So yet another one from Peterborough on the forum ? That’s four of us now - that I know of!
No, I haven’t been to the Support Group at the Holiday Inn as yet. I was interested in going to the new one at ECH, but unfortunately have missed both meetings now - am definitely hoping to go to the third !!
FYI, I’m 42 and was diagnosed on 4th April this year. I’ve had 8 sessions of chemo, mastectomy on 3rd October, and due to start rads on 26th November, followed by herceptin. My Oncologist is Karen McAdam, and Mr Abdullah is my Consultant. What about you ?
I’m sure we’ll get to meet up sometime - that’d be great.
I was diagnosed at the age of 40 which is now 12 years ago (can’t believe where the time has gone).
I know the two girls who are trying (with Chris and Claire’s help) to get the young women’s group up and running here and I’m going to put a link onto our website.
We’re going to be in Cathedral Square this coming Saturday between 11.00 a.m. - 7.00 ish and will be wearing pink wigs and skirts as we want to raise money for a machine Mr Abdullah wants (it’s a liposuction machine for the boobs!). We’ve also got a stall and Hereward Radio are going to ask people to keep a look out for us and give us money! We’ve also got a tombola with miniature teddy bears.
My name is Carol and if you’re around in town on Saturday just ask any of the women (there will be about 10 of us) and they’ll point you in the right direction!
Karen is my oncologist as well and I think she’s brilliant. My consultant was John Hall but he’s now retired so am only under Karen.
Did you know that Chris is off work for three months as she’s had an operation on her spine.
It would be lovely if you can get to the younger women’s group as they feed into ours as well as one of the girls also comes to our group and I know they’d give you such a warm welcome.
I was talking to Karen about it last week and she said she’s just realised that she can’t class herself as ‘young’ anymore as she’s just out of the age range!
Look forward to meeting you sometime! Good luck with your rads - I always felt that after chemo the radiotherapy was easy except for the drag of having to go to Addenbrookes and the increased fatigue.
Take care.
Love Pinkdove
xxx
P.S. Evidently, according to Bikinggirl (who will probably read this and is one of the girls who is setting the group up) Karen told her that I’m capectibine queen (!) (tablet form of chemo) as I’ve been on it for just over a year now. Oh, also the E.T. are going to do an article about Saturday and will also be interviewing the two younger women as it’ll be a good arena to publicise the group. The main one I set up 10 years ago only started with two of us!!
Great to hear back from you - and I should be in town on Saturday, so will come and find you ! I have also just e-mailed my friends at work to tell them about it and spread the word, so you should get a lot of support on Saturday (I work for BGL Group, i.e. many employees!!).
I will definitely try to get to the next meeting - problem is my rads start on 26th November for three weeks, so that will take me up to 14th December. Depending on what time my rads are/the meeting is, I will definitely do my best to get there. I’m fortunate in as much as I have made friends who are going through the same - one girl who was diagnosed the same day as me, two from this web-site, and also my next door neighbours friend (who has now become my friend) and has just finished her bc “journey”. In fact, she organised a fundraising day recently too, and that was for a nipple tattooing machine - again for Mr Abdullah - lol !
I’d love to know how old Karen actually is ! she amazes me as I know she commutes from Cambridge every day and has three small children.
Anyway, good luck for Saturday - as I said, I should be in town anyway with my hubby and kids, so would be great to meet you.
Just wanted to tell you I’ve had a brilliant response from work, e-mails have been forwarded on all over the place, so you should get a lot of support from my work colleagues at least !
Do you know bikinggirl? She’s one of the girls setting the group up along with Sheryl.
If you can’t make the meeting on the Tuesday you can always think of coming to the main group’s meeting on 6 December (between 8-10 p.m.) at the Holiday Inn. No pressure though!!
I was going to tell you what I look like but as I’ll be wearing a wig it’s going to be a bit difficult but someone will point you in the right direction. I’m 5’ 7" and hope that it’s sunny so that I can wear my sunglasses - can’t believe that I suggested us wearing all this gear - I’ll also be wearing dennis the menace type socks (pink and black rings!).
Karen is, I think, 46 from what she said but I agree with you that she’s quite amazing in how she holds down such a stressful job and also has 3 children. Her husband has just gone back to work as the youngest is now at school.
I was up there last Friday and it was heaving! I was actually in Clinic 8 but went into Clinic 6 as I wanted a print out of my bloods so I’m glad that I didn’t have to wait to see Karen (and this was at 12.00 noon!)
Thank you again for letting people at your work know - let’s hope we can give Mr Abdullah the machine he wants.
If you ever go into Clinic 8 you’ll see just around the corner from the waiting room seats that there’s a photo of us (with Karen) when we handed a cheque over early this year for £13,000 for the blood counting machine (I’m the one in the front with the green sort of jumper on!).
Hi Julie,
Just picked up this thread.
I will be floating around on Sat as well with Sheryl,
i’ll be in the pink biking jacket (or in the pub)!!!
Look forward to meeting you,
biking girl
Really good meeting you yesterday!!! Glad you met up with Bikinggirl and Sheryl as well and hope you can make it to either or both of our meetings!
Don’t know yet how much we raised yesterday but we had a good laugh. If you ever want to ring me just go onto the group’s website and my phone number is there.
You beat me to it - it was great to meet you all yesterday, and have big hugs all round ! Well done on managing to stand out in the cold all day - although town was really busy so you picked a great day to do it. Let me know how much you raised once you’ve counted it all !
Will look at my calendar to see if I can make the meetings (am currently sitting on my daughter’s bedroom floor, on her laptop, with my back to the radiator, and quite honestly, can’t be bothered at this point to go and find out now - lol !)
Once again, great to meet you, and I will see you all soon - I promise !
We raised £500 clear profit which I think is pretty good really (after paying out for the teddy bears!). Not as much as the Indian event back in March (£13,000) but ever bit helps!!
If you ever want to join me, Sheryl and bikinggirl for lunch once you’ve finished your rads just let us know.
Good luck for next Monday - I’m sure you’ll be fine especially after chemo, it’s just that drive to Addenbrookes! Just come back from Buckinghamshire today and got caught on the M25 for over an hour as there was an accident - and the weather was awful!!