Introducing my darling husband who most of you feel like you already know - Serge. Serge is guest blogger tonight! Woot! Woot! Get your tissues ready because I needed them. The reason why Serge is writing this is to help prepare him a little for his Smiling for Smiddy Challenge, riding from Brisbane to Townsville, and to also help you understand why he wants to raise money for cancer research. Details for donating will be at the bottom of this post.
This is my first time doing something like this. Sharing my story isn’t my strong point – that is Emma’s forte. I feature regularly on Emma’s blog and know that she writes about our relationship, often the saddest moments, but we both thought that it is time to share my perspective. It is not often that you hear the thoughts of the partner of a cancer patient - their role as carer, chief cheerleader, comedium, and ultimate cuddle buddy. Warning alert...a bloke may talk about his feelings.
Read MoreI had big plans for Dear Melanoma in the lead up to Christmas! I was going to write a blog for the ’12 days of Christmas’, but I continually put off writing and here we are today, Christmas Eve, finally posting something.
For those of you that follow the Dear Melanoma Facebook page, you would know that I have a slight (raging) obsession for Christmas. It has always been this way. From December 1 October-ish (lets be honest) Michael Buble Christmas Carols are on repeat, the plans for the Christmas tree are underway, shopping has began, I drool at all the Christmas decorations in the shopping centre, and I fantasise about what Christmas day will be like.
Read MoreThis week marks a year since leaving East Timor. To celebrate this, I am going to write without mentioning melanoma (phew! no tears!). And to be honest, although the majority of my time spent in East Timor was spent as a Stage 1 melanoma patient, little time was spent thinking about melanoma. I followed the rules of returning to Australia for frequent skin checks and would always slip, slop and slap. I was a patient with a 95% chance of survival. There was only a 5% chance that this cancer would spread. Nothing to waste precious time worrying about!
I left for East Timor at the end of July 2012. I had just finished university, graduating from a Bachelor of Arts in International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies, and I had no idea what I wanted to do with my future. So like many young people, I was tossing up between travelling and studying more… anything that meant I did not have to enter the grown up world of a 9 to 5 job. I decided that I would seek out the opportunity to travel and volunteer in East Timor for 3 months, leaving the opportunity open for me to begin study the following December. I ended up continuing for 12 months and putting post-graduate study off for another 12 months.
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