Lobe Yourself

Bring a woolly hat they said! First of all I'd like to start with a thank you to all who donated! we're so close to our £5000 target for The Brain Tumour Charity so please keep donating at www.justgiving.com/moneyforbrains Okay, so it does usually rain in Scotland, especially up high in the clouds...but we had a fluke day of perfect clear skies and 20 degrees Celsius at base. In the above picture it is 8am and we're in full weatherproof gear for the predicted thunderstorms on Saturday 10th August 2019! I've even got my waterproof trousers on. We set off from the Tourism Centre at the base of Ben Nevis (Glen Nevis) at 08:30, here, there are toilets and the opportunity to fill up your water bottle. You start off in a farm field track amongst the mountain sheep which prepares you for the loose rocky path that continues for the duration of your climb. This route is called the Mountain Path or Tourist Path; it is considered easy/mild for novice climbers like us....

On the 9th to the 11th August myself and a large group of friends & family will be climbing Ben Nevis in aid of The Brain Tumour Charity: we want to find a cure, improve quality of life and raise awareness of Brain Tumours! All Brain Tumours are still currently incurable which is incredibly scary but especially when yours is inoperable too. There have been little to no advances in Brain Cancer Research since 1980, yet it is the biggest killer of all people under 40! Please help me find and fund a cure that can prolong my life and the lives of so many others too.  Having a Brain Tumour is just like embarking on a climb: it's an uphill battle with unexpected moments of intense fogginess. You're carrying heavy baggage throughout the journey and you're always wary for the next trip or fall; you just hope someone will be there to pick you up. As there is currently no cure, having a brain tumour is a lifelong journey with peaks and troughs just like a mountain. I was...

Last weekend, myself and 20 other Young Ambassadors of The Brain Tumour Charity met for the first time. It was both fascinating and emotive being around so many other young people like myself who were so heavily affected by Brain Tumours. Most impressively, it was amazing to experience how motivated we became to make a massive difference in the world of brain tumour research. We all had the chance to share our stories, the amount of variation in these was astounding: every brain tumour story has it's unique differences and certain sets of challenges. We were able to help each other through these thought processes and contribute whatever advice or lessons learnt from experiences that we had had. One of the major issues that almost everyone had a resounding issue with was the communication between the patient and the family and friends. In some cases it felt awkward, in most cases it felt un-equipped and in a few instances patients were left isolated. We felt this really need...

It's been a full year since my diagnosis and if I do say myself, it has actually been overall a good year. Going into this journey, especially with the state of shock not wearing off for a few months, and no sense of expectation for my future...I feel like I've achieved quite a lot in 12 months. Being a very practical person, I remember the first thing I did was sort out my finances and name my LPA's so I didn't have to worry about anything should I have a worst case scenario. I found myself worrying a lot more about living as a 'vegetable' than I did about dying. I'll be the first to admit that this journey isn't the easiest but there have been so many fantastic things that have come out of Year 1. Having this Brain Tumour has opened so many doors for me that I otherwise would never have explored. I truly believe that my quality of life and the quality of my relationships has improved so much because of it. I really live in the moment and enj...

First of all...I would like to apologise for my absence as I have been on bed rest for four weeks feeling quite different on codeine!  About 6 weeks ago I was at a party and intended to slide into the splits but instead my leg impaled the floor before I had the chance to show off my dramatic skillset: this resulted in a traumatic fracture to my knee and a patella dislocation. Ouch! For me this was really bad timing as it was the day before I was due to start my dream role on Harley Street! Luckily, they were really kind about the whole situation and unfortunately six weeks later I'm still on unpaid sick leave...but my job is waiting for me when I get back on my feet. I had reconstructive surgery four weeks ago to repair the damage and in true Chantal fashion: this is genuinely the second time in ten years that I've done this so I'm a bit of a professional now. I have found that I've been going slightly mad not knowing what to do with myself over the...

I am filled with joy to be writing that my suspected Astrocytoma is 6 months stable! With every scan and result I can feel myself becoming more brave and more trusting in my body. I am more confident than ever that I will be able to heal myself through my positive attitude, alternative treatments and faith. Watch this space! By 2020 I am aiming to have raised £5000 for The Brain Tumour Charity to help #FindACureSooner and ensure continued support and readily available resources for patients and families of those who have Brain Tumours. Please click on the link and donate, if all of my readers donated £1 I would have met my target already! https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/moneyforbrains

Helpful Nutrition for Cancer & Tumours:  Over the past year, I’ve found it very difficult to find genuine and helpful nutrition tips without reading that I have to completely change both my diet and lifestyle. Some people preach that a miracle cure lies within a particular diet, but most of these have very strict rules with limited food groups to adhere to - which makes for a very restrictive life. I simply don't want this. Some of you will recognise the titles: Ketogenic, Alkaline, Juicing etc …these have their short term benefits and can definitely aid weight loss but isn’t having cancer already hard enough? What happened to just eating healthily and doing the best you can? So me days the basic tasks can seem impossible so doing a weeks’ worth of food prep or going out to the shop for fresh veg is simply not going to happen. I’ve tried a lot of these diets for a few weeks at a time and quite frankly they really lower my quality of life.  Some da...

Having been a competitive dancer before I started my degree I had always disregarded the idea of starting regular Yoga classes because I'd managed to retain my flexiblility and core strength. At the end of the day- that's what Yoga was all about anyway right? - wrong! A few weeks ago I came to realise my perception of Yoga, what it was and who it's for, came mostly from what I see on Instagram and glossy magazines- young, supple athletes contorting themselves into strange positions in a variety of picturesque settings. What I also came to realise was that for whatever reason I was going through a period of stress which was starting to give me physical pain. A few friends, the Internet and a good new-joiner offer on my local studio pointed me in the direction of taking up 5 weeks of Gentle Yoga. My studio specifically offers a 'Gentle’class which is for everybody including beginners and experts. I chose this class because it focuses on the power of Breath, med...

The journey of cancer is one of identity . Cancer somehow manages to strip you of everything you believe to be, and the real challenge is to once again define who you are. I once described myself as a student, a primary school teacher living in London and chasing her dreams . On the 15th of April 2016 I became a patient, a dying woman controlled by the cancer growing through her very core. I watched my life crumble through my hands. When you battle cancer, you realise just how strong you can be when you simply need to survive. I am now happier than I have ever been and it’s thanks to my cancer. When you are sat at the bottom of the well, there will come a day when you try to get back on to your feet and start climbing. You also soon learn who is truly there to help pull you back up, and those who just came to watch. My journey has been some what up and down and its not over yet. Symptoms: It all started on a night out with my best friend where all good tales do. I ma...

It's the week of your repeat scan and nothing is okay. You feel like you might cry, vomit and spontaneously combust all at the same time. The weather is bad, there's nothing on TV and you're on your fourth KFC. Your emotions are in turmoil, you're trying not to think the worst but you can't help it. You play hearing the results in your head like a video tape. Does this sound familiar? Unfortunately, there's no way to avoid the dreaded scan and they don't feel like they get any easier each time you go.  So is there anything you can do to make the build up easier? Well I could sit here and tell you to meditate harder, check into a Spa and consume a whole bottle of  Rescue Remedy  like a shot. (Please don't.) But the truth is, none of those things will 100% rid you of nerves. This is why I choose humour for my tumour. Nothing works wonders like having a good belly laugh when you least expect it.  I recently joined the  Brain Tumours...

Time to stop just coping and start living! If I can do it so can you. Below are a few things I wish I knew when I was first diagnosed. 1 : There's no right or wrong way to process this.  We are all unique and we are all accepting something monumental in different parts of our lives. In my case, it took about 7 months to truly acknowledge that I needed to start finding ways to improve the daily quality of my life. We walk around subconsciously trying to file away the fact that we're actively suffering with a form of post traumatic stress disorder and we literally don't know what to do about it. We become disinterested, upset and unmotivated versions of ourselves- and that isn't our fault. My advice to you if you're still struggling to accept your diagnosis: find something purposeful and progressive to channel the negative energy into and make it part of your routine. A few examples that I found helped me were: Gentle Yoga once a week Doing a Min...