Kidney Cancer - The Documentary.

When I was diagnosed a couple of years ago I knew very little about kidney cancer and I guess until our campaign in the press last year that was true of most people. In fact I bet the majority of people are still ignorant of the signs and symptoms of the disease so anything that serves to increase awareness both with the public and the medical profession is a good thing. A really good thing.

So last week when I received a phone call asking if I would be prepared to take part in a documentary about kidney cancer I only had to think for a couple of seconds before saying 'Yes!'

On Wednesday, the director, producer and PR representative of the company commissioning the documentary came to see me for a chat. I thought originally my part would consist of being interviewed somewhere in a studio - but no - I am to have a film crew here, at my house and following me around as I do my usual everyday stuff, for 4 days next week !

This has caused much excitement amongst the family and friends who will also be involved - a sudden surge in hairdresser appointments, and sorting through wardrobes accompanied by squeals of "Ive got nothing to wear"!!

On a more serious note though I'm really excited to be involved in such a project and feel a great responsibility to be representing kidney cancer patients. I really hope I can do us justice because we really deserve it. We have been a small voice in the cancer world until now and its time we were heard.

Spiritual Healing.

My brother, Matt, has lived in Rio for 8 years now. As I have described earlier in this blog life is very different over there. A short while ago I received an email from him telling me about a friend of his who was quite seriously ill and required an operation. Whilst waiting for this he visited a church in Rio and received spiritual healing - and to the amazement of his doctor was completely cured.

After this Matt visited the same church for a problem he had been suffering from for the past few years and his experience there led him to urge me to fly over and try it out for myself !
Spiritual healing is very much a part of the mainstream church over there and is accepted as much by both priests and parishioners.

Im very open minded about such things - so Im going. On May 19th. I shall be visiting the church Matt went to and also going to Brasillia to see Joao de Deus (John of God) who is a very famous healer there.

It can do no harm - Matt has described what happened to him - and I have nothing to lose.

Im not grasping at straws - I know the score. But the best western medicine can offer me is an extention to my life, and although its working brilliantly right now I feel its worth exploring other possibilities. At the very least I shall see my brother and his family again and have a lovely holiday in Brasil....and have something fascinating to write about in this blog !

The Temples of the gods

All along the Nile the Egyptians built Temples dedicated to their gods. They were all built in the same style, with an 'H' shaped pylon as the entrance, a large open hippo style hall with many columns and several smaller covered chambers all leading to the 'holy of holies' - the alter - which was a small room in almost complete darkness.

The ordinary people who brought their offerings every day wouldn't be allowed in, they simply left them at the entrance. Some of the nobles would be invited into the hall but only the priests and the Pharaoh had access to the inner sanctums.

Each Temple was dedicated to a specific god, or in some cases 2 gods. The photo above is of the Temple of Horus, the falcon, the avenger. The figures carved relate to Horus and the Pharaoh of the day who had the temple built. The photo below is from the Temple of Karnak in Luxor which was built much later, after 300BC. Although it may not be obvious from the photos there is one striking difference in the carvings which makes them easy to date. The later ones are more 'voluptuous' and date from the time when the Greeks ruled Egypt - the Ptolomy's. Which included Cleopatra.

As we sailed down the Nile to Aswan we visited several of these Temples, all of them built in a position so that twice a year, when the Nile flooded, they would be blessed by the god of the Nile, Isis. These Egytpians were clever fellows !

They still are as a matter of fact, they never miss an opportunity to try and sell you something. One of the funniest things Ive ever seen was when we were waiting, along with several other cruise boats, to go through the lock at Esna, dozens of small rowing boats would pull along side with their wares on display - scarves, galabaias (Egyptian long 'dresses' for men) necklaces etc... These little boats would row furiously trying to catch up with the larger ones, the men on them shouting at us passengers, coming perilously close to being hit at times. We found that at all of the sites we visited we would have to run the gauntlet of street traders - and they could be very pushy and intimidating at times. Nothing is for free there - nothing. Even in public lavatories there will be someone outside selling loo roll - at 2 sheets per person. And everyone expects a tip - even for something as simple as pointing out a nice view to photograph. We soon learned to say 'La'a Shokrun' (which means No Thankyou!) very firmly.

The weather was hot, and got hotter as the week went on resulting in a sandstorm on the last night which was amazing. It was twilight and we could see a huge black cloud bearing down on us. It looked just like a storm cloud but when it hit it was just very high winds, and lots and lots of fine dusty sand. Next morning everthing was covered in this sand. It hardly ever rains in this area of Egypt - they get just 3 inches a year - but these sandstorms which originate in the Sahara are quite common.

As I said the weather was very hot whilst we were there averaging about 35 degrees and the sun is very powerful. Even with sunscreen I burnt quite badly on my feet and arms and discovered a new side effect of Sutent - you dont tan. You burn and then go back to white again. Martin, ofcourse, has come home a lovely shade of dark golden. Im still pale blue ! I mentioned this to Dr P when I had my 6 weekly MOT last week and he said its because Sutent affects the melonin in your skin - in the same way as it changes your hair colour. So from now on its sun block or covering up for me - and maybe some fake tan!

I found the week very strenuous what with the very early starts and the amount of walking we had to do, and I wasnt the only one - even Martin said how tired he was at the end. But I wouldnt have missed it for the world and would recommend it to anyone. Just dont go in the summer, the heat will be unbearable then. I will never forget standing where Pharaohs had been buried, touching the walls of temples where they worshiped, and learning a tiny bit about what life was like for them.

Valley of the Kings and Valley of the Queens....

3000 years ago the Egyptian Pharaohs lived on the east bank of the Nile but when they died they wanted to be buried on the west bank where the sun set, believing that, like the sun, they would be resurrected. The imposing limestone hills were the obvious place for their tombs and so were born the Valley's of the Kings and Queens.

From the moment a new Pharaoh was crowned his tomb was begun - so those who survived many years like Ramses II, who lived to be 92, had huge tombs with many chambers - whilst those like Tutankhamen who only ruled for 9 years had much smaller tombs. These tombs told the story of the Pharaoh's life, in hieroglyphics, and contained everything he would need for his journey into the next life. When a Pharaoh died his priests had 70 days in which to mummify and entomb him. Then the tomb for the next Pharaoh would be started.

The Valley of the Kings is huge, absolutely massive, containing 64 tombs so far discovered, with many more the Egyptologists who work there know are yet to be found. The work is slow and painstaking as they always restore existing tombs before excavating a new one. There are only 2 or 3 tombs open to the public at any one time and unfortunately no photos are allowed in them - and my words cannot possibly do justice to the magnificent engravings and paintings in there. The paint is 3000 years old and yet in some it appears as if completed only yesterday. Over the years most of the tombs were plundered, only Tutankhamen's was discovered intact, and they are now empty apart from the sarcophagus. The Mummies are mostly in the museum in Cairo. Its difficult to describe the eerie feeling standing inside one of these tombs, even with dozens of other tourists, the sense of the ancient civilization who lived and worked there is overwhelming.

The Valley of the Queens is much smaller, but contains the best preserved tomb - that of a young Prince. It is very small having been hurriedly constructed within the 70 days allowed, but the paint and engravings in there are brilliant - so bright and vibrant - telling the sad story of a young life. It was very moving being in there and having the hieroglyphics deciphered for us by our guide, Mamal.

It was also very hot. And hard work walking around on the uneven ground and queuing to get into each tomb. But the feeling of being there is something I will never, ever forget - I touched the tomb where a long forgotten Pharaoh died thousands of years ago.

A bomb hoax, a broken plane and a sandstorm....

......all conspired against us to keep us in Egypt for an extra 24 hours. But we didnt mind. We had an extra day of lazing around the pool, eating, drinking and just relaxing - which is just what we needed after 7 days of charging around Egypt at an unholy pace.

It is said the British love queuing. We seemed to spend the whole week queuing for one thing or another and it started at Gatwick airport. The queue to get through 'security' wound, snake like, all through the terminal. We had arrived in plenty of time thinking we could have breakfast before our flight, only to spend that time, over an hour, waiting in the queue for security. Once through we thought we could sit down for half an hour and have a cup of coffee, but no, a sign informed us we still had a 20 minute walk to our gate. What is it with Gatwick? Why is everything so far away? I longed for my intimate little Birmingham airport as we yomped down to gate 23 which seemed to be in the next county. Everything went pretty smoothly after that, flight was on time and 5 and a half hours later we were landing at Luxor - where, even at 6pm, it was hot. Very hot. Yet more queuing to obtain a visa and get through immigration, a short coach ride, and we arrived at our boat - the MS Da Vinci.

When we were in Turkey we were surprised at the number of gulets cruising around and similarly here we were surprised at the number of river boats moored up. There must have been dozens of them, all basically the same build - 3 floors of acommodation and a top deck with a pool for sunbathing. Shortage of moorings meant that these boats often had to moor along side each other meaning we would have to walk across others to reach ours. And they all look very similar. So similar in fact that on the first night one chap off our boat got slightly confused and ended up having dinner on another boat and it was only when he tried to get into his cabin later he realised his mistake !

Our cabin was on the lower deck, 'down with the bilge rats' as Martin put it, but it was very nice, quite spacious with a big window. When we opened the curtains we had a shock though as the water level came right up to the window, in fact it lapped over it, so our room was below water level !

Meals were at set times, on the same table sharing with the same people so we were slightly concerned who we would end up with. We struck lucky with a lovely group of people, similar sense of humour, and we ending up looking forward to having a gossip and a laugh with them. The food that night was disappointing to say the least. It did improve slightly during the week but on the whole it wasnt a patch on the food we have had on other cruises.

After dinner there was a meeting to explain the excursions we would be going on during the week and the fact most of them required an early start - very early in some cases. The next day was Valley of the Kings and our wake up call was at 6am so at 10pm we retired to our sub-aqua cabin to get some much needed sleep. It had been a long day.......

Have feet will travel....

Remember when you were in your teens and would buy a new pair of very high heels and wear them all day and night and even go dancing in them? You may have got the odd blister but that was all. Comfort didn't come into it. It was how they looked that was important. And it still is for me, to some extent anyway. So it really didn't help when Catherine called my new, sensible and quite expensive shoes my 'Granny shoes'. Apart from the few occasions when I have gone out at night, for the past 2 years I have worn Uggs during the winter (soooo comfy) and flip flops in the summer. So my feet, even when not sore from Sutent, are pretty tender.



Hence my 'comfortable' shoes for our trip down the Nile. Except they arn't. Comfortable that is. Ive been wearing them on and off for the past week - without socks, with socks - and they hurt. All over. They are supposed to be the most comfortable shoes on the market - air sprung, flexi sole, but as far as Im concerned I may as well be wearing the box they came in. Im going to persevere with them, Ive got to. Hopefully if Im struggling there will be a handy camel for me to jump on !



Tomorrow I start cycle 11 of Sutent. I cant believe its been a year since I started taking it. And how lucky I am that it worked - and is still working. Ive had a lovely week off and am really looking forward to whatever Egypt has to throw at me - literally ! A couple of friends of ours have just returned from the same trip and had a few cautionary words - the heat (its 39 degrees there right now), the smell (not nice apparently) and they both suffered from upset tummies (situation normal for me then!) But it will be an experience, and one I have wanted to do for years now. And if it goes well and I cope well - who knows what I can plan to do next?

The Land of Cleopatra

Ive had a couple of 'upsey-downsey' months since Christmas. But finally, after doing 5 weeks on my last cycle of Sutent, Im feeling really well. Really, really well in fact. No pain, fatigue has gone and my hands are healing nicely. Which is a good job because, and this is the reason I did an extra week of Sutent, in 2 weeks time Martin and I are off to Egypt. To cruise down the Nile and see all the historical sites and temples and pyramids !


Im so excited. This is something Ive always wanted to do, Ive always been fascinated by the ancient Egyptians, but I really didnt think I would be capable of doing it now. Its quite a strenuous trip with a lot of walking, very early starts, and little time to rest. But Im so determined to do it.

Ive even bought myself a pair of 'sensible' shoes (from Clarks - a shop I havnt set foot in since the children were young) especially for this trip !