Welcome to my new personal Blog. My name is Geoff Duke and I was recently diagnosed with cancer. I’m 44 and happily married for the last twenty years (from Sept 2015) I have four wonderful daughters, The older two being from a previous relationship and the younger two with my wife Nicola. I work for the UK civil service and am currently taking part in a Myeloma cancer trial.
You may, like me think the idea of writing a blog about my cancer story a little cliché. After all there are thousands of blogs out there telling similar tales and if one thing I have learned in very quick time is that googling cancer can present its own horrors. There are some great organisations out there but for me some of the information is a little vague due to the fact that everyone’s journey through cancer will be personal to them, even if you have had been diagnosed with the same base cancer. I personally have been diagnosed with Myeloma. I link to the Myeloma UK site here as they have been a useful source of information for me but by no means the only source.
I’ve titled this blog will it go, firstly as a reference to the cancer itself and secondly in reference to hair loss but mainly because my kids rejected the name pubewatch!.
I’m not writing this in support of any particular charity or organisation although my header image does provide a link to stand up to cancer (because I’ve used their logo) which of course you can choose to support if you so wish.
Why do I want or need a blog? Well the truth is I don’t. Neither do I wish to achieve any personal gain, financial or otherwise for myself or any of the sites mentioned. I don’t really mind if you take the time to read it or not. My aim for this blog is simply to tell my tale in the hope that it helps to give some kind of insight into my recent diagnosis with cancer, provide some useful links, tips e.t.c. and if one person can take something from it that helps them then great. I’ll be gathering together some of the resources I’ve found useful and adding them here for you to access if you want to. Its information that’s helped me personally but that’s not to say its suitable for you and I neither offer or infer any guarantees that the information you find here will be of use for you. I’m simply offering you the chance to reduce the information overload that you will inevitably suffer at some point.
If nothing else it will be a place for friends, family or strangers to keep up with what’s going on in my personal journey. I’m not a natural writer and you may choose not to read on simply because of my poor grammar. If that’s the case then no problem and thanks for dropping by.
My cancer was first diagnosed in March 2015 at time of writing this short introduction we are into May 2015 so I’m only a short way along the road but already what a road it has been. A real emotional roller coaster so to speak. Because my journey has started already I’m writing some of this from memory and will at no doubt call on the remarkable memory and organisational skills of my wife Nicola who has throughout all of this has been my absolute rock, after all I’m only a bloke.
Finally this site won’t all be cancer related. I’m using it partly to fill my time as I’m unable to work at the moment. You may see posts relating to my interest in photography or to speak about things I’m finding of particular interesting at the moment. Indulge me or ignore me. I don’t mind :o)
Just a quick note regarding adds on this site. I have not used a paid plan for this blog and chose not to set up and host my own domain so any adds are produced by wordpress.com
The site you just visited is part of WordPress.com. Any adds you see could be coming from a number of ad partners. The ads change depending on factors like your location and the type of site you are visiting.
If you saw an inappropriate ad, please report it to support@wordpress.com. Please include the address of the site (e.g.,https://example.wordpress.com), the date/time the ad appeared, and a screenshot of the ad.
willitgo 