Twelve months have past since I took up blogging.  What has gone from being a travel blog with a bit of cancer stuff is now more of a cancer blog with a bit of Anglesey.  I feel almost guilty for the lack of travel included these days, but I suppose that’s the reality of the condition.

I’m now sat trying to work out uk travel opportunities to squeeze in between chemotherapy sessions.  Because survival times for stage four lung cancer don’t seem to offer too much hope once the chemo stops.

While I’m disappointed the international travel stopped, and gutted not to have made Australia, I did manage to make 11 trips in 8 months and have find memories of them all.

Yesterday I got a Facebook reminder about planning the Easter Island part of the Chile trip I shared with Chris last July.  That brought so many happy memories flooding back.

While I have a little regret that I’ve not made it to Pompeii and the surrounding area, knowing I’ve seen the beauty of Slovenia and Northern Ireland compensates.  And returning to South West USA for a third trip really was fabulous.

I sometimes forget the destinations I’ve visited.  But Malta, Bratislava, Vienna, Iceland, Slovenia, Northern Ireland, Eindhoven, Amsterdam, Montenegro, New England, Chile, South West USA crammed into such a short time has been exhilarating.

But while my health declines I have to look at my decision to travel and congratulate myself on maximising my good health to see so much.  Ensuring any period of feeling sorry for myself was minimised to ensure I could act while healthy.

While I ticked off a handful of places I wanted to see, there was a random element to my travel too.  Skyscanner prices from UK to Everywhere have helped me to identify the cheapest routes.  I’d certainly never have discovered beautiful Ljublana existed let alone travelled there without Skyscanner telling me it was cheaper to get there than to Dublin.  I found myself in Montenegro’s stunning Bay of Kotor by fluke of cheap pricing rather than knowledge.

While travelling overseas means driving over the Menai Strait these days, I can thank cancer for providing the inspiration to see so much more of the world and giving me time to plan the best way to share my pension with my kids.  It’s a disease that is less kind to others.

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