14th Sept 2005 Notes written on a train. Trevor from Hackney
Well here I am sitting on the train from Penzance to London its now mid September and I’ve just completed a bicycle ride called Sustrans route no 3 which started in Bath Somerset nine days ago and finished at Lands end this morning.
Mr Cheng gave me the bad news five months ago but as the web site says, once bad news sinks in you get on with your life. Once I was told I stopped work and rode my bike every day as I’d read in a newspaper article which stuck in my head that people recover from surgery (in my case major surgery) sooner if they are fitter, who knows.
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Trevor in Hospital
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Anyway everything went as Mr Cheng said it would and I left St Bartholemews two weeks after the operation and went home, (please see my partners food preparation and cooking tips). The nurses in the head and neck ward looked after me very well and when I got home I did miss them.
I had about 6 weeks of radiotherapy being treated by Dr Sibtain who is Mr Cheng’s colleague. I had been told what to expect and was prepared for it and was lucky enough to be within cycling distance and able to cycle each day for the treatment.
I have been meaning to write something for the site for ages but felt that I would wait until I had achieved something and I think I have as I watch the lush Devon scenery and low evening clouds from the train window as I travel home on the West coast line while sipping a beer, lovely.
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Trevor with bicycle
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I am not saying that the surgery /treatment is easy but the challenge soon becomes a day to day routine . Like this bike ride, I’ve just finished about three hundred miles mostly off road and managed to eat enough to get myself the bike and luggage over some pretty big hills and rough surfaces..
Sometimes I really got the ump with the cycling hardships but not for long when I remembered a few months back and how lucky I was to be able to have put myself in this position where I’ve been chatting to complete strangers in B&B’s over breakfast and impressing them with my arduous journey. And I didn’t bother telling them about the cancer because the topic never cropped up..
Update.
I have since been to Norfolk for a walking / eating holiday with Mandy and cycling weekends with friends please see the photos, Basically life is pretty normal except I’ve had lots of time to do my own things, I eat more slowly and I haven’t gone back to work yet..
Regards.
Trevor Mc Bride.
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