Moving on....

So, a bit more about what is actually going on in London.

Every day I head towards the hospital for radiotherapy, it's only 5-10minutes away so no problem. The times vary each day, I prefer the morning as there's less chance of delays, it also gives me the day to spend as I wish ( not shopping obviously....) .

I had a fabulous time with AB, and as a bonus she left me loads of homemade flapjacks I'm munching my way through. We had a super visit to Kew Gardens, so much to see and learn about.
Wednesday was my 31st wedding anniversary , AB left and husband arrived , just in time for the clinic appointment with my lovely consultant DR Taylor. She seems very pleased with progress so far and my bloods are all good ( amazingly considering my history ) , so that's all positive.

Hubby and I had an excellent day on Thursday , after treatment we went off to visit the Shard, Borough Market, walk along the Thames, The National Portrait gallery ( Picasso exhibition worth seeing) all in that order.
Picked up cheap tickets for The Kinks ( very good show, great music) and had an early supper. Phew.

Friday was just as hectic but for different reasons ...
A trip on a bus, a bit of shopping and then we made our way to the airport. Arriving at Victoria I went through the barrier toward the Gatwick express, hubby's ticket would not work, upon checking with the very busy , hassled assistant he found that he had inadvertently bought a southern trains ticket instead.. I'm on one side of the barrier looking at the express with 3 minutes before departure and he's grumpily looking at me from the other side , I shouted to get the Southern instead and I'd see him at security .
Turning on his heel he stomped off, I rushed into a very busy train full of shrieking teenagers going on holiday to Magaluf - oh Joy.

Texts sent backwards and forwards, he finally found platform 19, and a southern train , jumped aboard and set off, becoming slightly concerned when no mention of Gatwick appeared on any announcement or screen !
Fortunately it was the correct train that stopped at Gatwick, and unbeknown to him I waited for him, only to find out he'd come in and was already on the shuttle!!
We did eventually meet up again at the security gate, where we both saw the funny side, but we weren't laughing when the flight already delayed, meant us swopping planes to then sit on the plane on the runway for two hours waiting for ground staff to load the bags and 'push us off'.
Instead of arriving in Jersey at 6:20pm, we finally landed at 9:20pm, really not funny when after a week in London I just wanted to get HOME!!
All this said, I discovered there were two girls aboard that were surprising their mum for her 60th birthday party, guess they were upset it was so late.

On a different note two weeks ago Jack, Steph and I went to Guys hospital to further my request for genetic testing. Lots of family questions, bloods taken, and more talking. I should have the results by the middle of December .
I think ( it was very complicated !!) that they are testing for BRCA 1 BRCA2 MMR and another gene that can be linked to bowel cancer.
Hopefully I don't have any of them, but if I do, it's useful to have that information for my siblings as well as my children.


A BRCA mutation is a mutation in either of the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes, which are tumor suppressor genes. Hundreds of different types of mutations in these genes have been identified, some of which have been determined to be harmful, while others have no proven impact. Harmful mutations in these genes may produce a hereditary breast-ovarian cancer syndrome in affected persons. Only 5-10% of breast cancer cases in women are attributed to BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations (with BRCA1 mutations being slightly more common than BRCA2 mutations), but the impact on women with the gene mutation is more profound.[1] Women with harmful mutations in either BRCA1 or BRCA2 have a risk of breast cancer that is about five times the normal risk, and a risk of ovarian cancer that is about ten to thirty times normal.[2] The risk of breast and ovarian cancer is higher for women with a high-risk BRCA1 mutation than with a BRCA2 mutation. Having a high-risk mutation does not guarantee that the woman will develop any type of cancer, or imply that any cancer that appears was actually caused by the mutation, rather than some other factor.

High-risk mutations, which disable an important error-free DNA repair process (homology directed repair), significantly increase the person's risk of developing breast cancer, ovarian cancer and certain other cancers. Why BRCA1 and BRCA2 mutations lead preferentially to cancers of the breast and ovary is not known, but lack of BRCA1 function seems to lead to non-functional X-chromosome inactivation. Not all mutations are high-risk; some appear to be harmless variations. The cancer risk associated with any given mutation varies significantly and depends on the exact type and location of the mutation and possibly other individual factors.

Mutations can be inherited from either parent and may be passed on to both sons and daughters. Each child of a genetic carrier, regardless of sex, has a 50% chance of inheriting the mutated gene from the parent who carries the mutation. As a result, half of the people with BRCA gene mutations are male, who would then pass the mutation on to 50% of their offspring, male or female. The risk of BRCA-related breast cancers for men with the mutation is higher than for other men, but still low.[3] However, BRCA mutations can increase the risk of other cancers, such as colon cancer, pancreatic cancer, and prostate cancer.

In humans, seven DNA mismatch repair (MMR) proteins (MLH1, MLH3, MSH2, MSH3, MSH6, PMS1 and PMS2) work coordinately in sequential steps to initiate repair of DNA mismatches.[22] In addition, there are Exo1-dependent and Exo1-independent MMR subpathways.


Deficient expression of multiple DNA repair genes is often found in cancers,[8] and may contribute to the thousands of mutations usually found in cancers (see Mutation frequencies in cancers).

If you're still out there reading this, well done, as it's very confusing , and these are only bits I've found on the Internet , but I'm not worrying about it too much, it is what it is.

This week I've got SW with me, so far she's proved very useful, washing up dishes, tidying up , and making sure I'm on time for my appointments ( a rarity ) . She said I'm the only person to go into radiotherapy running, and then shrieking with laughter when I'm there as I find out some of my radiology team were on the TV, and some were hiding from the cameras, and the fact they were ' treating ' a piece of metal on the bed, not a real person !!! Ha, all for the cameras!!!

Last night big bro took us out for supper ( very nice too ) and today we have visited The Chelsea Pensioners Hospital , such a lovely place, and chatted to some of them. ( bought Christmas presents from the shop ) . Met up with JR and MR, as they are over seeng family and enjoying a few days break. Also managed to squeeze into the Natural History museum ( half term, full of small children !) and look at the dinosaur exhibition ... Shame I can't post photos !!

Finally eight more sessions to go... Yippee







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