'How do you stay positive and keep going???'

It is hard to believe that tomorrow I have my PET scan. It has really snuck up on me this time. It was just over 3 months ago I was sent to have a PET scan because it looked like Debrafenib and Trametinib did not work, and it most definitely did not work. I was once again faced with the reality of terminal cancer and concerned that I was running out of options. It was not a good time physically and emotionally. 

Here I am 3 months on in a totally different frame of mind.

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Melanoma March 2016

Come and join Team ‘Dear Melanoma’ at Melanoma March! I will be walking and speaking at the Brisbane Melanoma March  on the 20 March in West End. 

This is the first year that I have created a team for Dear Melanoma and I would love for you to be part of it. You can register for the march at www.melanomamarch.org.au. To join the team follow the normal registration process and towards the end they will ask if you want to join a team, at this point you enter ‘Dear Melanoma’. It is that easy!

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Not so desperate and dateless

I started writing this blog post yesterday and it was titled ‘desperate and dateless’ and after a doctors appointment today I needed to change the title. 

I know many of you have been waiting to find out the results of my PET scan that I had last Friday and I apologise for not updating you earlier. It has been a really hard week since finding out last Wednesday that treatment was not working and waiting for my PET scans to establish how bad the situation is. I needed time to process the information, but also have the time to communicate the news with my family and friends. To be honest, I also didn’t know how to tell you the news.

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Update (plus exciting news!)

On 24 February 2014 I was given another chance at life when almost all our hope had disappeared. Almost a month earlier, we had found out that I was not responding to my initial treatment as a Stage 4 Melanoma patient – Debrafenib and Trametinib. The cancer had spread so far and so quickly that I was given just 3 months to live.

I was given one last glimmer of hope; hope that I would gain access to a clinical trial that was about to close. The clinical trial was for an immunotherapy treatment now known as Keytruda.

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