing roads, walking into and out of shops, no one talking to anyone else apart from those of them who are talking so loudly into their mobile phone that everyone can hear them - apart from those who have their I-pad earphones plugged into their ears!!!!
Maybe living on this wee island for the past 13 years has meant that I've become accustomed to the slower way of life - things move very slowly here at times but it just seemed like people were charging about like the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland - you could almost hearing them screaming "I'm late, I'm late!"
Sadly the weather turned wet and windy and the forecast for the day of our return didn't look to good and as the ferries are prone be called off at the slightest gust of wind we made the decision to come home a day early.
To be honest, I think it will be a long time before I go back there. To busy; too much traffic; too noisy and full of people rushing about who don't even have the time to say excuse me or sorry when they barge into you when they were the ones who were charging about staring at their mobile phone!!
Much prefer the slower pace of life here on the island; where you can get on the bus and the driver knows your name; you can walk around town and stop and chat to people you know and where you can go into a proper cafe and get a decent cup of real coffee.
Yes, you can keep your city life and the hustle and bustle - its the quiet life for me!
Now as some of you will know my health isn't too good so we rarely go off island these days; just too much to manage but I figured we could do with a break so we went for it.
By the time we had got the bus into town, waited for the ferry and then crossed to the mainland, struggled up from the ferry terminal to the railway station to wait for the train (which was departing from the far end of the station due to station redevelopments) I was shattered!! Didn't help that there were no seats to sit on whilst we waited!!
Anyway, things went from bad to worse. The hotel room was cramped - not good for anyone with limited mobility. We couldn't change room as they were fully booked. The hotel was right beside the main railway station (Glasgow Central) and our room overlooked the main road and every time a bus went past, which approx. every 30 seconds, the whole room vibrated.
After we had checked in we went for a short walk around.
Reality check time - what did people do before I-pods and mobile phones??
So many people charging around, not looking where they are going, staring into tiny machines that seem to control their lives!
Crossing roads, walking into and out of shops, no one talking to anyone else apart from those of them who are talking so loudly into their mobile phone that everyone can hear them - apart from those who have their I-pad earphones plugged into their ears!!!!
Maybe living on this wee island for the past 13 years has meant that I've become accustomed to the slower way of life - things move very slowly here at times but it just seemed like people were charging about like the white rabbit from Alice In Wonderland - you could almost hearing them screaming "I'm late, I'm late!"
Sadly the weather turned wet and windy and the forecast for the day of our return didn't look to good and as the ferries are prone be called off at the slightest gust of wind we made the decision to come home a day early.
To be honest, I think it will be a long time before I go back there. To busy; too much traffic; too noisy and full of people rushing about who don't even have the time to say excuse me or sorry when they barge into you when they were the ones who were charging about staring at their mobile phone!!
Much prefer the slower pace of life here on the island; where you can get on the bus and the driver knows your name; you can walk around town and stop and chat to people you know and where you can go into a proper cafe and get a decent cup of real coffee.
Yes, you can keep your city life and the hustle and bustle - its the quiet life for me!
Monday, 18 May 2015
Play Time!!
Decided to have a go with the juicer today so found a couple of large carrots and peeled and chopped them up and then put them through the juicer.
Have to say the amount of juice that I ended up with was about 1 tbs -which proves my point about juicing being a very expensive habit. I would have needed about a kilo of carrots to get a glass full of juice!!
So I was left with a pile of carrot mush! Didn't want to throw it away so transferred it to the smoothie maker and added an apple, some melon and some orange juice!
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Tasted nice but just have to hope that it doesn't go through me too quickly!!!!! Ho hum!!!
Have to say the amount of juice that I ended up with was about 1 tbs -which proves my point about juicing being a very expensive habit. I would have needed about a kilo of carrots to get a glass full of juice!!
So I was left with a pile of carrot mush! Didn't want to throw it away so transferred it to the smoothie maker and added an apple, some melon and some orange juice!
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Tasted nice but just have to hope that it doesn't go through me too quickly!!!!! Ho hum!!!
Sunday, 10 May 2015
Hit a brick wall!
Hello, been a few weeks since I've posted and to be honest I've not been feeling that great.
The black dog has been hanging around again and its been hard to motivate myself to do anything other than my womb cancer support stuff. That has to be my priority so when things get a bit tough that's what I concentrate on.
My health has also not been too good recently. The sleepless nights are making the fatigue really bad and that is making the cognitive stuff harder as well. Sometimes I can barely remember what day of the week it is!
The juicing and smoothie making has had to take a back seat as well as my bowels have been out of sorts and I can't risk making things worse.
So all in all, its not been much fun around here for a few weeks.
I've been doing a bit of research in natural treatments for scalp psoriasis, which I developed about 18 months ago. Its gotten really bad over the past 6 months and I think a lot of it is driven by stress. It kicked off just after Mom died at the end of 2013 and has got continuously worse since then.
I don't want to use conventional medication or treatments so am currently using coconut oil and tea tree oil. I melt the coconut oil (put some in a small glass jar and then stand it in a jug of hot water to melt it) and then add drops of tea tree oil. Let cool and then rub into my scalp. Thankfully I don't have it anywhere else apart from a small patch on my face at the side of my nose. I'm hoping that it doesn't spread.
Found a couple of really interesting websites - one especially interesting one was http://www.knowthecause.com/ which is about fungal infection and the link with many autoimmune issues - of which one of them is psoriasis! Going to be checking out some of the Youtube videos on that.
Am going to make an effort to get back to the smoothies and juicing and hopefully it won't affect my bowels too much!!!
If you want to follow my juicing/smoothie journey then check out my FB page here
See you soon!
The black dog has been hanging around again and its been hard to motivate myself to do anything other than my womb cancer support stuff. That has to be my priority so when things get a bit tough that's what I concentrate on.
My health has also not been too good recently. The sleepless nights are making the fatigue really bad and that is making the cognitive stuff harder as well. Sometimes I can barely remember what day of the week it is!
The juicing and smoothie making has had to take a back seat as well as my bowels have been out of sorts and I can't risk making things worse.
So all in all, its not been much fun around here for a few weeks.
I've been doing a bit of research in natural treatments for scalp psoriasis, which I developed about 18 months ago. Its gotten really bad over the past 6 months and I think a lot of it is driven by stress. It kicked off just after Mom died at the end of 2013 and has got continuously worse since then.
I don't want to use conventional medication or treatments so am currently using coconut oil and tea tree oil. I melt the coconut oil (put some in a small glass jar and then stand it in a jug of hot water to melt it) and then add drops of tea tree oil. Let cool and then rub into my scalp. Thankfully I don't have it anywhere else apart from a small patch on my face at the side of my nose. I'm hoping that it doesn't spread.
Found a couple of really interesting websites - one especially interesting one was http://www.knowthecause.com/ which is about fungal infection and the link with many autoimmune issues - of which one of them is psoriasis! Going to be checking out some of the Youtube videos on that.
Am going to make an effort to get back to the smoothies and juicing and hopefully it won't affect my bowels too much!!!
If you want to follow my juicing/smoothie journey then check out my FB page here
See you soon!
Thursday, 2 April 2015
Taking things slowly!
Been a bit quiet of the smoothie from over the past few days as my bowels have been playing up a bit.
It's a result of my radiotherapy treatment for the womb cancer - might have been almost 5 year ago but sadly I seem to be one of the unlucky ones that have been left with long term side effects.
Usually manifests itself as sudden bouts of diarrhea that I get the day after going out of the house. I rarely go out these days (for this and other reasons!) but when I do it takes so much out of me that my body seems to throw a strop and I get payback, good and proper!!!
So the thought of drinking smoothies wasn't something I was willing to do so I stuck to my usual salads and cooked veggies for a couple of days.
Often, well meaning people suggest eating some thing stodgy to counteract the diarrhea but that just sends me the other way and I get very constipated and then I have problems with the epi gastic hernia that I've got - the one they won't operate on of because of the bowel adhesions from the radiotherapy!!
Now you can see why I have been taking this juice and smoothie thing slowly - I can't afford to make my situation worse by doing the full monty and drinking then every day. In fact I can't afford it literally!! The expense would be enormous!! Its already added about £5 to my food bill a week and I can't afford that on a long term basis so smoothie making is going to have to be restricted to maybe every other day or something like that.
Mind you, I discovered that the MagicBullet is great for making homemade hummus!!
It's a result of my radiotherapy treatment for the womb cancer - might have been almost 5 year ago but sadly I seem to be one of the unlucky ones that have been left with long term side effects.
Usually manifests itself as sudden bouts of diarrhea that I get the day after going out of the house. I rarely go out these days (for this and other reasons!) but when I do it takes so much out of me that my body seems to throw a strop and I get payback, good and proper!!!
So the thought of drinking smoothies wasn't something I was willing to do so I stuck to my usual salads and cooked veggies for a couple of days.
Often, well meaning people suggest eating some thing stodgy to counteract the diarrhea but that just sends me the other way and I get very constipated and then I have problems with the epi gastic hernia that I've got - the one they won't operate on of because of the bowel adhesions from the radiotherapy!!
Now you can see why I have been taking this juice and smoothie thing slowly - I can't afford to make my situation worse by doing the full monty and drinking then every day. In fact I can't afford it literally!! The expense would be enormous!! Its already added about £5 to my food bill a week and I can't afford that on a long term basis so smoothie making is going to have to be restricted to maybe every other day or something like that.
Mind you, I discovered that the MagicBullet is great for making homemade hummus!!
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