Oops, if you use this link instead https://judyw.healthstorylines.com/app/#/register they know it has come from Australia and an Australian charity will get the donation that relates to your particular cancer.  Just to recap, here's how to download the app by following these 3 steps: 1. REGISTER BEFORE MAY 13 2018 Register for Health Storylines online via https://judyw.healthstorylines.com/app/#/register or your smart phone, tablet ( iTunes, or Google Play). 2. ADD CANCER TYPE TO PROFILE Once registered, go to the "profile" page and add your type of cancer under "conditions." 3. USE THE APP DAILY FOR 2 WEEKS Finally, you MUST use the app once daily every day for two weeks to be in the running to get funds to your cancer's charity. Fingers crossed, Ridgy ... View more

By Jove, I think he's got it! Love that for a group name 🙂 ... View more

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Thoughts go out to you re: facing 2 x cancer diagnosis. No matter what type of cancer we have (mine is rare / recurs and therefore incurable but at least it is slow growing), I reckon all cancer patients feel the same way: our identity has been ‘stolen’ and replaced by an overwhelming focus on our disease. The impact of cancer on our physical, mental and emotional health is HUGE in regards to learning how to adjust to this new normal life. No one can prepare us for when our family members move on, as 24/7 we have to be vigilant re: symptoms. How can anyone other than someone who is told they have cancer understand how the disease impacts on ALL our decisions. To minimise this focus, I TRY to stay calm and carry on so that I can find some enjoyment in the everyday. I succeed most weeks, but some days I don't! It is an ongoing battle for me to place trust in the waiting game, and in specialists to allow them to share my burden as I seem to know more about my cancer than they do! All we can do is look to ourselves for strength to get through this. We can do it. Love and hugs from one cancer patient to another! Ridgy ... View more

Just a sad postscript to my blog about my sister's miracle recovery from sepsis in hospice. A month to the day she was admitted, she passed away. The infection returned to claim her but as I wrote, she woke up and got up and was able to walk (with help) to the chapel to have the service she wanted to honour her life. She was treated beautifully by the hospice pastor who called in on her daily to play her favourite music, which we were given to play at her funeral service. And, on the day she took her last breath, I was by her side, along with the pastor from her care home who had been reading her favourite psalms. She had two pastors who gave her the love and care she needed that month. For that our family are grateful. Rest in peace my dear sister, we miss you already! ... View more

    I hope the palliative care story inspires. This is not about me, though I have been disgnosed with stage 3b neuroendrocine tumours of the small intestine (low grade as well-differentiated). My tumours were cut out 9 months ago and I am receiving no active treatment bar follow-up blood tests every six months and a gallon scan every 12 months. It's called wait and see as they are sure to return! So while I am on the surveillance program (stressful), my sister who has advanced cancer (different to mine) and given 12 to 18 months to live (that was 30 months ago) goes in and out of hospital in the past six weeks with infections (stressful). Three weeks ago she presented to hospital again with a suspected urinary tract infection, which turned to sepsis (at the time shock-jock Alan Jones was in ICU for the same condition). She was given 24 hours to one week to live as the IV antiobiotics were not improving her lot and moved to hospice (not ICU) for end of life (palliative) care. The family prepared for a funeral. A week went by, and she opened her eyes and the hospice doctor said, well I give her a month, she's clearly experiencing a rally. But she kept getting stronger and the family joked again (humour is important in these dire times) that she'll probably walk out of this "end of life" facility. Within 10 days of being given one day to live, she stood up and went for a walk! She is now going to be moved to an aged care facility as she'll need higher care post-sepsis/advanced cancer! The joke in our family is this. Alan Jones goes to ICU to recover, our sibbling goes into palliative care! She is a walking miracle. However, she's now even more susceptible to infection so we don't know how long she will remain a walking miracle. But if you need proof of miracles and the power of palliative care, this story surely is one of them!  ... View more

Ron50 you are an inspiration to us all! I couldn't agree more. Despite the advances in health care for cancer patients, we have to be our own health advocates. Had I done my test the year I asked my GP, my cancer would have been caught early and therefore not have metastasized into my lymph nodes. With surgery out of the way, I'm also on that awful "wait and see" program that feels like a slow and excrutiatingly painful way to exist. Sure it gives rise to anxiety, another awful byproduct of cancer. But given it is all I've been offered, I've decided the best treatment is to question everything I'm told at my three and six-monthly follow-ups. It doesn't make me the most popular cancer patient in the waiting room but who cares. We know our bodies better than anyone, and we get one shot to interrogate the experts, so I go at it like a bull at a gate (for that I'll be remembered forever)! ... View more