I’m going into my third week of self isolation and it’s honestly not so bad.
Only this week have I felt that I really wanted to hug my mum and dad.
We’ve spoken and video-called almost every day. I’ve got another 11 weeks’ of this so I just need to take it all in my stride - we all do.
Living with incurable breast cancer isn’t dissimilar to living through this pandemic - we can no longer plan for things in the future without thinking whether or not we’ll still be in lockdown.
We have to cancel plans that we have already made and we can’t go out of the house if there are bugs going around. That’s pretty much the life of a cancer patient in general.
Always living with the unknown. It’s horrible isn’t it - it’s an awful unsettling feeling. But day by day you get better at understanding and accepting and making the absolute best of a tricky situation.
For us, that comes in the shape of family fun days. We’re doing the garden, we’re having table dates and this Friday is karaoke night.
We have all the time in the world, so we can afford to go all out to get the excitement going for our kids.
I’m talking smoke machines ( es, we have one!), streamers, speakers, lipstick and our best outfit. Orange juice in champagne glasses and lots of cheering clapping and possibly booing.
We’re getting round to little jobs in the house that have needed doing for years but we have time to just pick it up for an hour here and there.
There’s no pressure and it’s amazing. I have the absolute greatest friends and family on earth so a social life has always been important to me but we’ve downloaded apps so that we can have group Friday nights’ in with wine and quizzes!
We’re letting Ivy stay up a little later at night and we’re not concerned about her not having enough sleep because she can have a little lie-in in the morning.
I don’t know why but when kids creep out of bed and come downstairs when they’re supposed to be asleep, it’s just so bloody cute.
Ivy came down last night, looking all cheeky and asked if we wanted to have a chat. How could we say no to that?!
We’ve been lucky enough to get supplies for Ivy from Bright Minds, which are fun and educational and she is just getting so much joy out of learning with us. She’s happy and safe and that’s all we could wish for.
We’ve been watching boxsets and playing music and baking. We’ve lazed around and we’ve got to work but generally, we are enjoying it for the most part.
We have a neighbourhood Facebook group, which is a godsend for people like myself and other vulnerable people who might live alone.
We’ve had neighbours drop off shopping for us, soap, board games…even wine. The random acts of kindness being done now are glorious.
We are so lucky and so looked after. It really is bringing out the best in so many of us.
Of course, I’m anxious at the fact that my chemo has been stopped for 12 weeks.
I’m worried that this virus might last longer and what will that mean for people like me, who have had life-saving chemotherapy withdrawn?
Does it mean they’ll have to postpone it for longer? Will there be enough money and staff to care for us properly afterwards? It’s such an uncertain time on top of everything else going on.
I’m confident that I’m doing everything possible that I can do to keep germs away but now my cancer treatment has been stopped and there’s literally nothing I can do about that.
I’m getting slightly annoyed at people biggin’ up Boris Johnson. Would you be saying the same if your cancer treatment had been stopped?
Remember a few weeks ago, Priti Patel stating that anyone earning under 25k was classed as unskilled? The fact that you even need to categorise people is wrong but I think this virus has shown clearly that we don’t need billionaires.
Who we need are our nurses and doctors, our postal workers, bin men, delivery drivers, our shop assistants and our admin workers who keep vital services ticking over.
In the midst of a pandemic, they’re the ones running into the storm to rescue the casualties and they’re the ones keeping this country going.
If they’re ever referred to as unskilled again, then shame on you (and they need a massive pay rise).
Fair enough, we’ve never been through anything like this in our lifetime and of course it would be a struggle for any leader.
But the fact that the Tories have torn apart our NHS and public services is magnifying the impact of our current situation - especially for cancer patients.
As human beings, we naturally look for a leader when we’re scared, someone who can look after us.
So everyone naturally thinks Johnson is our saviour.
I LOVE our NHS, I always have done… and I love all the people who are working hard to keep us all safe. THANK YOU
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