Good morning all.

It is 2 days before MJ starts her first round of Chemo (she will start Monday 26th).

Whilst she has given amazing support from the hospital with explaining what will happen and why, we must remember that this was all delivered in English and not her mother tongue. She sat through it, didn't ask questions and nodded when we asked her if she understood.

This morning I asked her what she was getting ready to pack in her bag on Monday.........

Blank face. So we went through everything again bit by bit. She had heard somethings but had mis understood them.

She said that she had heard no alcohol on her skin so she will get rid of the hand sanitiser - no that was not what he said - he said that we should get a mouth wash with no alcohol in, in case she gets mouth ulcers.

No going out in crowds, no going in a lift if too many people, no going near sick people. She had not really understood this either so we talked about what could happen and the impact to her. I knew it had suck in as she immediately went to our first aid box and pulled out a couple of masks to keep with her at all times.

Anyhow - we have got things all set and she is ready for Monday.

Interestingly it then lead to a question of truly understanding where the cancer was - she explained that her family were as confused as she was. So out came a piece of paper and a pencil and o'level biology drawing started to happen (with lots of giggles from MJ). I did the paper & pencil method as we had already shown the online diagrams and they were obviously too confusing.

MJ had had an ectopic pregnancy some years back and her family were suggesting that she had cancer of her ovaries because of that.

I was able to show her the difference between ectopic pregnancy and cervical cancer.

Then the big question - WHY and HOW? This became a little dangerous as I used the word virus and she said OMG my husband gave me a sexually transmitted disease - the anger is her face towards him. So onto the next answering of those questions and the reassurance that she was not to be angry towards him and that whilst it would have been highly unlikely to get cervical cancer if you became a nun from a young age (and therefore abstain from sex (more giggles from MJ)) this really could happen to any women and therefore how important it is to have a pap smear.

Lesson here - whilst she will sit and nod it does not mean that she understands everything. Thankfully after being in Asia for 4 years I was fully aware that this could be the case.

A funny outcome from this was that our son, Aaron, finds the picture and asks me - what is this mummy? And so here starts another biology lesson with a different spin on it lol

Thank you all once again for your support to MJ, both financial and emotional, I read her every messaged that people post and she has a little cry and hugs herself and thanks God for how lucky she is.

Love & Best wishes to you all.

I will provide an update once she is home Wednesday night after her first round of Chemo.