As most people on this group know I'm Colette and I have stage 4 Gallbladder cancer, it has metastasised a few times now to my bowel,, abdomen and in my peritoneal cavity (twice) and also next to my urinary bladder. I have been dealing with this particular cancer for 7 years now (2016) and in between surgeries and chemotherapies (had that twice) I also had Papillary thyroid cancer as well as Mucinous ovarian cancer, anyway I'm not here to chat about that today...
I'm here to say I am actually incredibly proud of myself right now, and that is not something I usually say about myself, but I did a charity abseil off the Anglican cathedral in Liverpool for my cancer hospital, Clatterbridge on Saturday and I raised a decent amount of money (£830) but the reason I am proud is more to do with the fact I am scared of heights and didn't understand how high 150ft actually is, it's really high trust me ha ha... The weather was atrocious, we had thunder, lightning and torrential rain but i waited and finally got my turn to lean backwards and go!
I decided at the beginning of this year I'd had enough of allowing cancer to steal from me, because I fell into a trap of saying no to things, it was becoming my automatic response to everything. I do believe some of that was down to COVID and being scared and vulnerable maybe. My last surgery was in July last year which was tough but I made the conscious choice that 2023 was going to be a year of saying yes to everything and it's actually quite liberating and I realised something last year too... I was imposing limitations on myself and now I refuse to do that.
So if you're having a tough day or week or month, I just wanted to share that even on our darkest days the sun is still shining even if it's hiding behind the clouds, there is always hope that it will make an appearance even for a short while.
Colette xx
Sweary not sweaty 
