Well life has been pretty mixed over the past few weeks.
On a personal level, I am pleased to report that I have now been well with no cough or cold for nearly a week (well only very small remnants of my original one!!). It must be time for the next one to kick in now…lol! I sincerely hope not though and am hoping that the warmer weather will bring with it a period where we can just enjoy being a family and spending some healthy time together! I have had a horrid pain in my armpit/ shoulder, but I am pretty sure that this is muscular, self-prescribed some nice strong tramadol and nurofen (not meant to have this but was told I could for 24 hours!) and seem to have seen that clear substantially….so all good there really.
The Ball continues to move on, although it really is a hard slog. We are chuffed to pieces that we now have a sponsor – Autostyling UK (www.autostylingUK.co.uk) which has meant that we no longer have to worry about the cost of getting raffle tickets printed, envelopes, stamps, etc. However, we still don’t have a major prize for the raffle and I still need loads more smaller prizes! If anyone out there has a contact to someone who might provide a TV or something like that, or a fantastic experience etc, then please let me know. We might even be able to contribute towards the prize if it was needed. In return, we can offer advertising on Facebook, twitter, our website, our Event Programme and for the top 3 prizes, on the raffle tickets!! I can also try to get it into any press releases that we do a little nearer to the time! Who could refuse that (apart from the hundreds of companies I’ve already approached!!). And if you are thinking of coming along (and we would love to have you there), don’t forget that the tickets go up from £45 to £49.50 after the 31st May. So take a look at http://www.glitzandglamourball.co.uk where you can order tickets and see some of the prizes to date!
But the reason for my mixed up status is that I had some really sad news yesterday. I found out that a lady who I have met a few times, who was a fellow Myeloma patient, passed away yesterday morning. She was always so positive about how myeloma affected her life, and felt that the allo transplant that she had in November ( a donor transplant), was just a stepping stone to a second nice long remission time. And sadly it wasn’t to be the case. It has hit me, and many of my myeloma friends, very hard as it came out of the blue. Whilst we knew she had been ill, we had heard last week that she was coming out of hospital. It is far to ‘deja vu’ of another lady that we lost a couple of years back. I am obviously really sad for her family and what they must be going through at the moment. It must be heartbreaking to lose someone no matter what, but it must be even harder when you had expected many more years ahead of you. And as I am sure I have said before, from a very selfish perspective, it reminds me of what this damned cancer does to us all in the end. I don’t want to die soon, I want to be around for many, many years. I hope that will be the case too, but the reality is none of us know when our time is going to be up.
So yesterday I felt a real mix of emotions. Part of me wanted to cancel the ball, stop spending every waking hour worrying about it, and instead focus on my family and enjoying time doing things that I really want to do. But the other part of me feels like I have to keep going, that I owe it to Penny and her family, and to all the other families that have lost members to myeloma, and to my family, to do all I can to raise money so that they get closer to finding a cure, or at the very least, a better way of prolonging life for patients. And even if it isn’t me that it helps, hopefully that money will help patients in the future. So, the ball WILL go on. But please think if you can help me. Even if just by seeing if your family and friends can donate a bottle or two, or a box of chocolates. And if you can’t do that, can you help on the night? I don’t have much control over how this cancer progresses for me, or for others, but I can raise money…..and so can you if you really want to help. Every little thing will make a difference. Thank you.
