This weekend has just been lovely! After a very stressful three weeks of university assignments I submitted all my work for the first semester of my third year on Wednesday. By Thursday lunchtime I was in my family living room eating beans on toast telling my mother about what an intense few weeks it had been.
“AND CHILL.”
There is so much pressure and stress around Uni at this time of year so leaving it to unwind and refuel at home was much needed!
Home for me is Newport, South Wales where my parents and older brother Tom live.
On Thursday evening we went to see The Kinks Musical, Sunny Afternoon at the Wales Millennium Centre. Tom and I brought the average age of the packed audience down quite dramatically. In fact I think we may have been some of the only people under the age of 45! A family trip organised by my Mum and Dad! The performance however was great! I like The Kinks, in fact there is a big yearning in me to have been this age in the 60s. It just seemed like a good time to be young.
I would definitely recommend this show, and as a family trip to the theatre it was perfect!
Friday night I was living the dream. As a treat for all four of us we dined at the Michelin Star Restaurant The Whitebrook in the Wye Valley. We ate the seven course menu with wine pairings and totally basked in the fancy food, and incredible hospitality. We ate pumpkin custard, pigeon, brill, venison, bacon foam… for a cooking programme addict like myself it was just heaven!
…Looking back it was more like 10 courses! They just kept bringing us food! It was magical.
The next day, feeling pretty fragile but after the nicest full Welsh breakfast I have ever had we set out for a seven mile walk to clear our heads and enjoy the beautiful scenery around us. The weather although absolutely freezing (I couldn’t feel my legs or hands by the end of it!) was glorious! It was so sunny and green! When living in Manchester you don’t get to see a lot of green! We talked and walked and talked and walked.
To be fair it has been my ideal weekend. I feel so fortunate to be able to spend that much time with those three and enjoy every minute of it. They are very important to me. If anything was to happen to them I would be devastated.
I don’t like to think about the future in that way often. But some times, and especially in the society we live in where health news and warnings feel like they are everywhere, its difficult not to.
I feel that now I should talk a bit about why I am doing this Cycle Ride for Breast Cancer Now in July.
“Breast cancer is the most commonly diagnosed cancer in women in the UK.”
For information about the Charity Breast Cancer Now and the illness visit:
Over 50,000 women and 350 men are diagnosed each year in the UK, as well as around 5,500 additional women are diagnosed with an earlier, non-invasive form of breast cancer.
“One in eight women in the UK will develop breast cancer at some point in their lifetime.”
This statistics shocked me. Breast cancer has no specific cause. It is believed to be caused by a combination of genes, lifestyle choices and surrounding environment. It is scary and it rocks the strongest of characters.
I will be finishing my university degree this summer and my housemate of the entire three years, Jenni, came to me last semester telling me she wanted to take part in the Breast Cancer Now London to Paris bike ride. My dad had done this ride eight years ago and I almost instantly I knew I wanted to do it too.
My grandmother, his mother, Eileen Cleeve was diagnosed with breast cancer when she was in her sixties. Fortunately she was diagnosed early and made the painful but brave decision to have a mastectomy. She fought through it and was cured. My brother and I were too young to understand and my grandmother didn’t want us knowing for years. But my dad stayed with her for six weeks during her time in hospital, visiting her every day. Family support during that time is irreplaceable. Unfortunately my grandmother passed away three years ago but since being cured from breast cancer she was able to live a further twenty happy years and Tom and I were able to grow up with her in our lives. I am very grateful of this.
The work of charities like Breast Cancer Now is fighting to change the realities of this illness.
I will be doing more events in the next few months to reach my total and take on this challenge. But I wanted to post this after having such a wonderful weekend with my loving family, expressing how grateful I am that we are all at the moment healthy and happy. But for so many families across the UK I understand this is not the case and if I can do anything to prevent an illness like breast cancer that can have such devastating effects on families then I will.
This is the link to my Just Giving page:
www.justgiving.com/profile/emmacleeve
Any donations are appreciated. Thank you.
Emma
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Emma Cleeve 