Skip to main content

World Cancer Day

World Cancer Day, Act of Unity Bands, www.bellybuttonpanda.co.uk

World Cancer Day

To coincide with World Cancer Day JTV Cancer Support invited Ryan and I to take part in a very special filming project!

World Cancer Day is a truly global event that takes place every year on 4 February. World Cancer Day unites the world’s population in the fight against cancer.
It aims to save millions of preventable deaths each year by raising awareness and education about the disease, pressing governments and individuals across the world to take action.

Their tagline is #ActOfUnity and people were encouraged to buy Unity Bands as a show of support and to raise vital funds for cancer charities.

JTV Cancer Support

JTV Cancer Support wanted patients to film bits every day for a week to show everyone what one week living with cancer is like for them.

...maybe they're back in education/work or have a week full of hospital appointments, JTV wanted us to share a snapshot of life with/after cancer.

I thought hey, Ry might be up for this. Another way to raise awareness. I might be fun. So I messaged JTV to get their advice and to see if we were eligible.

Filming was easy! It was all done using my smartphone. I then uploaded the footage to JTV via their website and JTV edited it all together. Links to each day's videos are listed below.

I won’t lie, I felt really weird filming and I hate the sound of my own voice, but at the end of the day, it was all for a good cause and a lot less painful than anything Ryan has suffered through.

As it turned out, Ryan wasn’t as engaging as I would have hoped, but he had fair reason also. Ry didn't want to take part, he said to me afterwards, because he doesn't want it to be used against him in future.

He said the video is forever available on the internet and he has heard bad stories about people being filmed. Also though and possibly, more importantly, he doesn't want to be remembered for cancer. He said it is such a small part of his life and he is so much more. Cancer will only be a chapter in our lives, not the whole story.

Cancer is only going to be a chapter in my life, not the whole story. www.bellybuttonpanda.co.uk
World Cancer Day 4th February infographic for Pinterest, www.bellybuttonpanda.co.uk

ONE WEEK IN CANCER

Watch the videos below

Comments

  1. Unknown28 February 2017 at 21:54

    Watched it earlier and found it very moving x
    Well done to everyone who took part x

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @SarahLou1 March 2017 at 08:14

      Thank you Jo. I am looking forward to seeing each day's videos this week. x

      Delete
  2. Anon1 March 2017 at 01:22

    Absorbing - as ever. Thanks xxxxx

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. @SarahLou1 March 2017 at 08:16

      Kind words, thank you. Glad you are enjoying. Be sure to check back every evening as I post new links to each days videos. x

      Delete

Post a Comment

Thanks for your comment. We appreciate having you along for the ride.

Popular Posts

Missing Education due to Illness

The Importance of Attendance If you read any news articles on education, correspondence from your child’s school, or are simply clued up on parenting then you will know the importance of school attendance. Schools place a great deal of focus on targets and will often offer incentives and competitions to encourage and increase attendance figures, but what if your child has a serious illness. What happens if they really are not well enough to attend school. What happens then? Attendance targets at Ryan's school are currently set at 95% attendance for the school year. Therefore realistically your child can only miss 10 school days due to illness. Medical appointments such as GP or Dentist do not count, but you are encouraged to make these appointments outside of the school day where feasibly possible. If your child consistently misses school, even if it is only one day a week, that equates to 39 days over the school year. Even missing one day in a week results in pressure on the ...
11 comments
Read more

Questions to ask after Cancer diagnosis

Cancer Sucks I have shared with you Ryan's lymphoma journey where we have talked about the ups, the downs, the protocols for drugs, the side effects, but I realised recently I have never shared the questions. This post is all about what to ask when you receive a diagnosis of cancer. Receiving a cancer diagnosis is never ever going to be seen as good news. It can never be dressed up or made pretty. It is devastating, it is gut-wrenching, it is life-changing. There is so much information to process you will not think of the questions you need to ask or you will have hundreds of questions you want to ask all at once. These are just some of the questions you can ask once you have processed the news, in order to gain a better understanding of your fight ahead. General Information What type of cancer do I have? Where is it located? What are the risk factors for this disease? Is this type of cancer caused by genetic factors? Are other members of my family at risk? What lifestyle c...
5 comments
Read more

Chemotherapy Cycle 5

What is Normal? With this being our penultimate cycle of chemotherapy I have had several family and friends comment to me “oh I bet you can't wait to get back to normal”. This has really thrown and upset me because it seems to come across that they have failed to comprehend the fact that we have 2-3 years of maintenance ahead and at least two more general anaesthetic surgeries. Not to mention physiotherapy as it is expected Ryan will take 12+ months to heal from the effects of being poisoned from the inside out. Normal is long way off yet. While everyone else appears to all be getting excited that Ryan is coming to an end of his chemotherapy protocol treatment, Ryan himself is becoming more and more tired with the cumulative effect of the onslaught of the chemotherapy drugs and is spending long periods of time in hospital after each cycle with infections due to his impaired immune system now as a result. Ryan is far from excited. Ryan is exhausted. We still have one more cycle t...
6 comments
Read more

Peritonitis

Emergency Surgery On the morning of 25 October 2016 Ryan was complaining that his PEG feeding tube was unbearably painful. He was due for a review anyway that day at Velindre Cancer Centre and a PEG specialist nurse came for to look at Ryan. She said the site was a bit weepy and raw, she thinks he possibly caught or pulled it in the night. She is confident that it is fine and she also gave it another good clean.  A week on and we are back to square one. The district nurse came out on Monday 31 October 2016 to advance (turn) the PEG tube as is needed each week after the first month. The nurse was unable to move the disc and caused Ryan an incredible amount of pain. We ended up having to go to the Teenage Cancer Trust ward in Cardiff, where two gastro nurses met us and spent the best part of an hour, torturing Ryan while they 'forced' the PEG to move, which they eventually did. Or so they thought.  The following week, 7 November 2016, the district Nurse came again to the ...
7 comments
Read more

Cancer Survivor Story

Cancer Doesn’t End When Chemo Does Ryan finished his chemotherapy treatment on his brother's 18th birthday in May 2017. The last two years and eight months were a blur of stress. Yet coming to the end of treatment coincided perfectly with Cancer Survivors Day on the first Sunday in June, each year, so what better way to mark this day than with our own survivor story. Ryan's weight at diagnosis was a staggeringly poor 42kg. He had lost so much weight not being physically able to eat due to the tumour in his throat, but with thanks to his own determination and the feeding tube that he had. Ryan's weight as we start his final chemo cycle....drum roll....prepare yourselves.... was an amazing 57kg. A year on in 2018 and despite going through treatment for the second time after relapse. Ryan weighs an impressive 65kg. Chemotherapy Cycle six Started on Monday, 1 May 2017 for hydration and the week went well without any drama. His final chemo took place on Friday, 5 May wh...
8 comments
Read more