Living with Melanoma - An Ongoing Journey

  • In Praise of Immunotherapy

    Last week I was told that the results of my latest CT scan showed a Complete Response and that I would now stop my ongoing immunotherapy treatment around 9 months earlier than the planned two year course.

    Complete Response is defined as - The term used for the absence of all detectable cancer after your treatment is complete response (CR). Complete response doesn't necessarily mean that you are cured, but it is the best…

  • Recovery with the help of animals

    When I wrote my first blog post around a year ago I’d just spent a week on holiday in a cottage on the coast, with a dog for company. That companionship of a loving pet provided a lift to the spirits and a recognition of the importance of compassion, kindness and friendship.

    It made me realise how good animals are at taking your mind from the often negative thoughts and worries associated with going through treatment…

  • Focus on what matters and persevere

    Don’t waste time!

    I’m sure we’re not consciously doing that but there’s a lot of life lessons from the Stoic philosophy of the ancient Greeks that I think we can apply just as much to a life being lived with a serious illness as one that’s illness free. It’s useless to wish things in the world were different, some things we can’t change, and that includes living with our fears…

  • Encouraging a Sense of Perspective to Help Living with Cancer

    One of the aspects of living with cancer is the sense of perspective it gives us. This isn’t necessarily a bad thing. By that I mean it causes us to re-evaluate what we’re doing. To pause, reflect and check. We can call it the value of Acceptance and Letting Go.

    We need to let go of some things and to encourage others. Ideally it wouldn’t be cancer that is the stimulus, but it is in my case, and I’m sure in…

  • What Now? Life Is What You Make It

    The last blog post I wrote made me think further about living well in the face of living with cancer, and transitioning into feeling positive intuitively.

    I was thinking that living with cancer is amongst other things a time of living with both reflections and actions. Looking backwards can be a little dangerous and frustrating, because that old question “what if” can’t be answered. I think everyone with,…