3 down, 3 to go.

Last Friday I took my Mum for her third chemo treatment at The Christie. She's having 6 sessions altogether and so it was the half way point. We actually had a lovely day - the sun was shining and we had a picnic lunch outside. We also didn't have to wait too long for the treatment so we were in and out in 4 hours - a doddle when you consider some people can be waiting around there for 7 - 8 hours.

Having the chemo is the easiest bit to be fair -  it's what comes after which totally sucks. The steroids keep my Mum on a bit of a high for the first two days so Saturday and Sunday aren't too bad - it's the next 3 -4 days which are really hard. The steroids wear off and in comes the intense fatigue and aching muscles. I think if you've not experienced it, it's hard to imagine but watching my Mum, every little thing is a huge effort - from opening her eyes, to talking and even lifting her hand to scratch her nose. Aside from the pain, there is an emotional/hormonal black cloud which descends as well as the loneliness. Mum has lots of people round her trying to help but she hasn't slept much at night since this all started and everyone else is sleeping as they need to get up early so during this time she is left alone with the pain and her thoughts... then obviously everyone gets up in the morning and goes off to work and she is still alone.

I've been extremely lucky and feel very fortunate to have Matt and a great team at Warble who have really eased the pressure at work which has allowed me to have time off in the days with my Mum but still, she has to spend a lot of time fending for herself.

Whilst she remains a tower of strength and positivity, it's really hard to always keep it up when it's so constant. Although the intense fatigue wears after the first week, it still leaves her feeling really tired and groggy for the next two before she starts all over again. It's not just the fatigue either -I won't go in to too much detail here but the chemo can really mess with your... shall we call it disposal system, to the point where my Mum is in absolute agony and screaming in pain.

I don't want this post to be too morbid, I just want to try as best I can to give a real account of what it's like to go through chemo and hopefully to make people think a little more about Cancer, what causes it and what they can do to stop it happening to them.

I took my Mum to Queens park on Thursday for a picnic in the sun to cheer her up after a horrid few days of being stuck in bed or on the sofa. I'm pleased to say it worked and she was so happy she even hugged a tree! :o) While we were there we chatted about getting cancer and preventing cancer etc and she admitted that even though we have a family history of cancer and breast cancer in particular she thought that because she knew someone down the road that went through it recently that she thought the odds were that it wouldn't happen to her. It sounds silly but it actually makes sense and I can understand her thinking.

The truth is 1 in 3 people will get cancer - so if you have 3 or more people living in your house as it stands one of you will get it. On the radio today it stated that by 2020 47% of the UK population will get cancer. This is crazy and scared me a lot. Although to be fair - seeing what my Mum is going through has already scared the crap out of me. I am terrified, which is why I am doing everything I can to make the necessary changes to my diet and lifestyle as this is one of the biggest factors of causing cancer.

The biggest changes we've made so far is definitely the juicing - we're still on a minimum of two juices a day and really feeling the positive effects in our body, skin and energy... and also mind. We're also 95% vegan. All of our meals at home are vegan, the only time we tend to slip up is when we eat out. We're also drinking much less alcohol and exercising more and we feel brilliant because of it.

I love the fact a lot of our family and friends have bought juicers and are thinking a little bit more about what they eat and how it effects them.

I also love my Mum so I will carry on doing everything I can to help her through this crappy time, make her as happy as possible and make sure she is healthy so she never has to go through anything like this again.

Whilst we're on the subject, something else I love is my life - I really appreciate everything I have and all the people in it and so I would like to make it last as long as possible... x