Hi all

Mary and I met with the consultant on Thurdsay so that he could give us the latest news, and I am afraid that it isn't good. A couple of weeks ago when I met with the palliative care consultant she asked me if I wanted to know the prognosis(ie.how long I had left). I said that I would talk about it with Mary, which I did, and we agreed that practically it would be useful on many fronts. So Sebag Montefiori asked me what I thought my prognosis was and I gave an estimate of a year. He said he thought that, unfortunately, I was being optimistic and that we should probably be thinking more in terms of months, although he acknowledged that it was impossible to be precise in these matters. He has delayed the chemo as he felt I wasn't able to tolerate it at the moment. He has also booked me in for a more detailed brain scan as he still has concerns about my periods of confusion. We have told the girls and they are obviously very upset, as are we.


(Mary writing)
I have just taken over the blog for now, as we wanted to get this out to you all but Mark is still a bit too weary. We had plans in place to get away this weekend to try and get to grips with everything. Our friend Rachel came down from Glasgow to be with the children so that we could escape nearby to a hotel but, unfortunately, an adverse reaction to some steroids meant that we had to call out the emergency GP and Mark was bedridden. On a positive note, the good people of Poppleton are proving to be tremendous and there has been a relay team of meal providers, dog walkers, lift givers and supporters. Naomi was whisked away to an audition yesterday at the Theatre Royal and is now one of a team of twenty munchkins to be seen somewhere near Oz in May. Martha has been away on an outward bounds prefect-training residential course this weekend and Joel continues to take pleasure from Spongebob Squarepants...We will update in due course. Many thanks for visiting the blog.