SETI becomes a search for something the size of a chest freezer which is incredibly introverted, has nothing to talk to us about and needs to be somewhere nice and cold and quiet to prevent its processors overheating.

You’ve just identified a member of my Admin team…

I remember forever.

Brief case in point; junior oncologist told my wife and I (wed for two days) that there was ‘no hope’ of my survival past five years due to advanced metastatic cancer. The lack of compassion or care in his delivery was astonishing; he filled out the paperwork without making eye contact with the same emotion as he would have done writing a shopping list. When pressed he said “…What do you want me to say? That’s just the way it is..”

On the fifth anniversary of that meeting, I attended the department he was now based at in a different county, after taking a non-paid leave day from school. The hospital was in the Midlands, and over 100 miles away from where the original conversation had taken place; I had no appointment, he didn’t know I was coming, and I’d researched for four months to find out where he was now based. I had statistics from the last five years in the UK about survivability rates for my cancer, gleaned from the London Sarcoma centre, and presented them and other data to him. He changed the original paperwork to reflect the true data, in the presence of his line manager, who wrote me an amazing letter afterwards about the importance of hope.

Now when someone with cardiac and skeletal metastatic AS in the UK is given the same **** diagnosis as I was, they are told that 3.8 percent of people survive past five years. And they can at least have hope, even if everything else counts against them.

And the moral? I’m a genuine arsehole, with a problem with injustice, who carries a brick for a long time and will (sadly) stand to lose out over time because of it.

But I’ve accepted this.

I know a little bit about cancer.

Don’t be scared. The best piece of advice I received from someone was a guy called Julian Materna; the one-armed MTBer from on here. He told me that it was okay to be scared, but that what we do when we’re scared is what defines us; something I’ve repeated to my daughters (aged 5 and 2.5) every day since they were born.

Currently the longest living cardiac and skeletal AS survivor in history. And if I’m honest, I wouldn’t be the man I am today without cancer, so in a strange way I owe it.

Currently looking for corporate sponsors to help fund a solo row around the UK for childhood cancers and CF, if anyone wants to help me kick it in the bollocks…?

I think you’re right.

Fourth worst thread ever.

Worst thread ever.

I drive a Fiat Panda. Got a turbo and everything. Crazy power ratios…

I overtook someone last week. Been planning it since April.

Be brave. But remember that you’re allowed to be weak too.

Currently sitting here with the needle in, and the bad stuff flowing….

All the very best,

BH

I visited Keith when he was an in-patient at Southampton General and just starting out on his fight; we talked about many things, from mini’s through to whether he could fit a turbo trainer into his tiny room. He had a real steel about him. A lovely, thoughtful and kind fella, and his son was the light of his life. I hadn’t heard from him in a while, but I’m truly saddened at his passing.

Daily Bread in Rusthall, just along the Langton Green road. I’m in there all the time, lovely cake…

Who is carrying the generator?

I hope to get to the top before everything defrosts.

I was praying for Pato Banton.

now tell me why life is so bad without nasal hair….

Fella, you have no idea. ‘Niagara nose’ is the pits…

You know what would help?

I’ve got to sort a playlist out for the walk up the hill. Post your back-related song titles here with the appropriate Youtube link and lets all laugh at my future predicament…

That is the least worst thing I’ve been called.

That putting a glittery Elsa dress in with a normal wash is never really going to end well.

Awesome sense there.
I think your posts could be improved by you simply banging your head on the keyboard then spell checking the results

Genuine 6am LOL’s for that Junky. Chapeau, sir!

I currently leave a Mongoose Maurice at UCLH near Euston for 3 weeks at a time. Have previously left at Charing X for similar. If you’re between 5’7″ and 6′, and want it, it’s yours for a princely sum of £75….

Had a big off on the A64 a long time ago, and decided that being that vulnerable was no longer a choice I wanted to make. That old adage about ‘it not being about you, but about the other folk on the roads’ is partially true, but my desire to ride fast outmatched my ability on a bike, and that is entirely the wrong equation to live your life by…

I’ve not been offered one to sign this year. She had done her homework but didn’t get us to sign her book to say it was done. Because her book wasn’t signed she got detention.

Then you are well within your rights to tell the school to **** itself. Although I’d question whether it was a tick box on a larger, more comprehensive pre-September document; might be worth checking tnis first…

Check the home/school agreement about homework policy. If you’ve signed it this year, don’t sign it next year. Simples!

Chances are the school is gearing up for its inspection, and knows that OFSTED inspectors will have a specific mandate for what areas within the school plan they are supposed to be keelhauling supporting it in; as a critical friend, so to speak.

We encourage students to use the Moodle, or intranet to complete their homework. Although it can be helpful to encourage a paper copy to allow students the opportunity of peer-to-peer reflection; this is a current hot topic method of assessment.

…seemingly insurmountable odds

There’s the thing. There are no odds that seem insurmountable to me. There are just odds – good and bad. But all odds are beatable…

I’m clearly one of life’s idiots… :wink:

You clearly are the bloke we all wish we were in that situation, but kind of know we wouldn’t be anything like

That’s not true actually. I am exactly the same as you; an ordinary unspectacular person, just fighting cancer, that’s all.

Oh, bugger. Can someone embed that link please?

https://www.facebook.com/mark.fradgley.7?fref=nf&pnref=story

“The four most overrated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.”

All four at the same time is pretty good. Although the lobster preferred your normal, run of the mill vaginal sex…

It was never really going to work. Plus I couldn’t breathe underwater. Nice eyes though. On stalks…

Jenn – your Tour Divide article was the best thing I have ever read in the mag, so thank you.

Keep aiming for the twinkly lights,

Bullheart

Velux windows? Flash bastard.

Good work Drac, that sounds like a bitch of a walk!

Hardest? SSUK this weekend gone, a week after my last and final chemo. My kidneys are unhappy, and letting me know…

Hello all,

Will do a proper update soon. Drove up to Whitby after work on Friday, took part in race, met Junkyards lovely kids, chatted to Taz and his missus, drove back to Kent and passed out when I got home. Lovely event, great people, humbling support from all you soft buggers, loads of money raised for a worthy course, and….

…a greater belief in myself winning this fight.

(Plus I won a frigging Ti frame in the raffle!! Get in!!)

Hopefully he has been banned for life.

Actually, I hope not. His stance will unite people against xenophobia; he is inadvertently the architect of his own fear-led and frightened downfall. Pity him for his fear.

Jedi. It’s worth the travel.

Thank you to each and every STWer that has generously donated – you are very special folk, and Reuben (my nephew) made a lovely gurgling sound when I told him…

One week to go, and more excitement!

I sit here in Ambulatory Care at UCLH, receiving an emergency blood transfusion due to my ‘worryingly low levels’ as described by the team, I wanted to thank each and every person that has contributed their hard-earned money to the JustGiving page set up to raise money for the Cystic Fibrosis Trust.

As you will recall, the task is to race at SSUK in two weekends time – described as ‘stupid bloody-minded madness’ by a passing doctor just fifteen minutes ago (!). Given that the chemo and the transfusion is about to tear me a new arsehole, please feel free to donate any spare pence to the link below. And for those of you that already have, I offer my sincere gratitude and a promise that (despite my medical teams’ protestations) I will not expire in the process.

I’m also looking for a number of major sponsors for something that involves a rowing boat, the most hazardous coastline in the world, and a man with a hole in his back where there was a major muscle trying to pull off a near-impossible task…

Cheers folks,

Bullheart

Thanks for all the generous support guys; it really means a lot.

We need to meet up again soon for a cuppa. Before we’re dead.

What do you think Keith? Have we got this all wrong? Tom clearly knows his onions…

[pokerface]

I would fight the prognosis. Nothing is inevitable.

Princess Bride?

This is the shout, Darcy. Best film ever!

Pop by and see my In Laws; they run the Lost Kidz programme in the Kidz Field. Anyone that turns up with a Bullheart tattoo on their person will get a free cup of tea and biscuits*

(*this may or may not be true. Give it a go anyroad…)

;-)

My Vassago. The #1 Bullheart bike. Has kept me alive…

All the best Bullheart! We’re you sporting an ironic flat cap while out burning off fixie riders?

Nope. Full-on cancer aero…