Dear friends
Some of you may not already know that I’ve been undergoing a series of tests and scans over the last couple of months. The upshot is that I have (peritoneal) cancer and will be going through some treatment in the weeks and months to come, hopefully with a reasonably good outcome after all that! If this comes as a shock – you can imagine I’m also not a little stunned to find myself in this position, but at least we’ve finally got to the point where treatment should begin soon. And I’m grateful to live so close to an amazing hospital, St James’s (Leeds), with incredible staff and cutting-edge research links.
One of my ways of coping with this is to set myself a bunch of challenges, to keep myself sane and occupy my mind when I can’t do much physically. Though I’ll try to keep relatively fit, I won’t be running any marathons. Rather, I am going to do a load of things that I’ve long wanted to do – and now have the excuse to do instead of things I ought to do. What I’d really like, as your solidarity with me, is for you to think of something you’d like to do for yourself that you haven’t found time for in the hurly burly of life. Here’s my list – you can do something similar or something different:
- Learn by heart (and accurately) a set of poems (a dozen or so) that I love and already know snippets of. This will be great for moments when I’m left with only my thoughts.
- Learn all twelve major and minor blues scales on the trumpet. Accurately. I can work on this in my head (and with my fingers) without the instrument and then test myself when I pick it up. I can add further challenges once this is achieved, one of which is to really learn some charts thoroughly (melody, chord progression, improvisation approaches).
- Learn some simple classical piano pieces that I can sit and play for my own pleasure when I’m too tired to pick up the trumpet.
- Write a sonnet series (informed by some of the poems I’ll be learning as well as others by contemporary poets).
- Plot out the ‘cosy’ murder mystery book that I’ve been thinking about for a while. This might need a large pin board, but I’ll do some of it in my head!
These challenges are all aimed at occupying my mind so that I don’t drive myself mad with speculation and anxiety about my treatment. Obviously, I might not achieve them all completely, and I will need to rest as well as doing normal things like seeing family and friends. I look forward to coffee/tea/lunch/walks etc. with many of you in-between the treatment stuff.
Meantime, if you want to let me know what challenges you are setting yourself (just one will do!), please email me (lesjef56@gmail.com) or post on social media if you want to share! Or just do them and don’t tell anyone. That’s fine too.
And just to show you I’m not above cynically monetising my condition, though there really is no pressure at all to contribute… if you want to, please donate to Maggie’s at St James’s hospital (Maggie’s) and/or HEART (HEART) both of which are going to be sanctuaries for me in the weeks to come. Or just give something to a charity you support already. The challenges are the main thing!
Thanks for listening – I love you all
Lesley xxx
Lesley Jeffries 