Sunday, October 03, 2010

No apologies (I give up with those or I'll be apologising every time I post from now on!)

Quick recap of what's been going on.

Health-wise: everything is really good. Whatever it was that caused me to be in and out of Harefield seems to have vanished *touches wood 20,000 times* and lungs are still wonderful and behaving beautifully. Big yay for them.

Work-wise: everything is fab; September seemed to arrive with a bang and I am (as usual) extremely busy but also (as usual) enjoying every minute. It's lovely to see all the kids again, the little ones shoot up over the summer, it's frightening!

Hydro Active: As always, I took part in the Hydro Active (now the Adidas challenge but to me it will always be the Hydro...) "Team Jess" as we were called this year was formed from a number of Jess' friends and supporters, and her wonderful mum Jackie. We were all dressed in pink and I was in my fairy dress which I have worn for the Hydro before. Holly had brought along some rather bright face and hair paint which I ended up absolutely covered in! I looked so special that on the bus on the way there, an elderly couple paused to take a picture. I am choosing to see that as a compliment.

It was a lovely atmosphere as usual but of course for Team Jess, it was achingly sad as we had all hoped that we would be doing this year's 5k along side the girl herself. Jackie was incredible; I have no words to describe how much admiration I have for that woman, suffice to say it's extremely evident where Jess got her dignity and strength from. We paced round the track in a sort of power-walking fashion, stopping to pose for pics at each Kilometre sign and Holly (the queen of multi-tasking) was tweeting for LLTGL all the way round!

As the finish line came into view, we all held hands and ran towards it, raising our arms as we crossed the line. On finishing I felt tears pricking my eyes and turned to see all Team Jess members were feeling very much the same emotion. We all hugged as the tears flowed, the joy of finishing, and the sadness of Jess' abscence. It was a very emotional moment but one I feel proud and priveledged to have been a part of. You can still sponsor Team Jess by clicking here.

Last weekend, I was in Cardiff to give a talk at a very prestigious transplant event. There were 500 delegates there and so the pressure was on, but it went well and I received a standing ovation at the end. More details as to this talk coming soon on the LLTGL blog, but here's a pic for now.


I cannot believe we are already in October, and this month is going to be extremely busy, in fact I don't think I have a single free weekend. What an absolute joy to be able to say that - no big pauses needed to rest up and let my body recuperate. Pop over the Tor's blog to see what life used to be like for me. Fingers crossed her call comes very very soon.