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Showing posts from 2017

Telling my Story of Faith and Cancer

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Sharing my story and words of faith and encouragement in Rochdale At the start of October I was invited to Rochdale by Branches Christian Fellowship. On the Saturday night I had the privilege of  singing and telling my story about Faith and Cancer and all that God has done and taught me through my experiences. This was at an outreach event, so it was great to see some of the people from the community who came along to that return on the Sunday morning to hear me speak again. Sunday morning I had been invited to preach. I spoke on 'Embracing Hardship' and that it it through the trial that we gain the victory. Again, people were touched and I praise God that He is able to use me and my story to speak and to help others. Thanks for having me. I had a great time! I believe God has asked me to write a book about my journey through cancer and to explain all the things He taught me. This book is still in it's early stages of research and development, but I am still mor

One Year of Remission!

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Our Family at a Recent Wedding Whew! I'm only 5 days late - good! Where has the time gone? I have't blogged in four months. Life has picked up pace dramatically. I am back to juggling teaching, family and church as well as fitting in some external ministry along the way (watch out for future blogs about this). So its not surprising really that I almost missed my first year anniversary of being declared 'in remission'. It was exactly one year ago on 1st November when my consultant told me that there were no more cancer cells in my body. Praise God! Recovery has been an interesting journey too. I certainly didn't think it would be like this. I thought the doctors would say 'everything's OK' than I'd take a few weeks, maybe a month to get back on my feet and then life would return to normal and we would carry on from there. My physical recovery has taken a long time. I think only now am I reaching the stage I was at physically before being

The Illusion of Control

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Photo: Flickr user Jamie , Creative Commons License. A couple of days ago I was researching non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma (cancer) online on the Lymphoma Association UK website. I read things I already knew such as  - the type of lymphoma I have can not be cured; it will come back again and it will be treated again; people with this type of lymphoma are very likely to live for many years (although supposed to be reassuring this statement did not fill me with much joy! I want to live a good, long life!). Since being told I was in remission and the chemotherapy coming to an end after six cycles, life has begun to return to normal. I feel well - no longer nauseous or weak or terribly fatigued. No longer feeling out of my depth and completely out of control. No longer blogging about the most recent setback or hospitalisation. I have started to do the things I did before I was diagnosed. I have now returned to work full time. Ministry opportunities are opening up and I am travelling arou

Continued Treatment and Recovery

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Trying to take an inconspicuous selfish in the treatment room I haven't been able to post in a while - sorry to all my dedicated readers. It's quite nice to be able to say that life has been rather busy recently (back at work, an 8 week old daughter, music and church things picking up) as opposed to being wiped out on the sofa and able to do nothing! It has been good getting back to 'normal'. Even now i still have to stop myself and remind myself that I am just coming out the other side of a big battle with cancer. It still feels as if it has not happened to me and was all somehow a bad dream. Recovery Recovery has been interesting so far.  Mentally all I want to do is 'Get on with things'. My mind wants to press on as if nothing has happened, as if my illness has been an inconvenient blip on the landscape of my life that i can now forget about - although I can't forget about it, so instead it acts as a constant reminder that life is short and need

Embracing Hardship

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Here is a link to the audio of a sermon I preached on Sunday entitled 'Embracing Hardship'. It is based on 2 Corinthians 4. I had so much to say, having recently been through a time of hardship myself being diagnosed with cancer almost a year ago - although I managed to skip some bits out that were on my notes to deliver a sermon about 25 minutes in length. Do have a listen, there are insights into why we go through hard times and how we as Christians should respond. I would love to hear your comments and feedback - please use the comments section below. Thanks. Click here to go to the Sermon Audio page.  Then select 'Embracing Hardship' and click play.

Speeches, Reading Books and Four Hundred Miles

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The last couple of days has seen me getting back to doing a few things I was doing before I got ill - a couple of milestones alomg my road to recovery. On Monday I drove up to Blackburn to give an after dinner speech at the FGB (Full Gospel Businessmen) chapter there. I shared my testimony about the events of 2016 as chronicled here in this blog - living with faith and cancer and how God has been and continues to work in and through my life. I stayed the night with my brother-in-law and fiance who live in Manchester and made my way back home on Tuesday morning. It was cold with foggy patches. This makes the windscreen get very dirty and I ran out of screen wash on my journey home. Luckily I was only a couple of miles away from the next services, so was able to sort it out! At the end of my round trip of just over 400 miles, I started back at school for three hours on Tuesday afternoon to begin my phased return. It went well. I am helping with the Year 3 class as they are the

Maintenance Treatment 2

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Canula needle On Friday I was back at the Queen Elizabeth hospital in King's Lynn for my second maintenance treatment. As my daughter had been born there just a couple of days before, and as I have been there for regular chemo treatments through the year, I have this strange feeling of being at home! It did not seem like it was two months since my last maintenance treatment, but it was. At Tuesday's clinic my consultant was pleased with my progress. He also mentioned that from looking at my weight chart he saw that I had had a good Christmas! I have put on weight, and did so throughout my chemotherapy. For six months before my diagnosis I had been on a diet and had lost 2 stone! But during chemo I felt I had enough on my plate without having to worry about my weight too, so I let it slide. Now that I'm healthy again I really do need to start the diet again to try to get back to where I was before the chemo, if only to be able to fit in the new clothes I had just bo

Our Second Miracle

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Those who have been following my blog for a while will know that in May last year (2016) we found out that my wife was pregnant again, after having an ectopic pregnancy in January, and in the same week we also had my diagnosis of stage 4 cancer. From that time the hashtag #2miraclesinthemaking was created - as we trusted God for him to bring about two miracles! My healing and restoration to health and that our precious baby would be born without complications. We saw the realisation of the first miracle in November as I was now in full remission. Then the eager waiting started for our new arrival. It was just in time as I gained on strength and health and was able to do more around the home so, Verity, my wife, became increasingly less able to do things as she was now in late pregnancy and all the aches and pains increased. Last Sunday the long expected moment came. Although a couple of days after the due date, Verity went into labour at 4am. By 8am we were asked to come in to