My Diary – October 2008

Wednesday 22nd October 2008 – Happy 30th Nick!! xx

What a month!! It started great, turned a bit crap, then ended brilliantly!

On Wednesday 1st October I got my scan results. All is absolutely fine, and I’m still in remission. It was the 20 month mark last week since my treatment finished, so, so far so good. It’s the longest I’ve managed to stay in remission, so I’m really, really pleased.

And now for my latest drama…On Saturday 4th I went to Kent and Canterbury Hospital for an ultrasound of my stomach. I saw my GP a few weeks ago because I’m still not feeling well, and she referred me for the test. They checked my liver, kidneys etc, and all were fine. Then they found something which looked like a bladder stone. I then had an x-ray which confirmed it. It’s quite a big one, about the size of a 10p piece, and they said it hasn’t just appeared that size. It’s been growing for a long time. So, as I’ve been saying since last year that I haven’t been feeling well, this is probably the cause. Mum looked it up in the medical book, and as usual, it’s rare! Oh, and it normally affects men! When the ultrasound I had two years ago just before my chemo started was checked, it showed a tiny stone, but we were never told this, so basically it’s been growing since then. I’m not happy. Not because I now have another medical condition, but that such a simple test like an ultrasound has found the reason why I’ve been feeling so crap, and been in severe pain with my back for almost a year. Why couldn’t this have been done sooner? I’ve been worried the whole time that it’s been my cancer, and that’s why I’ve kept asking for scans, and it’s all been down to a bloody bladder stone. I’m not quite sure yet how it’ll be treated, but I’m just glad now I have the reason why I’ve been feeling so bad.

Now for the start of the exciting news! On Tuesday 14th I ticked another thing off my wish list – I went to Clarence House for a private audience with Prince Harry! This is a secret I’ve had since June and it’s been very, very hard to keep, but it’s been worth it. Clarence House is where I was drinking tea in August. I went there to arrange an abseil with Prince Harry. Back in April, when I won the Rotary Young Citizen Award, I was asked about my wish list. It was filmed live on BBC News 24, and part of my answer was, “I’d like to meet Prince Harry coz I like a rebel.” The BBC sent that to Prince Harry and told him about me and my abseil. He said he’d like to help me with it (awwww!), but unfortunately he was too busy on the day when I did it. So I went to an office in Clarence House in August where his secretary, press officer and security tried to organise another one for us, but it was then decided that the abseil would take away from my wish to meet him, so the next day they phoned Mum and said Prince Harry had invited me to a private audience with him. You can imagine how difficult it’s been to keep it a secret, but I was adamant it wasn’t to get out in case it was cancelled. Knowing this was happening for the last few months has really kept me going. I haven’t hidden the fact that recently I’ve been finding it quite tough, but every time I thought about my meeting with Prince Harry, it really cheered me up. I couldn’t believe that the 14th October finally arrived. It seemed like such a long way away back in the summer. I was very excited and slightly nervous beforehand, as you can probably imagine. We arrived early at Clarence House on Tuesday (better to be early than late!), so we were allowed to park our car in their car park next to the Princes’, then we went for a walk around the park and Buckingham Palace. Mum, Nikki, my guide communicator, and I then went to the private part of Clarence House where we met Prince Harry’s private secretary, then Prince Harry joined us. It was just the five of us, and it was lovely. I got to spend over an hour and a half with him, which was an hour longer than planned, but I’m keeping private what we talked about, sorry! All I’ll say is, don’t believe everything you read about Prince Harry - apart from this of course! He’s one of the nicest, funniest most down to earth people I’ve ever met. It really cheered me up to meet him, and I have some lovely photos of us for Mum’s memory book. Thank you so much to everyone who was involved in organising this meeting.

On Wednesday I had a coffee morning at a friend, Gill’s, house. There were lots of cakes, crafts and home made dolls. Friends, family and neighbours turned up to support it. Nikki came along with her Mum, friend and little boy Jak. He is 15 months old and very, very cute. He sees Nikki signing on my hand and does it too! He obviously has no idea what he’s saying, but he moves his finger round my left hand (the hand I sign with) and it’s so cute! The coffee morning lasted four hours and raised £561 for Nicole’s Fund. That brings my total so far to £1,875.61, so I still have quite a way to go to reach my £50,000 target. Thank you to everyone who came along. If you’d like to donate towards my target, and help improve the lives of teenagers living with cancer, then please donate on my Justgiving page at the top of my diary. Thank you.

On Thursday I went to the Home Office to be on the judging panel for this year’s Philip Lawrence Awards. It’s my third year on the panel, and Frances Lawrence (Philip’s widow), Sir Trevor Macdonald and the Duchess of Kent are on the panel too, so it’s been a right royal week for me! The judging lasted 3 hours and we picked a good group of winners. The judges hardly ever agree on the projects, so it can be quite interesting!

And on Friday I went to Center Parcs in Sherwood Forest for the weekend and it was brilliant. I went for a conference called ‘Find Your Sense of Tumour’, which is held by the Teenage Cancer Trust. Around 500 teenagers and young adults from across the UK with cancer attended it, and I was invited along to give a speech. We arrived quite late on the Friday, so that night we stayed in our chalet, which was lovely, and ate pizza. Nikki came with us to sign the deafblind sign language for me over the weekend, so we had a good giggle. Nikki’s a great laugh and we get on really well. She’s a fellow massive fan of Katie Price!

Anyway, throughout the weekend different people gave speeches. There were people like me speaking about their experiences with cancer, talks from professionals, and discussions. My speech was at lunchtime on Saturday. I went on stage to Queen’s ‘Don’t stop me now’, and my speech lasted about 10 minutes. I told everyone my story and received a standing ovation. I was really surprised to get that, and it’s only the third time since the conference has been running that someone has got a standing ovation, and the other two people were famous! Afterwards I was asked some questions by the audience. It was all filmed by www.jimmyteenstv.com

and it can be seen on there now. Enjoy!

That afternoon I had my make-up done by a lovely lady who gave me free lipstick and lipgloss (thanks very much!), and I had my nails done by another lovely lady. We then went back to our chalet where we got ready, then drank a tad bit too much pink champagne (hey, what’s a girl to do?), before heading to the disco. There I started on the Archers and fresh orange, then went on the dancefloor with Nikki. The night ended with me doing the conga and the YMCA with a pair of fluffy flashing bunny ears on, so it’s fair to say, it was a great night! Although the ears played havoc during the YMCA as you can do the Y and the M ok, but when it came to the C, it knocked the ears right off so I didn’t even get to the A!! I’m not sure what time I got to bed to be honest, but I remember laughing hysterically on the way back to the chalet. God knows why…but it was fun! I nearly fell out of my chair quite a few times too. That always happens!

On Sunday I felt quite ropey! But my head was fine, I’d just had no sleep. We went to the conference again to hear some more speeches, then it was the long four hour drive home, so we didn’t get back until quite late. I’ve had a great response from the conference and lots of new members in my fan club on Facebook, so thank you if you’ve joined!

So it’s been a very, very good week for me. It makes a nice change! The next month is quite quiet again I think, but you never know with me really.

Thank you to Maureen and Beverley for donating on my Justgiving page this month. Much appreciated.

Love Nicole xxx