Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed bringing in the New Year whatever decided to do :) I wish everyone a prosperous, happy and very healthy 2012!

War on Cancer wishes you all the best for 2012. This year is going to be hard for many people, the financial constraints on people is going to be so very difficult, I know here in the UK that unemployment is at 17 year high, the government are making severe cuts on spending and in areas that were already vulnerable before the financial crisis. Many services for the most needy are going to be closed because the government are withdrawing funding...but are going to spend millions on "trouble families"....this minority of people who live breaking the law that most of us abide by....so they are going to research and offer to improve their lives ,they will use any means they can to sort them out.....give the families on a plate what everyone else has to work really hard for. But people who live within the law that have the same social, emotional and economic problems...will as always be left to suffer and struggle on their own. Makes you question who are the fools in the UK these days???!

Cameron and his coalition government push his policy of family values down our throats at every opportunity....but they disgracefully rip apart families with all the new cuts and policies they bring in...which I might add were definitely not mentioned in the election campaign! The vulnerable, ill and most needy of our society are been left behind to struggle and it is support groups that are trying to hold it all together. Billions has be pledged abroad whether it's to help prop up European countries that have been allowed to over borrow against their GDP or other plights that have been pledged to. I for one normally wouldn't have issues to helping the less fortunate abroad....however in these very hard times it is hard to not rebel when our own are suffering and the government are putting even more pressure on us. It is a very bitter pill to swallow.....we were all brought up on the saying "charity begins at home". Here we are a rich nation who has thousands of homeless living on the streets, people been refused life-saving medicines because of cost. Someone needs to explain to me how this can be right?

We have thousands of registered charities where people are doing everything they can to raise , awareness and money to help people who need treatments, for research and to make peoples last days as comfortable as possible, to offer counselling and support to family members....the inroads to increased survival has been achieved by hardworking charities. It is sad it has to be this way...but this is life.

War on Cancer will be driving hard to reach it's set target for this years two chosen charities....Walk the Walk and Clic Sargent...I know this is going to be hard but know we will get there! War on Cancer is very lucky to have a great loyal little band of people who also believe in the cause. I will forever be thankful to you all! We are all about people involved fundraising....we want to have fun and loads of memories about the events we do to raise money....I want always for everyone to say...that was great fun...when's the next one?....if this happens War on Cancer has won :)

We will be having our first event meeting this month. I will post up when and what we have agreed to set up as soon as.

I wish to thank especially everyone who posts my blog on FB and Twitter, I know it takes on a second to do but not everyone does...I am still working on WOC page on FB and hope to load more photos from previous events this week.

I look forward to 2012 and what it can bring on a fundraising,awareness and personal level with great anticipation....I hope you will all see fit to join me and WOC on our continued journey!

So once more I thank you all for the support, hope you continue to be interested in what I've got to say, join in the events that you take a fancy too....keep posting and sharing the Blog, FB page and Twitter to help spread the positive message of what we are all about, help WOC make new friends, look at the photo gallery and check out the shop when it's back up and running.

Until next time I wish you a very Happy 2012

Tracy x

War on Cancer- First annual party night :)

War on Cancer's first annual party was a huge success! I'm not even talking about the money side here, I'm talking about all the new friends that were made on the night, the amazing amount of cancer awareness that was made...people asking questions, not afraid to mention "The big C", openly talking about the still taboo subject of cancer....this alone made the night worthwhile and I believe a major success! Thank you all for attending, lending your support to my cause and expressing interest in future events.....I couldn't ask for more than that :)

Thank you to each and everyone of you who bought raffle tickets and a massive congratulations to the winners!

Everyone enjoyed the night I think lol!.... we had fun and lots of it! A massive thank you to the DJ who donated his fee to WoC and for also donating a bottle of malt Whiskey to the raffle we ran on the night. We had three prizes that we sold tickets for on the night, first prize was a luxury food hamper, second prize was a beautiful fruit hamper which was donated by Giggly Sue and third prize was the bottle of malt Whiskey donated by the Dj.

The grand prize raffle was drawn, Peter W from Dantex Graphics won the First Prize of the 32" LCD TV, Second Prize was won by Carol Metcalfe from Home Care division of Bradford Metropolitan Council and Third Prize went to Lindsay Sessions from Drury Pms Ltd.

After all the prizes were bought we raised a total of £211.00! wow and thank you very much ! Have the party was a really nice way to finish our fundraising efforts for 2011. Please keep an eye out as War on Cancer will be back out organizing events so people can come join in the fun and help raise money alog the way. We will be holding our next meeting mid January and more information and details will follow :)

We have raised £1563.00 from four events we have held! this is going really well and I am really happy with our progress.

Check out the upcoming events page....I have updated it with some of the idea's we have come up with at the moment.

In the gallery, I am also going to load some photos from the shopping night...check out Louise's gorgeous cup-cakes!

I hope you enjoy the photos!

We will be looking at getting the shop back up and running over the Christmas period, don't worry I will let you know when it is lol!!

Until next time

Tracy

Thank you from the bottom of my heart!

We have SOLDOUT on our first annual fundraising party night! Thank you to everyone who has bought a ticket...we are going to have a blast people!!. I am really proud to announce that demand outstripped supply....this is fantastic for future events!

We will be having a great fun night of fun and laughter.....folks I will apologize now for when I get on the dance floor to do my dance moves....it's not clever, it's not pretty and it's probably not all that safe...but hey I enjoy myself lol!!! Some of the food is going to be made and donated by Jeannie, Gillian,Caroline and Giggly Sue...thank you girls...I really appreciate it :) Tickets will be on sale on the night for a luxury food hamper and the grand prize draw for the 32" LCD TV,Dab radio and bottle of Champagne. Good luck to everyone who has bought a ticket :) And our very own Hero Dave who has volunteered to be waxed for donations....so come on folks be very generous for his pain!!

Everyday when I get up I think about the support I have from all of you who take time out of your lives to read my blog, share it on FB and retweet it out to help spread a positive message and raise awareness. Help organize events, turn up and join in the events, help sell the bands, raffle tickets....talk about War on Cancer with family,friends and colleagues,and last but certainly not least help raise awareness....and I feel so happy, proud and overwhelmed!

Thank you one and all....you will never understand how much it means to me, you all help me to achieve my dreams of helping others who have gone through, are going through or will go through cancer in the future. I as you know went through the invasive treatments and fully appreciate and understand how important the support of all the staff is, when having chemo...the staff in HODU become your family and the bonds you make with fellow patients and staff are strong. Even now when I go for a check up at the hospital... I love to go see all the wonderful nurses in HODU. I love that I can give something back and will continue to do my utmost in the future.

I have had on a personal level a year of ups and downs! It started off with all our training ( 5 months) for our Walk the Walk London Moonwalk...we Team L'Oreal ( Jeannie, Sue, Helen, Caroline and myself ) had a fantastic time, it's really hard to put into words how amazing a time we had. It's unbelievable to look out over what can only be described as a sea of pink as 15,000 people walk 26.2 miles all in the name of breast cancer! it was great to see so many guys doing it in their bras too! unlike Race for Life which is a women only event( which I don't agree with...guys get breast cancer too!) it's also the fact they can do it in support of a loved one. It was worth all the training.

About 10 miles in I became very unwell with various things, I had felt light headed and nearly passed out a couple of times I had a pounding headache, pains in my neck,lower back and pelvic pains. I was bloating up and I had had problems with my ankle supports ( I had to take them off ), I knew this was going to cause me problems with my right ankle....since I ruptured it back in 06 I have had occasional issues, but knew it was going to be painful with walking the 26.2 miles, hell it was painful even with the support on during the training. I have to say London like all big cities is not a good place when you are wanting to be sick there are not many tree's to be found!

When we got to the 22 mile marker I was most definitely running on pure determination and my stubbornness! every mile from there I had to stop about 4 times to try and ease the pain in my back, I was really fatigued and had the mother of all blisters on my foot too! But even though I was in all honesty in a right state, I knew no matter what I was going to complete the Moonwalk...it was afterall the first challenge I had set myself while still having my chemo. I would seriously have crawled over the finish line if needed!

It was overwhelming to cross the line holding hands with Jeannie and Sue..yep we had done it! This was a massive high...even though I had been so unwell for the majority, I was over the moon at completing my first personal challenge.....the fact my partner and friends wanted to do it with me made it all the better! It's a memory I will always cherish.

It took me over a month to recover from the Moonwalk but was definitely worth it....Team L'Oreal raised over £1000.00 doing this most worthy event.

The second challenge I had set myself was to climb Mt.Kilimanjaro for cancer...I decided 2012 was the year...I have said for every year I get the ok at my check ups at the breast clinic I will do a new challenge.

This is where War on Cancer was born. I decided if I was going to climb Mt.Kilimanjaro as my personal challenge...then I might as well try to raise money for cancer charities at the same time. I chose Walk the Walk breast cancer and Clic Sargent children's cancer charities this time.So up to the actual climb in 2012 I said we will do various fund raising events to raise money for these very worthy charities, have fun along the way and involve as many people as possible, it's not just about raising money but also awareness. My aim has always been to show that you can live a full and challenging life whilst surviving cancer...maybe you have to adjust some of your goals, but life is for living, not just surviving! A target of raising £10,000 has been set and I am confident we will make it!

On my health side it hasn't been the best of times in the last 18 months. I have had many problems with lower pelvic and back pains. When I had my 6 month check up at the breast clinic in March, it was agreed that I would change my cancer drug from Tamoxifen to Letrozole because of the side effects I had been suffering from for the last 13 months, I felt they were that bad it was affecting my quality of life and I really couldn't face another 4 years of it. I didn't know until I got an appointment through that I had to have a DEXA scan, this is a scan to measure your bone density, Letrozole causes amongst other problems Osteoporosis. So my logic behind this scan was that I would go have it done and that would give my doctors the base data to check against future scans to determine over the next few years if the Letrozole did indeed affect my bone density. A decent logic I thought!

My GP phoned me 3 weeks later to tell me to go in to see them. The results had come back and I had already got Osteoporosis! to say I was shocked is a massive understatement! I said to the doctor, are you sure the results are right? am I not too young to have Osteo?...yes I was not very informed about Osteoporosis at all...the only thing I knew was that it can cause your bones to break easily.....I really thought it was an illness that affected older people. I asked my doctor if it was just starting and she said no, it's full blown.

I had by the time we hit June had had 7 lots of antibiotics this year due to bladder infections, I had a laparoscopy in May as they couldn't say what was causing my pelvic and lower back pains.... the good news from the laparoscopy was that there were no signs of ovarian cancer :) This was great news but didn't solve the problems about my pelvic and back pains. I was referred to a consultant and was then sent for further tests.The tests confirmed I have a problem that has developed with my bladder so now on medication, I will see my consultant in January to see if medication levels need adjusting, he said he will try and keep the side effects to a minimum!

When I have just had my second check up of the year at the breast clinic we talked about the sore and stiff joints I have and a general bone ache the pain in my lower back never eases off these days, it bothers me whether I am sitting, standing or walking....he has contacted my GP to arrange a referral to a Rhuematologist, he doesn't think it's my cancer drug ( it's one of the side effects ) but needs checking out by a specialist. ( I really don't care who looks into it, I would love the pain in my back to go...even if it was just for a week or two! ). My GP ordered a load of blood tests which I had done last week, I go for the results on Wednesday and then await my referral.

But the great thing in between all of this is the fact we have held a few events and so far raised £1352.00! next year War on Cancer will be going all out to achieve that target. I have already started thinking about my challenge for 2013.....these things need plenty of planning! I know I want to do something in the USA.....

Thank you all for showing your support, I will be looking into whether to register War on Cancer as it's own charity early next year... I will keep you all informed.

War on Cancer I believe sums up who I am and what my life is about it is a great personal motivator as are the challenges I set myself. I hope you carry on enjoying the events we do, it is afterall about having lots of fun too!

Everyday I get up and smile, after been diagnosed with a life threatening illness I believe everyday is a bonus and I plan to make the most. I will try and knock things off my bucket list and will continue to raise money not just for research but to help make people feel as comfortable as possible whilst going through their treatments.

Thank you all for helping me realize my dream of doing this, you will never understand how much it means.

Until next time

Tracy x

Happy Friday to one and all!

Hello everyone on this Friday the weekend starts now!

It's been a while since I last blogged, I owe some photo's still from the shopping event...I will put some up soon ;)

We are almost ready for our first annual fundraising bash!...the venue, DJ and waxer all confirmed hee hee!. I went and met up with Dave at the club Tuesday night to finalize details. The food is in hand as is the tombola and luxury food hamper. It is going to be a great night of fun! hopefully WoC will raise loads of money on the night.

The grand prize draw will take place on the night around 10pm...this give people time to still buy raffle tickets if they wish to. We will be raffling off the luxury food hamper on the night too. Thank you so much to the brave ( or nutty!! ) gents who are offering themselves up to be waxed for cash...so come on folks on the night or through electronic donation before hand throw some money down and rip off a strip in the name of charity!..anyone who donates on line we will photograph the moment the strip you have bought is pulled off for you and will list it in the first blog after the night! Photo's will be added to the gallery after.

The glow in the dark bands will be on offer and T shirts can be ordered on the night too.

I want to take this time to thank the individuals who have taken a moment to sign up and follow my blog...you will never know who much it means to me,the show of support is great and thank you also to my faithful friends who share the blog on the network sites after I post.

Thanks go to all who have helped out in the events we have held this year and especially all of you who joined in the fun. As I keep saying, it's not just important to raise money...awareness is really critical too. The message I am trying to get out there is for the people who are currently having their invasive treatments and to those who have yet to be diagnosed.....hang in there, it's not the best approx 9 month's of your life...but life is there for the taking after! please remember that...you can still challenge yourselves and do the things you want to... every day is a wonderful bonus and everything you achieve is a true measure of you as an individual. Get yourselves a bucket list and start knocking them off :)

Next year we are hoping to have loads of really fun things going on to make sure everyone enjoys themselves while helping WoC reach it's fund raising targets, even in these very tough times we are all living in, remember other are having an even worse time than you.

For me on the personal front it's been a bit of a rough couple of months. My consultant has put me on some tablets to try and sort out the problem with my bladder...yep yet more tablets ( 9 per day now ) He said they take a while to work as they have to reach a level in my system...yes there will be side effects and they will try to control them as much as they can. I go back to see him in Jan for a follow up, he said they will check me out and either increase or reduce the medication if the level is wrong. I don't know if this is a permanent thing with the med or if I can come off it at a later date. I have had some bloods done this week and will see my GP for the results the week after and a referral is being sorted to see a Rheumatologist . I don't know if the problem with my bones and joints is because of my cancer drug or the Osteoporosis, I guess time will tell.

Been to a great couple of concerts in the last couple of months, Jessie J in Oct was fantastic, interacted with the crowd really well, great live singer, great sense of fun and was never afraid to take the mickey out of herself....seriously if you get the chance....go see her! And in Nov it was Rihanna! fantastic show, great live singer but her interaction with the crowd was minimal which was a shame. All in all, good times were had by all :)

Ok, until next time

Stay safe and happy

Tracy

Ideas for future events and fundraising jobs

Hello everyone

Thought as we are coming up towards War on Cancer's last event for 2011 I would let you know about some of the ideas we are thinking of to keep our drive for fundraising going.

But before I do, I was donated from a good friend in the USA some old French Francs, there are a couple of places in Europe where they can still be exchanged until Jan 2012. So with this in mind, I ask that you check if you have any odd old European notes knocking around your house, it would be fantastic if you could maybe consider donating them and I can hopefully get them exchanged into hard cash for our War against Cancer. Thank you for considering this :)

Ok, some future ideas we have maybe in the pipeline for 2012.

1.The Yorkshire 3 peak sponsored challenge for War on Cancer, if this happens and goes well, this will hopefully become an annual event. This walk is around 24/25 miles in the heart of the Yorkshire Dales, this is a beautifully scenic area and will be a great challenge to complete. This event will carry an entry fee, details of what you get for that will follow if the event takes place.

2. An Easter Bunny walk/run...this will be a sponsored fancy dress event.

3.Packing shopping bags at the supermarket. Dates will be posted for which supermarket on what date later, volunteers more than welcome to help at these events.

4.Treasure hunt

5.Team Rounders fun day.

6. Charity car wash.

7. Soul/Motown night - this will be a ticketed event

8. A phoenix nights talent night----this will be a fun evening for sure!

9. A race night.

These are just some of the things we are looking into.

I just want to take the opportunity to say that I am very serious about the fundraising and after the Mount. Kilimanjaro climb--War on Cancer will carry on thinking of fun ways to raise money and have people join in!

Until next time

Tracy

Dodgy Thursday

When I started this blog and sat to write about myself I had to decide what or how much I was going to say. I figured if I was going to try not only raise money but more importantly awareness then I had to be honest about what had gone on with me and be honest about the here and now too. The one thing I didn't want was for the blog to come over with a negative vibe, because I honestly aren't a negative person ( ask anyone who knows me), but like everyone else I have my dodgy days too......today is one of those days, whether it's because I'm still not really very well and feeling run down that I'm not feeling good about myself I'm honestly not sure.

It's really weird you know, when I found the lump in my breast and the hospital told me it was 99% certain to be cancer but I had to go back the following week for the biopsy results from the pathology lab I didn't freak out or panic, at that point I knew the following week it would be positive,and there was no way they would have said that to me really if there was a chance it was nothing, I knew that too. It's hard to explain but I honestly felt calm ( but in fairness I'm like that with everything ), I walked out of the hospital and decided when I got home I was going to confirm for myself that the insurance policy I had insisted in taking out the year before would indeed pay the mortgage off ( one less financial worry to think about ). Getting confirmation, having surgery, chemo and then radiation therapy was fine...I'm not saying I wasn't ill because I was, but on a mental and emotional level I was fine and found myself calming everyone around me down with honesty and humour.

This is why even though I know there is nothing more I can possibly be doing to try and keep myself healthy ( which is such a battle as I find myself getting diagnosed with more things, having investigations done and struggling with many side effects form the drugs I am on, a cascade from my cancer diagnosis my doctors say ) I find myself at times ( like today ) unable to brush off my upset and frustration at my weight gain! it's so pathetic really in the scheme of things, but no matter how I try to rationalize that I am in fact alive and surviving a life threatening illness I cannot stop myself from feeling so utterly down and fed up about my lack of control over my weight. I never really felt before how feeling uncomfortable about yourself could have such a profound effect on your life, I had never experienced that. When I have spoken with my GP about this issue, I am told ( and it is more than a fair point ) that I am surviving a vicious illness of which the drug are even worse with really nasty side effects..... but I am surviving. So I ask myself, am I that vain about my outer shell and it not been as it was that I whine about it and that I need to get a grip or is it about not only surviving a vicious illness but also about a balance in my life that makes it so I can actually really enjoy "surviving". I have found myself asking this question on more than one occasion and I have not found an answer I can live with yet. I of course don't want to stop drugs no matter how harsh they are if they give me a better chance of survival...I'm really not stupid, however it's really hard when the results make me sad sometimes.

I also know within a day or two I will have moved past my "dodgy" day and will be off positively telling anyone who is willing to listen that life after or while surviving cancer can be more than fulfilling, especially when doing things for others :)

Rant over for today hee hee

Until next time

Tracy

Happy Wednesday everyone!

I apologize for the delay in an update, it isn't going to be a full one, I will put photos in the gallery later this week. I have been out of action properly since last Thursday's shopping night, whatever is going around is terrible! I am feeling the best I have for over a week, today I am headache free fro the first time, my throat isn't as sore and I only have earache in one ear instead of two! Success....I'm on my way back lol!!

The Ladies shopping night was a great success and was a lovely chilled evening. I want to start by thanking Jo and the Ferrands Arms for hosting the shopping evening for War on Cancer, you are a great friend of War on Cancer and I thank you very much!

To all the stall holders who not only gave up their evening, but also gave a generous donation to War on Cancer I thank you all very much and hope you not only sold many things but also had an enjoyable evening.

To everyone who came by, I hope you had a great time, got yourselves a bargain and thank you for supporting War on Cancer too!

Lou's Sweet Treats......I can honestly say I have never seen such beautiful cupcakes! I kept thinking they are so nice, not sure I could eat them!!

The Ladies shopping evening raised a wonderful £370.00! It has been added to the thermometer total. We will be offering to pack bags at various supermarkets in the area, when we have confirmed dates, I will update the events page.

Our next event is our first annual War on Cancer get together on Dec 10th at the Shipley Club from 7.00pm until late. There are just a few tickets remaining, so if you want to come join in on a chilled fun evening with music and food. The grand prize raffle will be drawn this night, also there will be a chance of winning a luxury food hamper on the night! Hope to see you there.

I will load the photos later this week

Until then

Tracy