WHAT IS THE FELLOWSHIP OF THE RINGLETS?


In January 2015, following a routine check by my vigilant GP, I was diagnosed with invasive breast cancer.

As a Brit living in Sydney, Australia since 2008, I realised over the following days just how many of my friends and family were scattered across the globe and different timezones.

The Fellowship of the Ringlets was originally just a tremendous pun and the title of a closed Facebook group I created to keep those distant friends and family in the loop and worry-free.

But over 12 months, my little group somehow grew from 80 to 800+ and became a veritable band of brothers, a support team like no other and a true Fellowship in every sense of the word.

Their love, laughter and rallying cries have been the greatest tonic a little ringlet'd cancer-face like me could have wished for.

The following letters, musings, incoherent ramblings and occasional bouts of bad language are for them all.

Welcome to the Fellowship of the Ringlets.

VC x

Wednesday 9 March 2016

*A SPEECH AND A SCOTTISH STORY


Dear Fellowship,

Blimey. Officially a whole year since the 'Night before Chemo' post. Where has the time gone?!
Just a quick one to say thank you to all those who sponsored me ahead of the Cancer Council's Relay for Life event on Saturday. Astonishingly I ended up as the event's 7th top fundraiser with a massive $1100!
The actual speech seemed to go ok. Those who witnessed me speaking / hiccuping tearfully in Henley in October will be pleased to know I held it together like a pro this time, people laughed (with me) in all the right places and no cabbages were thrown so that, to me, is a win.
Thanks to the Jervis Bay crew for enduring the procrastinating agony that is me writing a speech and patiently sitting through the practice run-throughs. Special thanks to my pal Nikki Rooke who insisted on coming with me for moral support, seeing immediately through my false "oh no it's fiiiiiine. I'd rather do it on my own anyway.." protestations in a heartbeat. And thanks to Cheryl Ayres for giving me a lectern and a microphone and inviting me to babble on nonsensically next to her for a good 7 minutes... :)

So openly calm. So secretly petrified. 

Candlelight Ceremony of Hope

Meanwhile, on a completely different note, here's a link to a piece I wrote about a trip we took up to Scotland and the Highlands that's taken my friend Greig Trout literally months to publish because he couldn't decide what photos to use. Such a hard job. Sigh. Anyway, you should all go to Scotland immediately. 


Please note photos taken are taken during my Jean-Paul Gaultier phase. I am of course now happily embracing the 'Julius Caesar' stage of hair re-growth. Long live the Bouff!
Love,
VCx
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