When Online Community member Taste4danger was diagnosed with Hodgkin Lymphoma, she banded together with family and friends to organise an amazing year of fundraising events for Macmillan. The group are calling themselves World War C.
Back in March, Taste4danger talked to us about the events they were planning, and how she and her friends had done a 10k run.
Now, we’ve caught up with her again, to hear how the year’s events have been going.
Not too bad. I’ve now finished chemo, and I’m waiting for my scan results. I’ve also just started back at the gym, after not being allowed to exercise since August, due to neutropenia.
Macmillan have been amazing. I really connected with my Macmillan nurse. There’s doing your job, and then there’s doing just that little bit more. She’s supported my partner and my whole family as well as me.
She also signposted me to a local cancer centre, where I had some free complimentary therapy treatments, which really reinvigorated me when I felt like I’d lost my mojo.
We had a target of £5,000 for the year, and we’ve already smashed that – we’re currently on £7,900.
I’m now thinking it would be quite nice to get to £10,000, but I’m not sure if we’ll quite get there by the end of the year.
Some of my friends have done really tough runs, such as the Back 2 the Trenches run, and the Brutal 10k.
I organised a wine-tasting night, which raised £500 – I taught myself about the wines online and had three reds and three whites from around the world, plus some non-alcoholic wines, and a quiz with prizes. It was a great fun way of getting your friends together, and people were very generous.
We had a Macmillan Coffee Morning at my workplace, which raised more than £900. We had a session on the Macmillan tool for employers, which was really well-received. It’s so important for employers to be able to make plans that are supportive, rather than completely work-focused, as there are so many people affected by cancer.
They have all been amazing – my partner and I wouldn’t have got through this without them. It has brought us all together. And I can’t believe how much we’ve raised.
In November, I’m doing an ice cream challenge, which involves eating 27 balls of ice cream in half an hour. I’ve never done anything like that before.
We just need to come up with something for December, and then it’s on to next year. Hopefully, if my scan comes back clear I’ll be able to do some of the more active challenges.
I’d like to do some challenges based on my list of 50 things to do before I’m 50. For example, one of the things on my list is to do the Malvern Mud Run, where people end up looking like bog monsters!
I’ve also filled out an application to start volunteering for Macmillan.
