48

It has to be said the following months weren’t exactly easy for any of us; but as ever we carried on just doing the best we could.

However we had a great summer holiday down in Dover at our favourite place in the bungalow we knew so well in Deal. The OSO was a little worried I think in case I was not very well or needed to go to hospital. As ever the Sheffield Children’s Hospital were brill and they stopped my chemo and other lovely stuff for a while and they gave us the details of the hospital in Dover should we need it, but we didn’t. As I said, we had a great holiday, I got tired a bit quicker, but we had Gran with us as usual, so she and I would sit and watch the rest of them running around if I got tired (actually I think Dad was glad of the excuse to have a little sit down too). Dad and I often went to sit on the cliffs behind the ferry port in Dover and watch the ferries come in and out, which we both loved doing.

One year the OSO had arranged for me to visit the main Dover Ferry Port Terminal. That really was a fab day, I got to go up into the control tower, visit the police station, the customs posts and best of all we went out on the harbour patrol boat and we took one of the harbour pilots out to a boat so he could bring it safely in. A fantastic day!

Whilst Dad and I watched the ferries Mum and the bros would walk from Kingsdown to Dover all along the white cliffs and meet Dad and me there, they really loved doing that walk, bit energetic for Dad and I, he always said he was built for comfort and not speed!

After we got home we carried on and we went back to school in September, again I picked my days, or parts of days when I went in and all went fairly well. As I said in my last blog it was my GCSE year so I just decided to prioritise and do the ones I wanted to, being a bit ill did have its advantages at times!

We spent Christmas day with the Villages which was great. I struggled a bit and the OSO and I went home a bit earlier than the rest of the family, but I was ok really and New Year’s Eve was again spent round at a party with all of our great friends there. We didn’t’ believe in letting Muscular Dystrophy and Cancer stop us from enjoying ourselves!

As the rest of the school Christmas holidays progressed I went and got a chest infection. I was supposed to be having some more chemo treatment but I wasn’t well enough to have it. By this time I was having weekly visits from a cancer nurse at home. She just checked I was ok and would do lovely things like wash my stent out (what joy!) She was really great and the OSO and her got on like a house on fire (basically they were both round the bend!). Anyway, my chest infection wasn’t getting any better, so the cancer nurse said I’d better go back into hospital for some antibiotics on line as it were. So that’s what happened.