A spoonful of sugar!

This article is in the New Zealand Women's Weekly I received by post on Tuesday, waited anxiously for the magazine to arrive on Monday and still nothing had happened! I waited excitedly for the mail to arrive on Tuesday morning to read about myself in the magazine.

This is Monday evening, and played against the ladies in the club who I have played for years, I qualified to play next Monday evening at 7:00 pm for the champion of champion ladies singles event, lady luck was on my side. Feeling elated and couldn't resist, so I drove to Food town supermarket to peruse the aisle until I came across the magazine, lo and behold there I was exposed to the elements. The photographs were professionally done thanks to Martin who caught me in an unexpected moment while Vicky was interviewing me eating the pre-chemotherapy strawberry ice-cream, and a million dollar smile too. One of the ladies said to me that I am Hollywood material, and replied that I am Hollywood period? Plenty of chuckles as well, a star is born and more will follow.

This article A Spoonful Of Sugar makes the medicine go down in a most delightful way, as Julie Andrews would sing with her melodious voice, birds will join in and whistle and chortle or two. Thank you so much Vicky Tyler for a job well done, you receive a AAA+++ in my book. I wore my waka blond and people commented how well I looked and the wig suits me and has made me look at least 10-20 years younger? (Ha! Ha!) After all I am the fountain of youth, Ponce de Leon has nothing on me, this Maori wahine is ageless and beautiful too. I was hoping that Roslyne would be in the picture, so this was not to be anyway the next magazine article will be in October, Cancer Awareness Week. Catherine Findlay from Mana magazine has confirmed this and I will be interviewed by the Assistant Editor for the magazine.

On Wednesday & Thursday I bought along with me the article of the magazine and showed this to everyone at the Browns Bay and Takapuna Stroke Club, people were impressed with my attitude to life, staying positive helps a lot. They commented how brave I am to believe in myself and because of the impact I made by presenting my happy stance to life and will remain this way for the next 50 years or longer!

On Wednesday afternoon was miserable, raining, stormy weather, and I had to either stay home or venture outdoors to brave the elements and face the walk to the bus stop which is a few minutes away, so I did! The rain had dissipated thank goodness, and with my waddle I walked the few hundred metres to the bus stop, waited patiently for the bus to arrive. Twenty minutes later I boarded the bus, the driver drove to Takapuna and arrived in plenty of time, seated comfortably, sipping on a chocolate milkshake, read the same article over and over again, feeling great about myself.

Arrived at Women's Citizen Club next door to the library in Takapuna and was greeted by Mary Anne another cancer survivor, and met other ladies in the group, quite a mixture of talented women. Janice Wood and Jan Breast Nurse Specialists were present to speak about their roles on the North Shore area and Northland region. So the word "C" was on the agenda, where the group spoke about their experiences with cancer. I spoke to the group about Jane a breast cancer and spinal survivor, mother of two, one grand child, talked briefly about her situation and so on. Interesting listening to other women's experiences, that intrigues me a lot, so Jan and spoke about the repercussions in life, the dreaded "C" word. I listened about how devastating this disease is, hope and possibility is my option to life? I asked Janice why there are so many wahine deaths in New Zealand? This baffles me, our wahine need to become informed about the facts of breast cancer, knowing that information is available, be involved and know how detrimental it is to their lives! I am impressed and ask all kinds of questions so I can become familiar with the dreaded "C" word and comfortable with it too! Eventually Jan and Janice were leaving and I approached Janice so she may read the article in the New Zealand Woman's Weekly. She came over and gave me a big hug, reassured me that I have made an impact on this deadly disease, as I have mentioned before "there are no guarantees?"

There was a mention in the North Shore Breast Friends News from our President Jenny Short and this is what she wrote. There is a very interesting article which you may want to read in the latest NZ Woman's Weekly about one of our (BSC) Breast Support Cancer members, Violet, looking stunning as usual.

Anyway, this Dr Andrew Shelling will speak at the Domain Lodge on Wednesday evening at 7:30 pm about the role of genes in Breast Cancer, I definitely will go along and listen to this interesting speaker. My body has had enough for today, besides playing with Paul for 2 hours of table tennis, lunch, meeting at BSC that evening and a ride home by Mary Anne, a night of being a social butterfly and now it is time to retire to bed are on the agenda and my electric blanket waits for me to be snuggled into bed for another great night of sleeping. Adios amigos! Hasta luego baby!!!!!