“Many people will walk in and out of your life,

but only true friends will leave footprints in your heart”

Eleanor Roosevelt

I’m really into quotes at the moment, not sure why! The above shot was taken on holiday on the Isle of Mull in probably my favourite spot of the whole island. Those of you that know me well will know that these couldn’t possibly be my footprints as there are 2 other prints missing…those of my walking sticks! I actually found this set of footprints as I was wandering towards the sea )

Hellooo All )

First of all, just incase the word pedometer isn’t familiar to you, CLICK HERE to read about what they do!

Now onto the serious stuff!

Sunday 26th November 2008 marks the start of International Brain Tumour Awareness Week. As part of this those of us within the brain tumour community are trying to complete a ‘Walk around the world’. Don’t panic, I’m not asking you to walk the whole thing yourself! Our target is three times around the world at the Equator, that’s 120,000 kms or 75,000 miles.

Those of us attending the London GTG on Saturday 1st November will be adding our miles to the overall total but I thought I’d see if any of you guys have pedometers and feel like helping us out?

All you need to do is put the pedometer on this coming Sunday morning and wear it all your waking (or should that be walking?!) hours from then until Saturday 1st November. At the end of your week just let me know whatever your pedometer says and we’ll get it added to the total! Feel free to pass this message on to anyone you may know that has a pedometer too, the more the merrier!

The ‘Walk around the world for brain tumours’ is important to me because it’s something anyone can take part in and it’s not about money, it’s just a way of raising awareness about something that is obviously close to my heart )

So, do you have a pedometer? And would you be willing to take part? If so please leave a comment on this blog post or send me an email (natalya@thejaggers.plus.com) so I can get a rough idea of who’s taking part

Many thanks for reading,

Natalya )

Rewind – Paolo Nutini

Funny how you can listen to a song over and over for months and never really hear what it’s saying and then one day the lyrics just reach out to you. That’s what happened when this song popped on to my iPod on Friday afternoon as I completed the final leg of my journey home from Mull. I haven’t been able to stop listening to it since…weird…

After another great week on the Isle of Mull I’m home! And having been renamed by some friends of ours MBF and I will now be known as Darby and Joan LOL

Right now I am catching up on some sleep and trying to recover some corrupted images (don’t ask!) but I will post some photos and let you all know how the holiday went some time next week )

{{HUGS}} to all )

“I can be changed by what happens to me,
But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Maya Angelou

I found this quote today whilst researching something I am finding increasingly difficult. Some of you may know that I have done a lot of fundraising with MBF since his daugther passed away. As part of that I decided to put to good use the information I found when R was ill and over the past few weeks and months I have been putting together a website for high grade brain tumour patients, their families, caregivers and friends.

Ok, it probably doesn’t take a genius to work out that this isn’t a pleasant subject. Around eight new cases of primary brain tumours are diagnosed for every 100,000 people each year – in other words about 4,500 new cases in the UK annually. About 70% to 80% of primary brain tumours are High Grade.

Five-year survival rates for a high grade brain tumours (specifically Glioblastoma Multiforme IV) are less than 5%.

I could depress you all with further statistics but thats not the purpose of this post!

As part of putting the new website together I have reached the stage where I am looking for what are classed as ‘long term’ survivours…anything more than 2 years. I began making my way through a very long list of links yesterday and I can honestly say that this has probably been the hardest part of piecing the site together.

I am on the 50th person in my list and I have found just 3 survivours (worldwide). So I have visited 47 websites that have now become memorials to those who have lost their battle with this terrible disease. I try not to get ‘drawn in’ to what I see on each site, if I did I don’t think I’d be able to make it to the end of the list. But, on the page of the 50th person I looked at was that quote from earlier…

“I can be changed by what happens to me,
But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Maya Angelou

It immediately struck a chord with me. I still battle every day with what has happened in my life the last 3 years. To be honest I think there are some things which we continue to struggle with for the rest of our lives…they are the moments when you know life will never be the same again…but I’d like to think, even though things continue to be difficult, that none of it has broken me yet…

“I can be changed by what happens to me,
But I refuse to be reduced by it.”
Maya Angelou

On a lighter note, as you can probably tell, things have been hectic here over the last few weeks. A couple of weekends ago Mum and I went to Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk for the weekend. We stayed in a lovely hotel…even though Mum booked us into a double room! And we had some great weather too, it was nice to get out and about with my camera! Here are a few shots from the weekend…

Taken in the grounds of the hotel we stayed at

Tomatoes and Mushrooms on a market stall in Bury

Ickworth House, Suffolk

The following weekend MBF came over and we went to Groombridge Place. The house and some of the grounds were used in the Pride and Prejudice film (the one with Keira Knightley), if you know the film well then the scene I most associate with Groombridge Place is when Lizzie is sitting on the swing in the barn and the seasons go by as she turning around…anyway…we actually went to watch the birds of prey display!

The birds were great but I was disappointed that the house itself is not accessible to the public. I was hoping for a shot of the front of it with the huge trees that stand either side of the entrance…maybe another day

Before I forget there is one other thing I wanted to share with you all! Our fundraising took a HUGE leap from being ‘just’ MBF and I to being a part of the UK’s largest brain tumour research charity this week! You can find out more by CLICKING HERE. I am very proud of all our achievements the last 18+ months and the new direction our fundraising will be taking is something both MBF and I are very pleased about )

What a long post, sorry folks! I wanted to give you all a bit of an update on what I have been upto and to ramble on about the brain tumour stuff…it helps to write stuff down sometimes!

MBF and I are heading to the Isle of Mull on Thursday and we cant wait! We had had to cancel the holiday because of my surgery but that was postponed so we put our plans back on track and it’s actually come around really quickly! So, this will be my last post before the holiday but I am sure once I get back I will post some photos and let you all know what we got up to )

Thanks to all of you who visit and check on how I am doing, it means a lot to me ) {{HUGS}} x