I think I'm about to be diagnosed with cancer, and I'm fairly scared.

Hey you two- fantastic news all round. South Downs one day, south Downs Way in 24hrs next! 😉

Excellent pics of the wedding, you clearly had a great day.

And back on the bike as well – great news.

Very best wishes to you both. Keep on answering them back when they try to fob you off.

I am now bald.

Not really a shock to me; When I did door work I used to wet-shave it all the time, so I knew what to expect. Meg on the other hand has spent the last ten minutes looking at me like a fat kid looks at donuts (i.e. wide eyed, quiet, staring)….

She doesn't seem to mind though. She says I have beautiful eyelashes.

It would appear I'm in there…

Thankfully the new chemo went well today, with no allergic reactions. Complained loudly about last week and got a multi-disciplinary meeting about it tomorrow as a result. Meg; good cop. Mark; bad cop. Seems to work. My wife is flipping amazing…

Gobsmacked/speechless etc. etc. etc…

You are amazing.

Ooh, and I love a baldy!!! Do you look like Yul Brynner in the "King and I"? 8)

Looks like you'll have to fight the laydeez of with a dirty stick! Chicks dig scars and bald heads you say… hmmm… 😉

I am now bald.

Bold and bald ? 8)

He he!LoL at what Ambrose said. Cool 😀

Still an amazing inspiration are you both.

Wish now i knew you were both at Audries bay that weekend. I was a mere 2 miles down the road at a Halloween party in Kilve, i'd of loved to have turned up as a STW representative.

However my attire might not of been suitable… not for the faint hearted

Bald is beautiful, bless you both and my thoughts are with you.

Hell fire Sharki….

Good ol Meg!

Glad to hear your back on the bike Mark, I've meet Napalm twice and he seems like a decent chap. Now all you need to do is make sure you can keep up with meg by the sounds of it 😆

A forum ride sounds like a good idea, perhaps Stanmer/Wild Wood etc area 😕

Was that really nessesary Sharki 🙄

Foxychick – Grant Mitchell/Vin Diesel/a potato, apparently…

Yul Brynner; if only!

You say Vin Diesel like that's a bad thing?!?

Oh Sharki did you have to post that picture! I'm severl :lol:y traumatised now!!!!!!

As long as you don't go down the

Terry Wogan
Bruce Forsythe
Dolly Parton 😯
Phil Spector
Little Richard
Donald Trump
Elton John
Tony Blackburn

Route then you'll be fine

(They're all wig wearers in case someone makes a joke about Spector…lol!)

Actually on reflection the Dolly Parton route might be a notion… 😆

Good man Mark (and Meg!)

Keep 'er lit!

Bloody marvellous thread!
Can't add anymore without getting a bit wobbly…

Hah, been out of the country so just wanted to catch up on this thread, I loved that as 'empathetic' as Napalm may have been he didn't loan you a rear brake, or even a geared bike! Somethings between bikers never change – never make it easier for your riding mates 😛

Anyway, baldness, just an excuse for lots of warm winter hats man!

Update time (Thanks Shane!)

Things have been okay in the past week. Physically I feel alright; the expectation was that the Caelyx would have a different effect from the Paclitaxyl, but apart from the tiredness I get around late afternoon I can't really report owt. I have a slightly wheezy chest, but it really is slight and I have no idea what to attribute it to. The weekend was a good one; Meg went riding on Reigate Heath, and I took the dogs up there to have a good walk. I felt very good, and really pushed myself hard up and down the hill. By the end of it the dogs were broken and I was sweating like a pig.

This week has been a strange one emotionally. I don't think the rainy weather has helped at all, which is really bizarre. I've always loved the bad weather, especially when I lived in Yorkshire. There was a real comfort about it, but I don't feel that anymore. The continual rain and being in the house gets to me, so I decided to alleviate it by popping back to work and seeing what I could get on with. It felt very positive, and I'm hoping to negiotiate a limited timetable where I can make a positive contribution from home.

I have bought a geared hybrid in order to maintain some degree of fitness, although I got it without wheels! Fella had all the sale paperwork, and its very tidy – I think he just got sick of getting wheels pinched when he left it at the train station, and rightly so. If anyone has any dirt cheap disc hubs (26") for my new (old) Giant Escape please let me know and I'll have 'em off you AND buy you a tea and a cake!

M

Great to hear you are on the up. There is a real difference in the way you are posting in comparision to a few weeks back. Looks like you are giving this thing a real kicking. The fecker picked a fight with the wrong couple!

Keep fighting the good fight Mark and Meg.

the expectation was that the Caelyx would have a different effect from the Paclitaxy

quite clearly it has – it opened your mind to buying a hybrid!!! 😀

Good to hear you're feeling pretty good fella. Catch up soon – I owe Meg an e-mail 😉
C

Just been out for a look

I've a "pair" of wheels you could have – as long as you're not too picky 😳

rear is unused (off a Giant funnily enough) but has no cassette, front is an on-one, QR only. Both 6 bolt & could maybe stuff/leave a couple of rotors on, depending on what size you need. If I look hard there's probably some skewers somewhere

Tyres – err, I've 1x almost slick and 1x proper antique semi-slick if they were of interest (sure I've off-road tyres lying about if you'd prefer)

email's in my profile if you want them – suspect you might get a better offer and I don't take offence, so see how you feel.

(oh, and – good to hear you're getting out & about 🙂 )

Hope you don't mind – sharing some good news – just finished the above post when the phone rang – it was friends of ours with great news – Our Little Friend has had his Hickman lines removed 😀
He's back to The Marsden in Jan for tests, mostly around liver function as they removed about 70% of it to get rid of the cancer….. other than that it seems he has the all clear!!
He's very much looking forward to being able to go swimming again. Bossing his little brothers around continues as normal 😀

For inspiration:

The guy made millions and women love the head! (wel it made me shave mine)

Good luck with the new treatment PetesGaff!

a close friend of mine was diaganosed with grade 3 invasive breast cancer and given less than a 30% chance of seeing the next year out.

6 years later a few ops some chemo and radiotherapy and has been given the all clear.

I have to say that positive thinking, good friends and activity did that for her. oh and she was bloody stubborn.

So keep your chin up and keep smiling.

Glad to hear you're doing so well Mark. Keep it up.

Well, now that is a turn up for the books, I haven't checked the chat forum for months and came on today to ask some pissant question about my Strat's fretboard before I notices Marks thread. I have now lost 2 hours of my life reading almost every post and am howling like a baby (I'm not proud)

Mark and Meg my heart (no bovine muscle) goes out to you both completely. You have both been brilliant (stupid word) at dealing with this bag of nails that you have been presented with. You look so happy both of you on your wedding day and it looks (as it should be) a fantastic day. I am glad that things have been going well of late Mark, my thoughts and prayers will be with you and I will bookmark this thread and check it every day.

Some have mentioned a ride like a L2P, I would be very keen to join that, I agree with the thoughts that more money should go to the charity…..

I am chuffed to hear that you have got back on the bike, that will help enormously.

Love and thoughts to you both
from an old PE Teacher
Sean

thumbs up to you mark 🙂

Oh god don't tell foxychick you look like Yul Brynner – she won't be able to cope!!!!!!

Chris – fantastic news about the little fella! Can't tell you how chuffed we are!

Scaredypants – If its okay with you I'll take 'em! Just let me know where you are and I'll jump in the fradgmobile and buy you the cake I've promised!

I'm in Southampton/Salisbury area & often work in Portsmouth
(but can post easy enough anyway)
Where are you ?

Scaredypants – I'm in Kent, which means that I'm more than happy to collect if that's convenient with you, or if you don't mind sending that'd be ace as well. I think the rotors are 160mm, and I've had a look in my spares but can't find any so if you have a pair I'll buy them off of you too. I'll PayPal the money over to you as a gift if you send them -just let me know what you wnt for them. Thanks loads mate.

My intention is to get out on a bike every day, regardless of whether I'm at school or working from home. I love my SS, but its hard work getting out on it every day! I haven't ridden anything geared for as long as I can remember…

In the singletrack tradition – great photos, but in the first one the picture is crooked, in the last one, the table needs tidying. 😉

It's a bloody long way to come & collect, but you're welcome to if you want/are in a rush ! (today, I are mostly in Portsmouth)

I'm happy to post if you pm me your address (reaslistically that'd be Saturday morning posting)

I def have 2 160 rotors

Price ? – free, cake aside 😉

Awesome! I've pm'd you. let me know your details and I'll sort some postage out!

Thanks so much fella!

K[/code]eep up the good work!

They can do wonders these days. I really thought John Hartson was a gonna but CLICKY

How's it going fella? (and Meg)

petesgaff, how are you now?

I suspect he is probably out on his bike, hope he is anyway.
He will pop in soon and let us know.

Hope you are fighting the good fight today Mark!