My Diary – November 2008

 

Friday 28th November 2008

 

Now that it’s only four weeks away until Christmas (so exciting!), I thought I’d give you some ideas for a great Christmas present for someone, which raises money for a good cause at the same time. You can’t ask for more than that really!

 

First of all, Michael Waterman who created the jewellery range, Mikey, has designed a range of fab jewellery for Teenage Cancer Trust. All proceeds from it go to TCT, so it makes a huge difference. I have some of this range and it really is lovely. The two pieces I have are the bracelet and necklace, and this is what I’m recommending for Christmas prezzies.

 

The necklace is on a silver chain, and has three pendants on it. One is a silver horn of plenty, then a silver flat pebble shape with the word ‘believe’ engraved on it, and the last pendant on the chain is the very cool TCT logo which is in diamantes. It costs £12.50, which is a special price just for this website! It looks very nice, but best of all, unique. The photo doesn’t do it justice!

 

TCT Pendant

 

The bracelet is a funky silver charm bracelet and has several charms on it including the fab diamante TCT logo, and the flat pebble, this time with the word ‘hope’ on it. This costs £20, which again is a special price! See pic.

 

All jewellery comes in a little black or pink velvet drawstring bag with the words ‘Teenage Cancer Trust by Mikey’ on the front in glitter.

 

And for those lovely boys out there, Adidas have designed a cool beanie hat. They’re very nice I have to say, and nice and comfy! They’re £10 each, and they’ll definitely keep your head warm this winter! Obviously girls can wear them too. I know I will be!

 

Stocking fillers…oo-er!

 

  • Blue TCT button badge - 50p
  • Teenage Cancer Trust car/window sticker – 50p
  • Baby blue wristband saying ‘helping teenagers fight cancer’ - £1
  • Funky silicone dog tags for those clubbers out there. They come in pink, blue and black or in UV-treated yellow or green - £1
  • Trolley token keyring, which can be used in most lockers and also for shopping trolleys, are metal with either three stars on it or a snowflake - £1.
  • Baby blue TCT ballpoint pen - £1.50
  • Brilliant TCT silicone phone dangle. It’s a little rubbery logo which you dangle from your mobile, and it looks pretty cool! - £1
  • White sweatband with blue TCT logo embroidered on it - £3.50
  • TCT branded playing cards - £4

 

If you would like to buy any of the above, then please donate the amount that it costs on my Justgiving page at:

www.justgiving.com/nicolesfund  and then email me on: Nicole@c-h-o-c.org.uk  with your order and address, and I’ll post it to you as soon as I can.

 

Alternatively, you can order by post by sending a cheque made payable to Teenage Cancer Trust to the following address:

 

Teenage Cancer Trust, Nicole’s fund, PO Box 702, East Grinstead, RH19 3WX.

 

Thank you for your continued support with my fundraising. I’ve now reached the £2,000 mark of my new target, and I’d like to raise as much money as possible for an absolutely brilliant cause, so please consider buying some of the above this Christmas.

 

Below are some facts about teenage cancer and what the Teenage Cancer Trust does to improve the lives of teens and young adults with this deadly disease. Please read it and take in every word, then you’ll see why I do what I do.

 

Teenage cancer facts:

 

  • 2,000 cases of teenage cancer are diagnosed each year in the UK – that’s 6 today, 6 tomorrow and 6 every day after that
  • One in 312 boys, and one in 361 girls gets cancer before they’re 20
  • Teenage cancer rates have increased by 50% in the last 30 years – there are now more teenagers than children with cancer in the UK
  • Cancer is the No.1 cause of non-accidental death in teenagers in the UK
  • Young people contract some of the most aggressive cancers and survival rates fall well below those of other age groups.

 

Teenage Cancer Trust facts:

 

  • TCT funds specialist teenage cancer units in NHS hospitals to provide a sanctuary while receiving the best possible treatment in centres of excellence
  • TCT’s aim is to open 14 additional units by 2012 – giving every teenager with cancer access to an age appropriate facility
  • We provide a family support network to help parents and siblings
  • We fund a Professor of Teenage and Young Adult Cancer

 

Need I say any more? xxx

 

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Friday 21st November 2008

 

Well it looks like things are finally getting sorted, and I’m very pleased. Last Tuesday (11th) I went to Kent & Canterbury Hospital to talk to an urologist about the bladder stone. He said that it’s probably the reason for why I’ve been feeling so ill, and that he can remove it and that should make me feel better. I’m booked in for the operation on 5th December, so at least it’ll get it out of the way for Christmas - literally! And hopefully after that I might get a day where I’m not in pain or feeling crap. We’ll see…

 

Wednesday 12th was quite an interesting day at Guy’s Hospital in London. I saw Ros Ferner, my neurofibromatosis specialist, to talk about what to do with the tumours in my ears, and it’s been decided that I’ll have the one in my left ear removed (the ear with no hearing left), and that will be biopsied to find out what it actually is as we still don’t know. They will also look at the nerve in my ear while they’re doing that to see if it’s damaged. Nothing will be done until next year, though, but I’m glad that I’ll finally find out what is really going on inside my ears. My next appointment is in March, so I suppose the op will be sometime after that.

 

Last Thursday I went to Demelza to stay until Saturday. On Friday night we had a get together in TIZ (the adolescent room), and played games and had McDonalds. We played the game of ‘Who wants to be a millionaire’, and I got the first £100 question wrong! It was a stupid question anyway!

 

I went out for a meal on Sunday with the family, ate too much, but who cares when there are profiteroles with hot fudge sauce involved!

 

On Monday I went to the Youngminds Book Award 2008 ceremony in London. I had my nails done and eyebrows waxed in the morning, then our taxi picked us up in the afternoon. We had a drinks reception when we arrived where we got to meet the authors of the other books shortlisted. There were piles of each of the books, and Mum put my hand on my pile, then another pile of my books then another. I can’t help but still get very excited about holding my own book! Geeky or big headed I don’t know, but I love it! We then went to the award ceremony. There were a few speeches, and then they introduced each of the books. They had children on stage reviewing them and luckily my book got 5 out of 5 from one girl, and 4 out of 5 from the other. They then announced the winner, which unfortunately wasn’t my book, but it went to a lovely lady in a pink dress whose book was called ‘From where I stand’. Imagine my shock though when I was then presented with a special award! It was the Children’s Choice award, which was voted for by the children and young people who had been reviewing all of the books. I got a lovely glass trophy, chocolates and flowers. This is one of the best awards I’ve won so far. I feel like I’ve actually earned this one as my book is something I worked very hard on, so I’m very, very happy.

 

This brings me on to announce that on Friday 28th November, I will be doing a book signing at the Horsebridge Centre in Whitstable between 4-6pm, so if you’d like to buy a signed copy of my award winning book, then please come along! I’m not sure if I’m actually allowed to call it that, but I’m going to anyway!

 

I’m now working on my next three books and having lots of fun with them. One is fiction, and the other two are non-fiction. I will keep you up to date on what’s happening with them!

 

On Tuesday I went to hydro again. I felt like I was a lot better this time. I seemed to be walking better, but I still have a long, long way to go to get to where I was before I relapsed two years ago. Of course now it’s even worse because my balance has gone too because of the tumours in my ears, so I’ve got a lot of work to do. I’m not complaining though, I love exercising. I must be mad. Hmmm, like that hasn’t been said before!

 

On Thursday I had tea with the Lord Mayor of Canterbury. I’ve met her a few times as we seem to go to the same events, and I met her again a couple of weeks ago at Ralph’s concert, and she invited me to Tower House (the Lord Mayor’s Parlour), to have tea and a chat. Her chauffeur picked Mum, Nikki and I up at 10.30am, and took us to Tower House. The Lord Mayor is very nice and down to earth and let me feel and wear her chain (blingtastic – I loved it!) and I also got to feel the posh clothes she wears for official visits, a sword which was presented to Canterbury by the Queen in 1988, plus other old and priceless things. Oh, and we also drank tea and ate biscuits - my favourite thing to do!

 

The next couple of weeks are very busy for me, so I should have lots of news in my next update.

 

Love Nicole xxx

 

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Sunday 9th November 2008

 

Quite a busy couple of weeks again. On Friday 24th October, I went to St Thomas’ Hospital to see how I’m getting on with my hearing aids. I also had the hearing test again where I had to listen to sentences and say what I heard. This time there was a chocolate muffin at stake, and I had to get 15% more than my last test eight weeks ago. I failed miserably this time and didn’t even get a score. I’m lucky if I even managed to hear three words out of all the sentences, and we abandoned the test because it just wasn’t working. Luckily though I still got the muffin for effort! It was extremely frustrating, though, to not be able to do the test. We have now decided that the hearing aids can’t help me any more. The problem with my hearing is that I need words slowing down rather than made louder. I now have to tell people to speak slowly, two or three words at a time, so that they register with me before moving on to the next part of the sentence. It’s not always going to be easy to tell people how to speak to me, but if that’s what has to be done, then I’ll just have to learn the best way how.

 

On Thursday 30th October I went to Demelza for a pamper day which was great. It lasted all day, and I had a manicure, pedicure, foot massage, facial and my make-up done, so I came away looking a lot better than when I arrived! We also decorated fancy fairy cakes with lots of little heart and star sprinkles etc, so it was a good day!

 

Last Saturday night I went to a charity concert organised by my friend Ralph. For the last two years he’s held a concert to help me raise money for King’s College Hospital, and this year the concert was in aid of Kent Kids Miles of Smiles. There were different performers, including his son Matthew, who has a great voice. Guests included the Lord Mayor of Canterbury, Carolyn Parry, and her consort Stephen Parry, who we got to sit next to in the front row. The concert raised an impressive £2371, and money is still coming in.

 

On Tuesday I went back to hydrotherapy. I haven’t been for about a year, and it’s been really frustrating. I love being active and it puts me in a better mood, so I’ve found it really annoying and frustrating not being able to go to hydro and the gym for a long time. It was great to get back in the pool again as I can do a lot more in water. I spent about half an hour in the pool and did exercises, a bit of swimming on my back and some walking. I was very wobbly to begin with, but I soon got the hang of it once I got a bit more confident to be in the water again. My next session is in a fortnight, so I’m really looking forward to that. My back did ache a lot afterwards, and my legs were sore too, but I think they’re just not used to doing that much exercise any more! Hopefully the more I do and get my body used to again, the less it’ll hurt afterwards. If not, I’ll just top up more on paracetamol.

 

On Thursday afternoon I went to the gym. I didn’t do too much, just some bed exercises and walking in the parallel bars. I was a bit wobbly on my feet, but I’m hoping to get stronger and more stable again the more I go there. That night I went to the pub with the girls. They already had my Archers and orange ready for when I arrived - such good girls! We had a few drinks and shared a bowl of cheesy chips, and had a good catch up. I managed to resist doing the conga and the YMCA before coming home - I obviously didn’t drink enough!

 

To update you on the awards which I’ve recently been shortlisted for, I haven’t won the Cosmopolitan Woman of the Year award unfortunately, but I did beat hundreds of other women to the shortlist of 20, but there were only seven winners in the end. Cosmo said that they’re going to send me a nice gift in the post though, so I can’t complain really! I am however definitely going to the Youngminds book award ceremony on the 17th November where my book has made the shortlist of six, so I’ll let you know how that goes! 

 

A big, big thank you to Angela Smith for donating on my Justgiving page this week. I’ve now reached the £2,000 mark of my target, so I’m really pleased with that. There’s still a lot more that needs to be raised though!

 

Will update soon. I have some exciting things happening over the next few weeks, so will update more when I can.

 

Love Nicole xxx