This time last year, the best estimate for my life expectancy had moved from six months to a more acceptable thirty two months, thanks to the drug afatinib being prescribed.

Cue lots of short trips to Europe and big trip planning.

The first big trip booked was first class from Manchester to Boston via Heathrow.  Paid for with my decent pile of Avios.  At the time I didn’t expect to accrue any more. We flew in June and soaked up an excellent service, the comfort of the top airport lounges as we awaited flights and a massage at Heathrow too.

Seven months later and I have accrued another 145,000 Avios in my British Airways account and 32,000 Avios from being bored and completing surveys in an Avios.com account.

Those 32,000 miles have created a problem.  Ideally I’d have booked four return flights from London to Europe with them.  But 1) I don’t want to fly from London; 2) my chemotherapy won’t have me flying again any time soon and 3) I am not convinced I want to fly anywhere while I feel this weak.

Worse, those 32,000 Avios are in a family account I created nearly a decade ago.  As such, I can’t merge the points with the other 145,000 Avios in my BA account.

Given my life expectancy situation, I needed to spend these 32,000 Avios.  And the best value of European flights or long haul business class flights is out of reach.

So, despite not being much of a drinker, I’ve blown these points on a dozen bottles of posh looking Prosecco and a special gift/thank you for my landlord which I’ll assume my sister will pass on once I’ve passed on.

The Prosecco will most likely be consumed 75% by Rachel.  I’ll mop up the rest.  We’re in Anglesey for a week soon and the idea of sitting in the hot tub, sipping fizzy wine and chilling seems like a fitting way to prepare my body for radiotherapy and chemotherapy.

It’s an inefficient use of the points.  But I’ve found a way that puts the effort of accruing them to good use for my circumstances and means I’ll get some pleasure for them.

The plan is still to ensure Chris ends up with the rest!

Shaking the Clinical Trials Tree – Matrix