It’s been a long day and I’ve only been up half an hour

Written by Charlie Lowe in the early part of 2021. Sadly Charlie passed away before he was able to publish this. We, his family, have published this in his honour. So, here I am, eyes squinting in response to a light and colourful world I haven’t seen for a while. The longest, in fact. And, …

Treasure the fragments.

When I woke up this morning one thing came to mind - "My God, it's the last day of 2020...". At that I felt as though I should write something. But what could possibly be said after a year like this?.. I mean, it's hard enough attempting to make sense and give voice to the …

This war of mine.

On Wednesday this week I was to receive the results of my latest CT scan. These results were of particular importance because they were the first scans I'd had since recently having to try a type of Chemotherapy due to my Immunotherapy failing earlier in the year. Though the chances of this Chemotherapy working were …

One-eyed winners.

Not long after my right eye was removed back in August this year, I found myself wanting to write a particular blog post. I considered ideas, thought about how I would write it, even made a vague draft here on WordPress. And then the crippling aches my eye removal was meant to rid me of …

‘You won’t feel a thing.’

You ever wonder what other people may be doing during an exact moment in your life? How much better or worse things may be for an individual while you're doing something simple like eating your lunch? You ever do that? There was a time when those thoughts would cross my mind quite often, usually while …

Until the job is done.

These past few weeks/months - they've been bad. I've been really quite incredibly unwell. I think the longest I've spent feeling well is about 3 days, and that was just once…, so as you can imagine, I've had problems finding the time, or the motivation, to write anything The last update I made was just …

One month later…

It's been just over a month since I underwent surgery that saw both my right eye and some of the tumour behind it removed. So I guess it's about time I gave a bit of an update. (Sorry I didn't write anything sooner. Though this surgery has hopefully rid me of these endless and immense …

“Well done.”

In my teens and into my very early 20s, I was really quite a shy person, quite cripplingly shy actually. In any social situation a voice in my head would taunt my every action 'You're too quiet, say something. Why'd you say that? You're not funny. You're not interesting. They don't like you. You look …

The eye must go.

This tumour first made itself known through my right eye. I woke up one night with immense pain in my head, and after a few hours my eye bulged out and my vision doubled. It was only after surgery six weeks later that my vision, and the eye itself, finally went back to normal.   …

I know how to wait.

How long has it been now? Nearly six weeks? Nearly six weeks since I was told my Cancer had spread. Nearly six weeks since I realised things really could end sooner rather than later for me.   In that time, and with the valuable assistance of my family, I've done everything I can possibly do …