Race For Life - Update!

At the beginning of February I posted about doing Race for Life a women only charity run, raising money for Cancer Research. My event isn't until the 8th of June, but I just wanted to say a massive thank you to all those who have sponsored me already on my online page, it's just hit £560.00 which is absolutely incredible and I am so thankful to everyone who has kindly donated!

My little sister Harriet decided not that long ago that she'd actually like to do the event with me... considering she complains about having to run around the hockey pitch at school for a warm up before her p.e. lesson, running 3 miles could prove interesting! Haha! I can picture myself giving her a piggy back most of the way round, but she's desperate to do it with me and is all geared up with her Race For Life t-shirt and wrist bands!

If you'd like to sponsor me in my Race For Life, which is all going to Cancer Research, you can do so by going to my Just Giving page, even if it's only £1 every little helps!
http://www.justgiving.com/emilyevaalice 

Or if you'd like to sponsor my little sister Harriet, she also has a Just Giving page set up, which you can find through this link!
http://www.justgiving.com/harrietparker



Thank you again for all your support and I will post my next Race For Life update once Harriet and I have completed it on the 8th of June!

Bald and Beautiful

Losing your hair and going bald is probably one of the worst things you'll have to go through when you have cancer, (besides all the chemo and drugs.) Sometimes hair loss happens quickly, sometimes it happens gradually. My hair loss was dragged out over a number of weeks as my hair thinned a lot first and then started falling out in clumps and eventually there was hardly any left, so I decided to take the rest off.

Once all my hair was gone (and when it started to poke through again as it was growing back,) one thing I found was that my scalp became itchy and sore and when my hair started to grow back, my scalp felt more itchy and more uncomfortable. I tried different moisturisers at first, but all of them I found to be too strong on my little bald head, so my lovely Mum went off round the shops in search of something to soothe my uncomfortable head and she returned with Bepanthen.
Bepanthen is a nappy care ointment cream. It's a product developed to use on babies with nappy rash, however, it is extremely good to us on a sore, itchy bald head! Honestly, I don't think you'll find anything to beat it! It's quite a thick and creamy ointment, so a little of this on your head will go a long way.

'Bepanthen's gentle formulation quickly soothes and supports gentle skin recovery. When applied at every nappy change, (or when your newly bald head begins to feel sore/ dry or itchy,) Bepanthen forms a long-lasting, breathable barrier, protecting delicate skin against the irritants that can cause nappy rash.' (Or an itchy/ dry/ sore scalp.)

A 30g tube of Bepanthen will last you for a while, but if you want to get a bigger tube it's also available to buy in 100g. You can buy Bepanthen online from *Superdrug* or you can pop into the store. (It is slightly cheaper in Superdrug than Boots.)

Photo taken 2nd October 2013

If your hair has started to grow back already and you want to know which shampoos and conditioners are best to use for your new locks, then you can find all that on one of my previous blog posts *here!*

Hair Growth Update - March

Since I took the last bits of my hair off at the end of September, I have been religiously using Lee Stafford's Hair Growth products - Shampoo, Conditioner and Treatment Pot (which you can read about *here*) and I have to say I think that my hair is doing well! I am beginning to accept the fact that it won't grow back to waist length overnight, however, it is doing the best it can with the help of Lee's products.

As you can see from the photos, it is growing back thicker and with a bit of a curl. Pre-cancer my hair was a light shade of brown (also known as mousey brown) and completely straight, if I wanted the slightest bit of volume in it I had to back comb it like crazy and hairspray the life out of it.. now it's not only started growing back darker, it is also thicker and slightly curly/ wavy. It's completely out of control! Ha! If I want to tame it I have to wash it every night to keep it more or less flattened down. In my 'March' photos I'd washed my hair a couple of days before and as you can see, I've got a nice little quiff going on and it's also gone curlier at the back. The longer you don't wash it for, the crazier it gets!
My Dad was the first one to say, "You never know, you might have a massive afro!" Which my younger sister found extremely funny and then spent a couple of minutes drawing a picture of me with a mass of curly hair on my head... brilliant!

I'm not entirely sure as my hair gets longer if it will continue to be as wavy as it is now, or if the weight of the hair as it grows will eventually straighten it out a bit... I'll have to wait and see!

For anyone who has lost their hair, whether it has been due to chemo or not, I would definitely recommend that when it starts to grow back you get some of these products in stock, as not only do they smell nice, they work wonders for your hair in helping it to grow back. Obviously, like I said in my previous hair post, I don't know how quickly hair should grow from scratch, but I personally think that these products are definitely making a difference to my hair growth and I would 100% recommend them to anybody trying to grow their hair longer. You can either buy it online at Boots or in store.

One Crazy Week - In The News!

So this week has been absolutely crazy! At the end of February a couple of weeks ago, I was contacted by the lovely Harriet from SWNS news. They're the UK's largest press agency and Harriet had happened to come across my blog and contacted me on twitter saying she wanted to do a piece on it as she thought it might get interest from others who might be in the same situation. So after several phone calls with Harriet, she'd got all the information she needed and I sent her some photos from my blog, as well as photos of me before and after treatment.

Harriet then pitched my story to the papers and it was picked up and published online at the beginning of last week. I was getting emails and telephone calls from lots of different people wanting to know about my blog and my cancer diagnosis, having interviews on the radio and a reporter and cameraman for BBC South East came round late Wednesday afternoon to interview me... Friday lunchtime and Friday evening I was shown on the local news. It's been completely bizarre! However I am extremely thankful for the exposure my blog and 'My Cancer Story' has had over the past week and all the emails I've received, from people who have also been diagnosed with cancer, to those who have been touched by my story. Thank you for your kind messages and I hope that my blog posts on 'Dealing With Cancer' have made a difference to those reading, even if it's just one person.

Below are the links that will take you to my story featured in different newspaper articles online:
The Mail Online
The Argus
The Huffington Post
Kent & Sussex Courier
The Sun
BBC News Sussex

I did a pre-recorded radio interview with Bright FM and spoke to a journalist from the Sussex Express just the other day. I'll also be featured in a Women's magazine later in the month, but I'm not sure when these will pop up, so I'll let you know when I know!

Thank you again for all the support and lovely messages I have received, I am very grateful that my story has had such a positive reaction, so thank you.