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My blog about living with Leukaemia, and how it has affected me.

Enjoy!

Wednesday 5 October 2011

CLIC Sargent Abseil - 1st October 2011

Hi guys!
Thought I'd let you know about my recent adventures!
I'm back at school again - woop woop! and I'm doing full weeks of school now, which I'm really glad about :) I'm seeing mates more and going to the gym once a week to keep myself in shape :) My most recent visit to UCLH went really well, and I went to visit the ward (as it was around the 29th September I came out of hospital last year). It was really good to visit again. The nurses said that I look so well that I look like a different person every time I go to visit them.
On the 1st October I did an abseil for CLIC Sargent, as they did so much for me and my family during my time on treatment. A lot of the things in my "Life With Leukaemia Isn't Always Bad" post were due to CLIC Sargent, so when the abseil came about, I jumped at the chance to give something back.
The abseil was off of a 75ft building in Canterbury Christ Church University , and I said to my friends that if I raised enough money, I'd do it dressed as spiderman - and I did!
It was sooo much fun! I did it with some of my family and, I'd totally do it again, and I'm pretty sure most of them would agree.  My family as a team has raised over £700 from the abseil for CLIC Sargent, so we're really chuffed with the result :).
To finish off the post, here are some pics from the day:

Friday 15 July 2011

1 year post-transplant - WITH A VIDEO!

Hi guys,

I thought I'd do something special for the 1 year celebration, so I decided to do a video!!

Hope you enjoy it!



Thanks,
Andy
:)

Wednesday 15 June 2011

Watch This Space!

Hi guys,

Just thought I'd see what's going on :)

I'm now at 11 months post-transplant, so I thought I'd say hi, and tell you guys to pop back next month to celebrate the year!

Things are all going well... :)

I'm not going to say too much (that would kill the suspense), but I'll make it worth it for ya.

Cheers... and watch this space! 
Andrew
:)

Sunday 6 March 2011

"Make my way back home and learn to fly..."

WOAH! I haven't posted in AGES!

As far as hospital things go: s'all good :) I am only going every 3 weeks now (hopefully that will change next time I go) The doctors have said I'm perfectly fine to go into public spaces again! wooo. This means I am allowed back to school!! wooo!
I haven't been back just yet though, my school need to know about all the illnesses I'm not meant to be in contact with. So they have said they'd rather I didn't go back until they had a note from my docs about that (blah blah blah...).
It's been good though, going into public again. I have been to the cinema twice recently (which I haven't done for a while) I watched Gnomeo & Juliette and Paul ... Both were awesome!
I also have been doing sport again; doing weight training to re-build my obviously sexy body ;) haha! Also I recently played football with a few friends at a local field. We were a group of 5, and a group of about 8 people challenged us to a match. Obviously, we accepted... and coz we're so damn good we beat them by 3 goals. I also had a brief stint in goal, which I hadn't done for a while, because of the lines. I even made a really good reflex save! Although I felt the aches all over my body the day after, too much running around and diving about.
And lastly... saving the best till last, as always: I got my wish granted from Starlight!! (Brace yourselves)
My wish was to go see a Foo Fighters concert. Here's what happened:
We caught the high-speed train to London, from there we got a black cab to Park Plaza County Hall hotel. It was WELL nice! 

Me with Charlie at the hotel.

We then met with my Starlight wish organiser, Charlie (pictured), who was really nice. :) We then got a LIMO to Wembley Arena for the NME Big Gig.
On the way to Wembley, Charlie handed me an autograph book, and told me I would be meeting the Foo Fighters! She said we would get there early so that we could watch the sound check, and meet the band! So, I was mega excited by the time we got there.
It was amazing being the only people (apart from the bands and their management) inside this huge arena, listening to the bands play a couple of their songs. It was like a concert just for us!
The, Dave Grohl just casually walks down off of the stage, to the standing area, and looks at the stage. I was in shock... couldn't believe it was him! THEN he turns around and starts walking straight towards us and says "Hi, which one of you guys is Andrew?" ... I nearly fainted! He was really cool though, so down to earth, really nice. After talkin to me for a while he said he'd be back after their sound check with the rest of the band!
So after the check, the whole band came down, and Taylor Hawkins gave me the drumsticks he'd used during the sound check!! I got signatures,and photos too! They were really nice!
You'll never believe this bit. Dave casually says to us "How far have you guys come?" we said about 60 miles-ish. He follows it up with "I don't suppose you're busy tomorrow night?" no... "Ah cool. Why don't you guys come watch us at this small club in Camden. It only holds like 300 people?" OH MY GOD!!! we got invited to a private gig by the lead singer of the band!
After that surreal experience, the bands tour manager, Gus, handed us VIP passes and told us to go to the stage just before the Foos went on, and they'd make sure we were ON STAGE watching them perform!
The concert was totally awesome! And to top it all off, Gus invited me into their dressing room after to say goodbye!! I have a few pictures to show how awesome it was:

Taylor giving me his USED drumsticks

Such a cool, down to earth band



Our view, from onstage.

Dave Grohl rocking Wembley

In their dressing room after - funny guys

At the small venue in Camden
How cool was that?! 
My next post probably won't top that! but until next time, cya!

Andrew
:)