There's a Panda in my Bellybutton

Swansea Community Farm In April 2021 Ryan began volunteering at Swansea Community Farm (Welsh - Fferm Gymunedol Abertawe). For now, he attends one day a week on a Tuesday from 10 am to 4 pm but there is a possibility that he could also volunteer on Thursdays as well also 10 am to 4 pm. About the Farm Swansea Community Farm is the only city farm in Wales set in 3.5 acres of land with a variety of animals, an allotment, wildlife habitats, beehives and a café. The animals include donkeys, goats, sheep, ducks, geese and chickens. The farm aims to improve wellbeing, build skills and create a sense of community engagement by caring for the animals, producing local food and caring for the local environment. Duties Ryan has enjoyed a variety of different duties so far. He has walked the Donkeys, Sheep and Geese from their barns out to their fields and pond. Collected eggs from the Chickens, and has mucked out the donkey sheds. He has also cleaned out the chicken coops, cleaned and refilled all...

  4 Years in Remission In May 2017 Ryan finished his 6 gruelling cycles of Chemotherapy and was in remission for 3 months before his cancer returned in September 2017. I wrote about our first 3 month cancer free milestone in our blog post here . In August 2020 Ryan once again finished treatment. This time he completed 3 years of Immunotherapy treatment and in November 2020 Ryan had tests done to confirm he is once again in remission. This is, of course, outstanding news but we were muted in any celebrations as it was such early days and we had been here once before. Ryan has been having regular check-ups every 3 months and in May 2021 we were able to confirm he has reached the 9-month milestone which was phenomenal news. Massive Scare - Relapse #3, ALMOST. Tuesday 4 October 2022. Ryan mentioned to me about an Ulcer on the roof of his mouth. I took photos and monitored for a couple of weeks before we start to panic too much.😳 Thursday 27 October 2022. Sadly Ryan has had to have y...

Coronavirus   In December 2019, the city of Wuhan in the Hubei province of central China recorded the first known cases of a novel coronavirus in humans. By the start of 2020 cases where being recorded in Italy and it was quickly spreading across other European countries. The UK recorded its first case on 31 January 2020 and by 11 March 2020, the World Health Organisation declared the outbreak a pandemic.  15 March 2020 I am taking no risks regarding Ryan. We as a family have made the decision to actively distance ourselves socially and we are doing all we can to ensure he is safe.  The ultimate aim of herd immunity is to stop disease spread and protect the most vulnerable in society. However, this strategy only works to reduce serious disease if, when building that immunity, vulnerable individuals are protected from becoming ill, for example through social distancing. If not, the consequences could be severe. Not enough is known yet about the virus therefore we don’t yet...

18 Month Post Relapse Treatment Review In November 2016 Ryan was given 2 days to live when the feeding tube he had ruptured his stomach and caused Peritonitis . In September 2017 Ryan was given a 3 months prognosis when his lymphoma relapsed . The doctors said his kidneys were not strong enough to cope with chemotherapy a second time. Then we were given the opportunity to try a new immunotherapy treatment . The doctors could not give us any stats. Either it would work or it would not. What did we have to lose? The Drs just hoped it may give Ryan a few extra months. On Wednesday 6 March 2019, Ryan and I met with his Oncology Consultant for his 18 months , post-relapse, treatment review. Dr C is more than impressed at how well Ryan has been able to tolerate the immunotherapy treatment with little to no side effects. Immunotherapy Treatment Ryan is not cancer-free , the Epstein Barr viral load continues to spike in his blood plasma but at the moment the immunotherapy drug is keeping th...

Experimental Treatment Pembrolizumab is one of a number of immunotherapy treatments that are revolutionising the fight against cancer around the world. The future of medicine may eventually see these treatments used as the first line of defence against Cancer, which does not affect neutrophil counts or cause hair loss which are two of the biggest disadvantages of chemotherapy treatment. Immunotherapy targets only certain cells, meaning you don’t kill all the good cells off as happens with chemotherapy, making it more tolerable.  It has been found to be effective in treating some types of cancer where other treatments have failed to work.  Immune System Your immune system is how your body protects itself against infections and diseases. It recognises if you pick up a virus or bacteria germs that shouldn't be there. Your immune system also helps to destroy any old cells or damaged or broken cells, cancer is clever and it can trick your immune system into thinking that the ...