Fundraising

All the support CLIC Sargent have gave us has encouraged me and my family to fundraise for them.  They have supported us since my diagnosis and we feel it is our time to give back. 
They are a charity who support children and families who have been diagnosed with cancer. We have raised money for CLIC over the past few months.

Big Bucket Collection

Me and mum signed up to take part in the Big Bucket Collection in November. December is Childhood cancer awareness month and thousands of volunteers around the UK take part in a winter bucket collection. They happen at all different venues supermarkets, train stations and shopping malls. We had to do ours at our local Tesco. We had buckets, banners, signs and stickers.  It was a surprise to us how many kind people donated their money.  After 7 long hours of collecting, our grand total was £223.

My Aunties 40^th Party

My auntie had a party for her 40^th on Christmas Eve. We thought this would be a great way to try and raise some money for CLIC. There were CLIC collection buckets at the party and on her invitations she mentioned that any presents or cards people would have bought for her to donate the money instead. We managed to raise a total just over £200 this night.

My 21^st Birthday 

For my 21st birthday this year I had a party. I thought that this would be a great way to raise some money for CLIC Sargent. There was some collection buckets around so people could donate what they wished, one family member put a cheque in my card for CLIC which I was really appreciative of. Overall we raised just under £130 which is brilliant. 

 The Grand Total Is........
£557.25

How Amazing!

We are not stopping here and are going to continue to raise money for this great charity. 
If any family and friends have any ideas where they could help raise money. Feel free to contact me. 

 

Always Smiling x

♥

My 21st Birthday

Here are some photos from my 21st Birthday party. Thank you for everyone who came and thank you very much for the cards and gifts. Thank you for all the donations to CLIC Sargent, we managed to raise £129 for the charity :)  I was amazed how many family members and friends turned up. I seen old friends and family I haven't seen for years so was lovely to  catch up. I also want to thank a few people who came from my extended hospital family. I really couldn't have asked for a better night! 
My amazing parents booked me a party at the Davey Hall in North Hill, if your from Plymouth you will know of North Hill, basically it's a hill with student accommodation, bars and Plymouth University. It's really close to town which is a huge plus. The DJ finished up at around midnight and then we went to town....after that I don't recall much. 

My mums amazing idea was to home make a photo booth. You may have seen these at weddings and clubs. The cost a fortune to rent...something ridiculous like £400. Mum asked her great friend Shawn if he could build us a wooden frame to use as a background and we home made the props by printing them out and sticking them onto kebab sticks. We also had a lot of fancy dress hats, wigs, glasses etc so used them. My family are mad on fancy dress so we didn't need to buy anything. I think it cost us around £20 overall,so I would definitely recommend this to anyone who is throwing a party any time soon. Everyone really enjoyed it and we all had so much fun. 
The photos are hilarious!
My wonderful Uncle took the photographs on his amazing camera..he is a STAR! 

Your only 21 once, and I had an amazing night.
 One I will never forget, thanks to my amazing parents, family & friends.

Health Update

As you all know that I passed my year post transplant on the end of November. YAYY! Everything is going great so far. I have faced some bumps here and there but nothing to knock me off my positive mind set. I still suffer with long term effects of the transplant which will hopefully improve in the future. 

Over the Christmas I felt reasonably well but really tired. I also suffered with a lot of mouth ulcers and cold sores but nothing a course of antibiotics could clear. In the beginning of January I suffered with a horrible pain in my back and after having a few tests at the hospital the nurses said that I had a urine infection. After a course of antibiotics it was gone after a week. The reason I keep getting infections is due to my immune system. I have only had my 'new immune system' for just over a year so technically I still have a baby immune system. In time my immune system will build up and hopefully I won't get half as many infections as I do now. 

If you have had a read of my blog before you may know about my extremely high iron levels. If not you can read previous posts here.. Iron Overload & Iron Overload Update I have been having venesections on a monthly basis. Before I started having them my levels were extremely high at 2083 and after having 5 venesections my iron level has now lowered to 1500. A healthy level is below 100 and as it is still high I am having them every two weeks.
My muscle and joint pain is still ongoing and I suffer with chronic fatigue. I seriously wasn't prepared for how much I would be effected by having all the treatment. To help ease my joint pain I have started to go swimming twice a week to help gain back my strength. The first week I really struggled and was in lots of pain but just after 4 weeks I have more strength. Having cancer has really took the life out of me and I am determined to get back to my usual self, I am still recovering and know it can take time.

Always Smiling x

♥