I woke up at 5.45 yesterday morning. I am starting wake up at my normal times once again. I also woke up feeling really good. For the first time since I finished with radiotherapy, I woke up with no pain whatsoever. I also ate a bacon sandwich for breakfast which is something I have not been able to do now for a couple of weeks. I walked Skipper along Castletown beach. We had a stiff Westerly breeze which the forecasters said would become a full Northwesterly gale by the afternoon. The beach was more or less deserted, well, at least by humans. There were not even many birds to speak off. I guess they are fully aware of the forthcoming gale and had taken shelter. Their brains and senses appear to be much more advanced than the MET’S computers. On reaching the far end of the beach just below Langness, I heard the mournful call of a solitary curlew. On my way back, a raven was enjoying his breakfast amongst the seaweed in a rock pool raven restaurant up on the foreshore. With the entire beach to himself, Skipper bounced around from pool to pool in wild doggy delirium. The tide had about two hours flood on it which meant there was a vast amount of sandy beach for us to explore. I say explore because although I have walked on this beach for over 50 years now, every trip to the beach is different. The beach is washed twice a day by the tide, and those tides are fanned by at least 20 to 30 gales a year. Between the storms and tides, they have filled the beach with garbage and swept it clean since the beginning of time. Yes I know we have several beach cleans by humans from time to time; however, we are only cleaning up what other humans have put there.

Well, after my trip to the beach, I sat in my office feeling rather smug. For the first time since February, I am feeling free from the clutches of cancer. I might not be of course. This might just be a little respite, I can’t be sure of anything. What I do know is that I am feeling better than I have done for a very long time. I must go by what I actually feel like and not necessarily by what some computer screen tells a doctor. My lungs feel free and are breathing easily without effort.

Soon after I was told I had cancer, I recall writing on the blog that I didn’t know what positives would come out of cancer and I would probably have to wait and see. Well I can tell you there are positives even in cancer. If you are lucky enough to come through your treatment there certainly is light at the end of the cancer tunnel. Firstly you become much more appreciative of all the things you once took for granted. Having the ability to walk down your garden without getting out of breath, being able to walk the dog again, the every day sounds that surround you like the birds, the stream, the wind in your face and children playing, yes, and even the sound of traffic, all these things sound a whole lot sweeter than they did before. Your friends and family now mean so much more to you. Last winter I remember sitting in the house one Saturday afternoon listening to a football match and thinking to myself, what I will do when the football season ends on Saturday afternoons. Good job I didn’t know I would be busy dealing with cancer. So, I am not even going to wonder what is it I will do once the boating season finishes in September. Having cancer has taught me to be grateful if I reach September.

That just about concludes our blog for today. I will of course be back on the blog on Monday all being well. This is of course Tom Glassey with News in that timeless zone on the Silverburn River.