Hi there and welcome back to my blog. How are you? I hope that you are well Before I start on my blog post, I just want to let you know, a couples of things about my health status. The hospital have lowered my desmopressin to 100,50100. I was taking caberlongie once a week, but the hospital have also lowered that dosage to once every two weeks. I’ve also adopted a gluten free diet and because of this and the fact that it’s hard to get gluten free vegan bread with no soy, my breakfast is now gluten free porridge with peanut butter. Now, back to our original topic. Today I’m going to talk about how to make friends. Now I know that I’ve told you on this blog, that before I started my radiotherapy, I had lunch with my best friend, friends since nursery. I told him about my, and diagnosis that was the last time that he spoke to me.
I know that it can be sad to lose a best friend but, that’s the past. Now it’s the present and I have more friends than ever before. Here’s how I did it.
- Join a local cancer/brain tumour group`
- Volunteer
- Find a hobby and join a group
- Go out and have fun
Join a local cancer/brain tumour group
When I was diagnosed back in 2015, I didn’t know of cancer groups, let alone brain tumour groups. Every month, me and mum go along to our monthly Brain Tumour Support and our local MacMillans since March 2017. We mostly talk about life in general, drink tea and eat cake.
There are also online groups as well. At the start of 2018, I joined a Facebook group called Brain Tumours with Humour. They are a group who share stories about their diagnosis and have a laugh about it. I’m always sharing posts to this group and I always get responses from members of the group. There is of course, the Brain Tumour Support and MacMillans Facebook groups and pages.
Last September, after I turned 30, I went along to a Young Adults Brain Tumour Charity with my uncle. I met many people my age, going through the same situation as myself. That December, I also went to a Shine Young Cancer Christmas dinner with my uncle. They are more local and met more frequently than Young adults Brain Tumour Charity but their cancer queries are more general.
Volunteer
Back in August 2017, when I went to Carers Trust, looking for a self confidence building course. Colin, an employer at Carers Trust, said why don’t you volunteer here? So on that day, I started volunteering at Carers Trust and on that day, I got several friends.
Find a hobby and join a group
As I’ve said before, I started playing the ukulele back in 2012, but I stopped when I was diagnosed, and I only started playing after my first Brain Tumour Support meeting. Before my diagnosis, after work, I would go upstairs and sit on my own and play the ukulele. Since April last year, I’ve joined a ukulele group called the Earls of Uke. They have been going for a couple of years before I joined the group. I made a couple of friends from that group. And here are the videos from last months singalong.
Go out and have fun
Back in last April, one of my flatmates from freshers was getting married. She invited the whole flat and a couple of my friend came. When I got home, my mum asked me “how was it?” I told her “ I have friends again”. The next day, when I told my aunt, when she asked me how the wedding was, I told her it’s nice to have friends again.
It does make me sad to have lost a best friend, from this disease, even though he didn’t get the brain tumours, I did. Unfortunately, this is the life that we have been dealt with and we have to own it and control it.
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 Louise 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 sharing my story and I would like to thank Joe for motivating me to getting 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.
And don’t forget, that I’m running a 5K for Cancer Research this month. To donate, click here.
Next time, I’m going to share some recipes of some food items that I regularly have. Please feel free to leave a comment, and don’t forget if you buy something from Amazon through the blog or click on an advert, 100% of the money goes to Brain Tumour Support.
Thanks and I will see you soon.
