Breakthrough!!

As you may know, my family and friends (you lot!!) helped raise almost £9,000 for Macmillan Cancer Care last May (2018).  This handsome sum was raised through a charity rock gig (including sale of t-shirts and an auction/raffle) and also through my amazing sister and brother in law getting married and forfeiting gifts for donations. 

From the outset I was determined that the money should come back to Causeway Hospital...... the people who initially looked after me and who a year later saved my life again when I experienced toxicity due to a medication. The team at Causeway Hospital are amazing. From A&E that I’ve had to visit a few times, through to the Rehab Ward I was housed in twice. Not to mention my hero Macmillan Nurse, Terry McVeigh. 

It’s taken a while and there has been some serious head pecking but I am delighted to now be able to tell you all that your generous donations are about to result in the renovation of a family room in the Causeway Hospital Medical Wards. It should also fund some recliner chairs for the Rehab Ward. These will allow patients’ families a comfortable place to sit or lie down and get a rest. 

Today I was taken on a visit to see the room to be renovated and was asked my opinion on colour scheme/themes. It will come as no surprise to those who know me best that I have asked the room be called “The Riverbank Room” and the theme be based around ‘The Wind in the Willows’ book by Kenneth Grahame. My favourite book includes three geographic areas -

• The Riverbank - where everything is peaceful and the animals spend their days in boats, messing about on the river. Where “Nothing seems really to matter, that’s the charm of it.”
• The Wild Wood - where there are some troublesome characters like stoats, squirrels and rabbits (who’re known to be “a mixed lot”). “We don’t go there very much, we river-bankers”.
• The Wide World - “And that’s something that doesn’t matter, either to you or me. I’ve never been there, and I’m never going, nor you either, if you’ve got any sense at all.”

Naming the room The Riverbank makes total sense to me. A place of calm and relaxation. Thankfully those looking after the project in the hospital were in complete agreement. There was great excitement as they asked me to get involved with picking colour schemes and artwork. It’s going to be beautiful! Photos to follow once it’s all complete.

This is a massive achievement and I am absolutely overjoyed! We did this!! A somewhat random bunch of family, friends, rock bands, and music lovers got together and have made a difference! 

To every last one of you - the bands that gave their time and energy, the venue and those that run it, everyone who donated an auction/raffle prize, everyone who donated and/or attended the gig, my sister, brother in law and wedding guests. YOU HAVE DONE THIS! This wonderful thing that will make such a difference to patients and their families. Put a proud smile on your faces because you’ve proved there is so much good in the world.

BE PART OF SOMETHING SPECIAL

triciafest2 takes place on Saturday 7th September in the Diamond Rock Club, Ahoghill. 

• Donate auction/raffle prizes - comment on this blog, contact me via Facebook or at tricia.roulston@btinternet.com
• Tickets - www.wegottickets.com/event/463070
• Belfast bus transport to&from gig- www.wegottickets.com/event/463071
• Donate- www.justgiving.com/fundraising/triciafest2 

Heed the siren’s call

The past few weeks sea bathing conditions have been a joy. The weather has been good and the sea calm. Last week we enjoyed a wonderful dip with friends from Craigavon and Fermànagh. My wee sea bathing bestie was away in Portnoo swimming with seals, but a different motley crew stepped in take her place! Great friends, great people, great times :)

The siren has called us to the sea and we have followed.

This week my wee bestie was back, hubby was by our side as always,  and we had another addition in the form of a friend back from Leeds for the weekend. A former lifeguard, his pride was at stake so he ran from Coleraine to Portrush..... yes, ran......on his feet......like Forrest flippin’ Gump...... and then got into the ice cold sea!! What a legend! Like so many others, he completely ‘got it’. He felt the same exhilaration we keep describing and came out saying he felt quite proud of himself. I feel like that almost every week! I still get a feeling of mild hysteria when I first get fully immersed...... it manifests in shrieks of laughter and overwhelmed tears in my eyes. There’s nothing quite like it...... a mix of being freezing, miserable, delighted and proud all at once. My senses heightened by the cold water and the beauty all around me. Seemingly conflicting emotions roll together to leave me feeling wide awake and ALIVE! 

Portrush is absolutely buzzing at the moment. Today is the final day of the Open Golf Championship; the first time is has been held here since 1951. After a week of our beautiful coastline being showcased to visitors and TV viewers from across the world, today it comes to an end. Yesterday afternoon hubby and I went down and soaked up some of the atmosphere and the place was still full of energy this morning. 

I have a Neurology appointment on Thursday that is nagging slightly at the back of my mind, but i already know my scan results show everything is ‘very settled and very quiet’ so that takes some of the anxiety away. My aim now is to try and get my driving licence back. I’m almost a year seizure free and feel generally good. It’d be great to get my independence back a bit more. I like my life the way it is. I like spending quality time with hubby, family and friends. I can get to and from work and I’m fit enough to get buses and trains when hubby or friends can’t take me places. But it can be surprisingly annoying when you can’t jump into the car when you want to. 

My pedometer is starting to build up the steps..... to my annoyance my record day remains the day before my grand mal seizure, but my top weeks are now within the past few months. I’m continuing to build physical strength, I think I’ve more or less found my way at work again, and I’m more happy and relaxed than I think I’ve ever been in my life. I know who my tribe are. I know who has my back. I know who I want to be around and what I want to spend my time doing. It’s taken serious trauma, but I think I finally know who I am. 

Living with? You betcha. Living with and dancing like there’s a Bruno Mars song constantly playing in my head lol  xx

Sunday happiness!

Anyone who reads this blog of mostly nonsense will know of my newfound passion for sea bathing. I say newfound, but today marked a very special event...... today hubby and I picked up our certificates for one year of sea swims!! The rule is that you have to dip at least once a month for a full year and then you’re a full member of the group. Today was that day for us! One year done!!

I was ridiculously excited to receive my certificate.... I even found myself wiping a wee tear from my eye. To some it’s just a certificate but to me it is much, much more. It’s proof. Proof of life, determination, the support of family and friends and proof that I’m still capable of doing things! In my eyes I may as well have been awarded a superhero cape! I am simply overjoyed!!

After getting dressed I walked out of the Arcadia to see hubby talking to a man who looked vaguely familiar. A few months ago we watched a series on BBC about five couples who were taken to London and given the price of a flight to Singapore.......they were then challenged to get there within that budget without taking any flights. It was called “Race Across the World” and we thoroughly enjoyed it. We were rooting for the oldest couple to take part......retired PE teachers, Tony and Elaine. We’d admired their tenacity and the fact that they were determined to keep going, despite it being really tough and being up against younger couples. What’s the odds they’d be on a short break in Portrush and that hubby would recognise them?? We had a brief chat and had the opportunity to tell them of our admiration and how much we’d enjoyed watching their journey and, ultimately, their win as they reached Singapore ahead of the five other couples.

In yet more of my wonderful life twists, I walked away from my certificate presentation and met a fellow brain tumourette and former wardmate with her mum. She too is doing brilliantly and we’ve both come such a long way in the past two and a bit years. It’s wonderful. 

After all the excitement hubby and I celebrated with a big breakfast and then a walk with ice creams! Sunday’s don’t get much better than this. 

Living with?? Kicking ass!! Xx

Don’t jump!!

This week has been a good week. On Wednesday night we went to see Glen Hansard and Eddie Vedder (Pearl Jam) in Dublin. What a show! Mr V even included a tribute to Tom Petty and played one of my favourites, Wild Flowers. I think I may have quoted from it previously in this blog...... 

After Dublin we headed to Drogheda where we rendezvoused with our son. He’ll be 21 this year so it’s not often we get family time away with him. We had one night in a lovely hotel and did all the Boyne Valley tourist stuff, including the fascinating Newgrange monument. I didn’t go inside...... the words “narrow tunnel that gets narrower the further in you go” combined with “one way in and one way out” and “single file” on a  wry hot day made my decision very easy!! Instead I wandered outside while the boys went in. After their tour I asked a lovely guide called Mary if I could just look in the front entryway but not go into the chamber. She persuaded me to go about a metre inside the passage so she could show me where the sun shines in above the entryway. It reflects down the passage and into the chamber, lighting it up at certain times of year and with the right conditions. It was fascinating but a metre was far enough for me!

After our overnight stay we headed northwards to do our Meet the Parents. Our son and his girlfriend have been seeing each other for over a year now so the time had come. We met her mum and thankfully it was all very easy and natural. 

This morning I was enjoying the fact that we’d had a lovely break but it was still only Saturday! Gotta love a short break from work!! Hubby dropped me in Portstewart to get my hair cut and while I was waiting for him to collect me I decided to have a dander along past the Herring Pond and up the Harbour Hill. During rebellious teenage years this would’ve been a favoured spot to (illegally) share a few drinks with mates on a sunny evening..... away from parents’ eyes and feeling very grown up and cool! Today I found it much more pleasant just to wander, enjoying the sea breeze and watching the waves.

When I reached the top of the hill I noticed a young fella, probably in his 20s, sitting on the grass close to the edge of the cliff. I briefly wondered if he was ok but just then hubby arrived. As we drove away we both commented on the lad sitting looking out to sea. Unable to shake a nagging worry, I asked to be taken back as I felt I wouldn’t settle unless I knew he was ok. As I walked towards him I started to worry that maybe sneaking up behind him might be a bad idea...... I also worried I might say the wrong thing. I almost turned around but couldn’t bring myself to. I called over to him “Excuse me?” but he didn’t turn around..... “Hello?”....... still no reaction. Then I realised he had earbuds in. I went a little closer and called louder “Excuse me!” He turned and said “Oh, hi!” in a thick accent. I asked him if he was ok. He laughed and said he was, that he was just enjoying watching the sea and not to worry, he wasn’t planning on jumping! We laughed about my cautious approach and my fear that speaking to him might actually make him jump!! It turned out he’s from Paris and is over visiting friends. He was simply enjoying the fresh air and watching the sea. He was very pleasant and said it was lovely that I checked on him, even though he was fine. He said he didn’t think the same would happen in France. 

Hubby rewarded my stupidity by taking me for lunch by the beach and then we came home and watched a daft but quite entertaining film. 

Sometimes we forget how lucky we are to live in our wee country. Northern Ireland may have its issues but it’s also beautiful and full of friendly folk. I might’ve been wrong about my French friend, and I don’t really know what I’d have said if he actually had been suicidal, but I can go to bed tonight unworried. I may even see him again tomorrow morning as we were talking about the beauty of the sea and I told him about  Sunday morning sea bathing! Who knows...? Either way, I’ll rest easy tonight.

Reach out to people. It doesn’t take much. I certainly didn’t save a life today, but hopefully I showed a visitor that NI is one of the friendliest places on earth!! Xx