T-REX - DAY #5

T-Rex Planet Tour Cancer Awareness Project

Continuing on with our ‘personal experiences of CANCER’..................... and today we are going to talk about Ann’s Gran.

This is the last time that Ann’s Gran & Granddad were photographed together. They were both in their mid 80’s in this photo and don’t they look fabulous? They were married for more than 65 years.

I’ve been blipped on the sofa with the TV Guide because one of Ann’s Gran’s favourite activities was getting the ‘Radio Times’ on a Thursday and marking off which TV programmes she was going to watch the following week. And woe betide if there was an evening with no decent telly; because then she’d just phone one of her granddaughters and talk for an hour because she had the BT phone deal where you could talk for an hour for 6p and obviously she had to get her money’s worth. Ann’s Gran could talk a lot!!!!!!

Anyway, just before her 90th birthday, Ann’s Gran was diagnosed with ‘Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma’. Again she had the most healthy lifestyle of anyone we know. Never smoked, tipped her Xmas sherry into Granddads’ glass when she thought no one was looking, exercised, ate healthily, etc,etc.

How do you get Non Hodgkin’s Lymphoma? What is it? Where does it come from? Does anyone know?

Ann’s, Gran had one session of chemotherapy and then refused to have any more. She’d had to cope with her daughter & son-in-law dying before her and hated the fact that life was not happening in the correct order.

Ann’s Gran was a very strong character.

Ann & her sister’s celebrated her Gran’s 90th birthday on 28th November 2004 in hospital.

Ann’s Gran got out of hospital just before Christmas and moved into a nursing home but she refused to get dressed because she was convinced that she ‘wasn’t long for this world’.

Well, to cut a very long story short.......................

Shortly after Christmas 2004, Ann’s Gran realised that she wasn’t going to die immediately so she started getting all dolled up again. Ann adopted me in January 2005. Ann’s Gran met me loads of times and she loved me.

When we went to visit her we used to go on little walks with her and we spent many a happy afternoon sitting by the bowling green. The ‘bowling green ladies’ even used to bring me a bowl of water.

Ann’s Gran died – 28th June 2007 – aged 92.

..................But the question still remains? What is ‘Non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma?' ...............And why did Ann’s Gran get it??? And if she had continued with her course of chemotherapy would she really have lived any longer than she did?

There are so many unanswered questions surrounding CANCER.

T-REX, the little pink dinosaur, is travelling the globe to promote cancer awareness. Please click onto the links below to understand more about this very worthwhile project.

T-REX - DAY #1
T-REX - DAY #2
T-REX - DAY #3
T-REX - DAY #4