well, i havent blogged in a while now, partly because i dont come on the site as much as i used to, for many reasons.
but, i thought id share with you all, a weekend ive just had. i was fortunate enough to be asked to go along to a conference with the Teenage Cancer Trust. it is held in a centre parcs site, and 400 teens and young adults that have been through cancer, get invited to go to.
i wasnt treated on a TCT unit, but on an outpatient ward, with adults, double my age and more.. and being 19 at the time of diagnosis, i never got the chance to meet anyone my age going through what id been through. so... brings me up to this weekend.
i arrived at CentreParcs, in nottingham, found my villa, and met Emma, (Emma is also a macmillan site user) and that was amazing that we were sharing the same villa, as we'd wanted to meet for ages, but hadnt had the chance to. Emma also has Hodgkins Lymphoma. then, our electric in the villa kept tripping, so we got moved to the next villa. and along came Tom, he was also in our villa... on talking, we found out Tom also had Hodgkins Lymphoma... so we named our villa the "Hodge House"... it was purely a coincidence that all three of us had/has hodgkins lymphoma. but a funny one at that.
at 7.30 everyone had to be in the Venue for our meal... walking down to the venue i didnt know what to expect, but getting in the venue, was a real buzz, everyone was so happy, the rooms atmosphere was well, i cant even describe it, and it was just amazing to be in a room full of other teens/young adults that understood. the disco started later on and it was nice to see so many people having fun and talking with others.
saturday in the conference, there was many talks, Body Image, Battle Back, there was also RJC dance group, giving everyone exercise breaks, to loosen up after sitting for so long.
Panel discussion, in which was chaired by, Bill Badham, Professor Sir Mike Richards CBE, Professor John Radford, Dr Terry Bowley, Sam Smith, Dr Dan Yeomanson and Simon Davies. this gave us all a chance to ask questions about anything we liked.
Dame Ellen MacArthur was there to, she gave a talk all about sailing, and the trust she set up http://www.ellenmacarthurtrust.org/
... i had my photo taken with her...
then we went on to do workshops, i did the Rock Your Shades workshop.... here are the sunglasses i decorated.... (by the way rock your shades day is in may, the 6th, http://www.teenagecancertrust.org/get-involved/rock-your-shades/ get involved =D )
Saturday night, we had a meal, then went outside to watch the firework display over the lake, it was a beautiful display...
then we had the ShowCase, where all the TCT groups performed a dance. that was funny to watch. and then the disco. we all got given a coloured wristband to represent our cancers, so that we could look out for the wrist bands if we wanted to chat to others to share experiences, through this, i spoke to three others that had Hodgkins Lymphoma. and also it was an easier way of asking what people had gone through, because wed just say what does ur wristband colour stand for, instead of, what cancer u had?.. just made it easier to talk about.
Sunday
at 10 am, i went for an indian head neck shoulder massage, and a hand massage, before the conference started.
we then had a talk from Dr Allan Pacey about fertility, in which he chucked a toy sperm into the crowd...and gave us all a few jokes, about fertility, to make light of it, yet gave us plenty of information if we are facing infertility, and told us percentages and facts and compared the figures of if you wasnt a cancer patient, and if you were a cancer patient, and what the odds are. these pictures were used in the presentation...
this of course broke the intensity of the talk, and raised a few laughs, whoops and cheers.
then Tom gave a talk all about his journey through cancer, and told of how his treatment went and he had a massive cheer too.
then we had, Hardeep Singh Kohli, radio presenter and TV presenter, he was in, BBC ones master chef, he gave a talk about food, and introduced new foods to the conference, and let everyone that wanted to try some. heres a pic...
then we had Dan Savage give a talk to us about his journey and how he was told to draw and paint how we felt during treatment, i have to say his art work was amazing!! i have tried looking for images on google... but couldnt find any....
then we had the final which was the Big Beat, it was a ice breaker, refresher, in which everyone of us had Individually coloured tubes called boomwhackers each with their own pitched sound played and performed in an attention-grabbing session.... it was AMAZING!!
then after that, i went back to the villa, got showered and changed and then went out for pizza, before returning back to the venue, for the Quiz and Disco and nautical themed fancy dress.....
what have i taken from this experience... well, i have made so many new friends, been inspired by so many people, and it has truelly refreshed me. it was just brilliant to meet other young people that have been through what ive been through. i cant explain the range of emotions you go through during the conference, its just so well, i dont know, like i say, i cant explain it, you just had to be there to understand. but, i will definately be going again next year... and i encourage other teens/young adults up to the age of 25 to look into it for next years conference. because once youve been youl want to go again, especially if you never had the chance to be treated on a TCT unit, as you get so much from this experience....
just abit about whats happening with me.... ive a check up end of the month, 3 monthly one, and then they will arrange to book a CT scan for me, for my ONE YEAR POST treatment scan, and lung function tests... so its gunna be a couple of them worry months for me, but il be fineeee =) (positive thinking) hope ur all ok....
emz
xxx
