I am just writing this after a lovely weekend when our son visited us from London. It has been so good to get together. My daughter and I are just off to Ireland for nine days which we are spending in a cottage in County Kerry. After seven months of chemotherapy I am really ready for a change of air.
I am really aware how much I have benefited from the support of friends and family during this period and the first time I had chemotherapy. Good friends have provided encouragement and practical support. Barbara rang up to say that she would organise a cleaner for me as I would need help in the house. This brought us a real treasure, Colleen. She lost her husband to cancer a few years ago so she is very understanding. She has a real sense of fun and commitment which has been so helpful.
Friends from the Convent School have also kept in touch and provided much support and encouragement. Obviously we have shared memories but somehow that school also engendered real friendships among the staff perhaps more so than most working environments.
This year has been more of a struggle than last year when I was in remission. I need to look back to those wonderful holidays and being able to finish my school teaching career in such a happy and fulfilling way before I look at the more difficult months of 2009, both those in the past and the future. Although many of the difficulties have been because of my lymphoma, there have been some problems and changes that have emerged this year which I could never have anticipated until my search for a bone marrow donor began.
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