Hi Luke,

Just saw your message and thought i would send one out too. I've just been diagnosed with Ewing's sarcoma in my right femur, after about nine months of pain and confusion and GPs telling me i've just pulled a muscle! Luckily it is localised and I had my first cycle of VIDE this week which was fine, though i have been feeling a little crappy since coming home. i'm generally a really positive person and have been dealing with all this news quite well but struggling a bit to stay happy at the moment when there's such a long path ahead! I was wondering whether you had any tips for keeping your spirits up/having stuff to look forward to, because all I can think at the moment is "oh 4 months till operation, and then more chemo woop woop!". also everyone keeps saying its important i carry on with life and dont let this take over but as i've had to stop being a full time student i dont really have any other distractions, just kinda milling around at home.

anyway any tips (from you or anyone else out there) or advice would be amazing! well done on finishing all your treatment and getting through it ok, it must've been tough and it must feel like a million years ago since you went through all this diagnosis malarky!

Becci x

Honestly, for the first couple of VIDEs I felt really crap, so being able to stay home n just mill about the house was a welcome bonus for me. I tried to go out ever now and again: To a friends house, to a party for a couple hours, to the cinema.. Just the normal stuff.. It seemed like all major events friends planned fell on days I couldn't make it though! After the first few I had an idea of how long it took me to recover from Chemo, so I'd plan nights out with friends to do things I knew I was capable of.

Was hard sometimes to stay positive all the time and I'd have really down days.. Don't feel bad about having days like that, it happens.. I had days I wouldn't talk to anyone or eat anything.. I just stayed in bed but I'd snap out of it and be back to myself. I used to just make little jokes with friends about it too, to make it seem less scary. Talk about how you're feeling  to those who you trust and are close enough with.. Or to others going through the same sort of thing. I considered myself lucky to have it where I had it, Alot of people were worse off than I.. That made it a little easier.

I did exactly the same as you.. "4 months, Operation, more chemo, done." .. Then it changed, Coz it hadn't worked as they'd hoped so I needed Radiotherapy and the extra chemo before surgery.. Though it's unlikely to happen to you, if it does, dont get too down heartened by it.. Your doing the same thing in  a different order thts all.. I say this because when they did it with me I got REALLY upset with it then realised nothing had really changed!

Luckily with me being a young guy (22 when I started, 23 at the end) - I had my Xbox to kill alot of time when I got bored. Do you enjoy reading or gaming or something? I enjoyed just going out for a walk now and again too (I imagine this is a little more difficult for you though?)

You getting bored of the "Stay strong" "Your a strong person, you'll beat it" "Chin up" kinda comments yet? lol