Say Cheese

Aug 21 2009

Now that Camille has been through two doses of Chemotherapy, we have started to notice that she is starting t lose hair. The loss is slow but it has definitely started. With this in mind we wanted to get some last photos of her before she thins completely, as it will be some time before it grows back again. As a close friend of mine is a photographer we made a beeline for his studio (Spencer Brown Photography) to have some shots taken. Camille is still extremely clingy towards Hayley and it was quite difficult to get any shots at all, but Spencer is very good at grabbing children's attention so I'm sure he managed to land a few nice ones.

Thursday morning we had to pop into the hospital to have Camille's blood counts taken. This was completely different to the last time we had to go in; no more cannulas , no more screaming. The Hickman Line, although slightly awkward, does provide Camille with a pain free course of treatment. It seems that yet again, one of Camille's doctors seems to be impressed with her progress; we're still not sure if we are reading too much into it, but she does seem to be doing very well and the little bits of assisted walking she is doing, seems to be getting more comfortable for her by the day. We are ensuring that she is on her feet more and more without tiring her too much, Hayley has an aim for Camille to be walking unassisted in the next few weeks. I must say, it looks more and more possible every time she stands up.

Over the last couple of days we've also put a good deal of effort into the formation of the Camille's Appeal charitable fund. On Sunday we are holding our first committee meeting to officially form the charity and bank accounts, trustees and Charity Commission registration will commence. The Charity Commission require over £5,000 to approve registration, so hopefully that won't take too long. The whole thing is taking shape, but there is a great deal of work still required to get any sort of momentum. A number of fundraising ideas have been put forward; the Three Peaks, a Christmas Black Tie event and a Charity Ex-Pro's Football match. Hayley's mother has organised a group of women to march to Felixstowe chanting sea shanties and wearing pirates costumes. Only joking, the walk is true, but unfortunately no chanting or swashbuckling will be going on.

The Three Peak Challenge is now taking shape and the runners and riders are nearly all confirmed. So far we have nine climbers confirmed and only really need one extra, and the likely suspect is being approached as we speak. I've whipped up some sponsor forms which will be dotted around the county and beyond before you know it and as you may be able to see, a nice Donate button has appeared on the right-hand side of my blog page. Don't worry, this isn't for my Mortgage payments, this is purely for Camille's fund. The target for the Three Peak Challenge is for us to raise £10,000. If you are feeling generous or flush please use the button on the right. It does link through to Paypal so don't worry about security issues.

Hayley took the girls out with her sister earlier so that I could have an uninterrupted day at home to focus on some work. As they arrived home at 16.30pm it was clear that all was not great. Having to entertain our two girls all day is one thing, but when they are in those kind of moods that just revolves around moaning, misbehaving, moaning, tantrums, moaning and peeing in a ball pool, Hayley was rightly fraught. Hayley's dad popped round for dinner tonight, god bless him and his stories of yesteryear. Tonight, we were recalling how he had seen the tops of the trees that had been scorched by UFO's at Rendlesham forest back in the 1980's. The truth is out there.