You can’t eat a whole elephant.

Not in one sitting. But really it’s just a month’s worth of food, or long-term goal, and as with anything we set our minds to, breaking it down will make the job easier.

When Dr Johnson outlined my treatment plan which could easily be six months long (or more), include weeks in hospital and see me having several rounds of chemo I had to swallow really hard. This was a mammoth undertaking. But my ‘work’ head kicked in. I’m really grateful that I’ve got experience of breaking complex projects down into manageable chunks. I know it might not suit everyone but that’s how I’m approaching my cancer journey.

First – I’ve got the big, long-term goal of being cancer free. That’s stuck to the wall and I look at it and remind myself that all my wee achievements will lead to this eventually. Then I’ve broken the job down into wee tasks and goals I’ll achieve – making it through Chemo round one; getting enough neutrophils to be allowed home for the first time and so on.

And then there are the jobs that I’ve got to let other people do (not easy for me as many of you know I’m a control freak) – so there are the doctors and nurses jobs and what I need to do to support their efforts. The most important thing here is for me to work on my patience – Susan and Paul – I’m sorry but I think you’ll agree that this is still something I struggle with? Perhaps this will help me become less of a “just bloody do it” individual (aye right!!)

So it’s about me and my team and how we all work together to reach my big goal. And my team also includes all the non medical people – you – my family, friends and Steve-doll are even more important because you are supporting me to achieve my mental and emotional goals.

You know me and know that this isn’t a tears and snotters journey. You feed my hunger for laughter and bring black, inappropriate humour into our conversations every day. You bring me wine and gin & tonic chocolate rather than grapes and tissues. You guys rock!

The other reason that I’ve got elephants on my mind is thanks to my pal Moira the Yogi who sent me ‘Ganesh’ the Indian god with the elephant head. He is Lord of Good fortune and the Remover of Obstacles. He’s now a proud member of my team too.

If you want to help me eat my elephant grab a knife and fork and pull up a chair. Bon appetit!