Hi there and welcome back to my blog, how are you? I hope that you are well. Today I’m going to talk about my year in review. 2019 has been a big year for me. I made a new year’s resolution last year of the following: to get a six-pack, to get the all-clear to go back to work form the hospital and to stay till the end of an Earls of Uke rehearsal. I will discuss at the end of this blog post if I did any of these.
Training for a 5k
I started the year on the treadmill with my slow couch to 5K. I’ve already talked about how I trained for my 5K. Here.I started off working on the couch to 10K
Doing the 5K
As before I’ve discussed already on my blog what happened on the blog. The link for that is here.
Ben passing away
Photo courtesy of Pass the Smile for Ben
On the same day as my 5K, a good friend lost his son Ben to a rare type of cancer, Rhabdomyosarcoma. Scott, Ben’s dad has set up a fund for the children’s hospital that Ben was being treated, under Ben’s name called “Pass the smile for Ben”. To donate, click here.
Designing my first website and developing my first website
I set one of my goals this year to go back to work, part-time. I was asked by my dad to redo his website for a couple of years, before my diagnosis. But I’d never got to it, I was either too busy from working or I was diagnosed. Now its 4 years after my diagnosis/radiotherapy and, I started off by designing the website. The design of the website wasn’t a strict design, just an overview of what the site looks like.
I will go into more detail about how I designed and built a website in the next blog post.
Leaving Carers Trust
Because I needed time to build my first website, I had to dedicate time to it. Plus I was getting bored at Carers Trust, I decided to leave. I will still thank them in every blog post that I do for giving me the confidence to go out and write this blog up.
Going to my last Brain Tumor Charity young adults meetup
2019 was also my last Brain Tumour charity young adult meetup. Because their age range is 18 – 30 and I turned 31 this year. I’ve made so many friends in these meetups. At my last meetup, we had a Christmas dinner, played Christmas games and I met former England Rugby Captain Lewis Moody. I’m going to miss going to these events but it just means that I’ll be more active in the Shine Young Cancer group.
Going gluten-free
Earlier this year, I went gluten-free. The reason for me going gluten-free is to stop the bloated from bread.
Push-ups and plank
About halfway through the year, I started doing push-ups and planking exercise. ( started doing these exercises every day but then my shoulders started to ache when I played the ukulele.
So I started doing them every other day.
Being in the mirror online
March this year, the Brain Tumour Charity picked me to write about my weight loss. It was really uplifting to be asked by them. Heres the link
Bhangra blaze
July this year, I’ve joined a bhangra fitness class called “Bhangra Blaze”. The class is run by the amazing Amarjit Gill. My only issue with the class is that it’s on a Tuesday which is the same day as my ukulele group meets up. So bhangra blaze has to take a back seat once every two weeks.
Eczema flaring back up again
Unfortunately, it’s not all good news. Because I used a shampoo that I shouldn’t have been using, my eczema has flared up. Totally my own doing. I used Alpecin shampoo because as a young lad who has a huge bald spot from radiotherapy, it was kinda disheartening when going to places with a hat on. Because my eczema has flared back up, I’ve not been on the treadmill for a while. I’m back on the floor bike now and I’m on it most days. When I was on the treadmill, I would do a 5K in 30 minutes.
Tablets review
I have started taking cabergoline for my high prolactin. Originally, it was once a week, now it’s once every two weeks. My Desmopressin tablet has gone down twice. At the start of the year, I was taking Desmopressin 100 x 3 and now I’m only taking 50 x 2 and 100 x 1. At the start of this year, my levothyroxine has gone down from 100 to 75.
Unfortunately, this was last year and this year, my body is paying for it. I’m not getting up on time, which makes my tablets late which makes my whole day late. I’m far too tired, this year than last year.
Goals overview
This time last year, I had set some goals for myself. To get a six-pack, to stay till the end of a ukulele practice, to get the all-clear from the hospital and to start training for a 5K. Well, the first two haven’t come true, no six-pack but I do have a flat stomach, which is something I couldn’t say before my diagnosis. And I haven’t managed to stay for an Earls of Uke rehearsal but I did manage to stay till the end of our outside performance in Ben’s memory. The other two are done and dusted, I did the 5K for Cancer Research and I do have the all-clear from the hospital to go back to work. I’m not currently back at work just yet but I am looking.
I now weigh in at 63kg which is lighter than before my diagnosis. My story was written up in the mirror online. Goals for next year, to do another 5K to raise money for all of my charities, to attempt to do the p90x, to either be working for someone or be working for myself and to start training for a 10K.
Speaking of charities, from this month onwards, I will not only be donating to Brain Tumour Support, I will be splitting the money equally to Brain Tumour Support, The Brain Tumour Charity, Brainwaves, Shine young cancer support, Headway, Mercia MS center, Carers `Trust, the Myton Hospice and Pass the smile for Ben. I know it’s a lot of charities but with some effort, I think that together, including my next run, we can raise £1000 in total.
That’s it for now. Once again, I just want to thank a few people. Firstly, I would like to thank my mum, dad, sister and my Naughty Mamaji, for being by my side, throughout everything. I would like to thank everyone from BTS for sharing this with the community. I would like to thank Kanika, Shirley and everyone at Carers Trust for giving me the confidence to share my story and I would like to thank Joe for motivating me to get back on the horse. And I would like to thank everyone at the hospital, my family and friends and everyone who I’ve met on this journey.
Next time, I’m going to talk about how I built and designed my first website in 4 years. Please feel free to leave a comment and as always, if you buy something from Amazon, through the blog or click on an advert, 100% of the money that I get goes to charity.
Thanks and I shall see you soon.
