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Pete's Progress


Pete Bate
Mar 25 min read
A growing concern?
It appears the cancer may have finally woken from its nine-month slumber. Lisa and myself went to Burton Hospital on Wednesday for my...
379 views
10 comments


Pete Bate
Jan 316 min read
Rejoining myself
Discombobulate is one of my favourite words. It sounds just like it feels. To be discombobulated is to have lost your sense of balance or...
327 views
4 comments


Pete Bate
Dec 17, 20247 min read
Christmas reprieve
I'm sat in the lounge while the rest of the house snoozes (except for diligent Dan who is at work, freezing somewhere on the side of a...
395 views
7 comments


Pete Bate
Oct 28, 202412 min read
Preach it
Yesterday, I preached at church for the first time since my diagnosis. Even though I've written about my cancer journey at length here,...
411 views
2 comments


Pete Bate
Oct 19, 20246 min read
Joy glimmers
And so the reprieve continues - five months since I last had chemotherapy, I'm still off treatment. Following my last post (apologies...
400 views
5 comments


Pete Bate
Sep 1, 20243 min read
Getting busy living
I've been off chemo for over three months now - by far my longest treatment break. Some days I feel like a ship unmoored and adrift in a...
460 views
0 comments


Pete Bate
Jul 30, 20246 min read
Matches and dispatches
It feels like a lot of mileage has been covered - literally and metaphorically - since my last post almost three weeks ago. Since then,...
360 views
1 comment


Pete Bate
Jul 11, 20245 min read
Inbetweener
Tomorrow (Friday) Lisa and myself will board the 7.14am train from Lichfield to London for an appointment at the Royal Marsden hospital...
393 views
6 comments


Pete Bate
Jun 16, 20245 min read
Rolling the dice - fear and freedom
It was 2,500 years ago when Greek philospher Heraclitus famously said that the only constant in life is change - and nothing has changed...
372 views
7 comments


Pete Bate
May 24, 20244 min read
Sun, sea and scan results (and zombies)
And relax... A strange sense of stillness has descended (internally at least - I type this as Macy and her boyfriend Charlie are...
681 views
5 comments


Pete Bate
May 3, 20246 min read
50 not out!
By the time this post goes online on Friday I'll have hit my half century. I'll be also hitting my fortnightly chemo slump so it will be...
368 views
4 comments


Pete Bate
Apr 5, 20246 min read
12 months (off and) on....
Tomorrow will be the first anniversary of the discovery, and confirmation, of my cancer. It was my debut (and only so far) colonoscopy...
1,377 views
1 comment


Pete Bate
Mar 12, 20245 min read
Head in the clouds
Yesterday was chemo cycle 21. I was in and out of hospital in what felt like a flash; just over three hours, which may be a new record. I...
580 views
3 comments


Pete Bate
Feb 25, 20244 min read
The rollercoaster of scan results week
This week Lisa and myself travelled to Burton hospital for my scan results. The third 'staging' CT scan I've had since my diagnosis, I'm...
559 views
10 comments


Pete Bate
Jan 31, 20244 min read
Back on the cycle
I thought I should give a short-ish update after last week's post about the disappearance of the bulk of my white blood cells....
405 views
2 comments

Pete Bate
Jan 20, 20244 min read
Anyone seen my white blood cells?
I'd never heard of a 'neutrophil' before I had cancer. Now my well-being, and diary planning, depends on the little bleeders. For...
355 views
3 comments


Pete Bate
Jan 3, 202410 min read
That's what she said
Hi, it’s Lisa, Pete’s ‘better half’ or ‘his wife’ as I’m also partial to be known! It's been nearly ten months since Pete was told he...
871 views
13 comments


Pete Bate
Dec 21, 20235 min read
Christmas dinosaur
I realised, as I lay in bed the other morning, that this will be my 50th Christmas on this planet. That's a lot of Christmases -...
444 views
6 comments


Pete Bate
Dec 1, 20238 min read
Inklings of death and life
As mentioned in an earlier post, Radio 4's Today programme is the perfect remedy for insomnia. If I've been awake in the early hours due...
527 views
6 comments


Pete Bate
Nov 21, 20236 min read
Thanks for that
Sitting on the sofa with a warm cat on my lap, Mogwai slow-marching through the speakers and grey drizzle dropping outside, I'm searching...
380 views
2 comments
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