They say you don't know how to live until you live your second life, my second life began on 6th June 2018, the day I was diagnosed with cancer. My names Allana, Im a fabulous fourty something, more fighting off fifty if i'm honest and the mother to two of the most amazing males on the planet. After a year long "gym injury" and a quickly emptying bank account spent on sports massage, accupuncture, osteopathy I bit the bullet and went to see my Doc. I had an mri scan on the Friday and on the following Monday a call from the hospital asking if I could attend the following day. It's not the kind of thing you expect and the timing did nothing to calm my fears if i'm honest. That day at the hospital was surreal, blood tests, CT scans and xrays and still not quite sure if I should be worried or guilty at all the time and resources they were spending on a gym injury, I mean there are seriously ill people out there, some of them sat in that waiting room with me and I was taking up time that could be spent on someone who really needed it. I mean, really! how embarrassing was it going to be when they said "hip flexor issue Ms Parker, please remember even fabulous fourtysomethings need to watch how much they are deadlifting". But they did'nt say that. Instead I realised what real sympathy looked like, it was right there on the face of that doctor when he discussed areas he called "sinister looking". A biopsy was booked and once the results of that came back I was diagnosed with Epithelioid Hemangioendothelioma Sarcoma, or to us not that keen on playing wordsearch from cancer terms - EHE Sarcoma. If your looking for a rare cancer, get yourself EHE and become a less than one in a million cancer thriver!

My first oncologist was not a specialist in EHE and initially gave me a prognosis of 1-2 years. It appears that on the CT scan they did they not only found the tuor between my femur and pelvis that was causing the "gym injury" but also tumors in my liver, lungs, numerous vertebrae and pelvis. With that kind of cancer map its really not surprising that prognosis was so shit! I mean I felt fine! Literally zero other symptoms just my left leg that looked like it had been at the gin bottle while the right was teatotal. Life was a bit crazy after that then very late one night I posted on a sarcoma social media site asking anyone if they had heard of this crazy cancer I couldn't find much information on. A wonderful lady in the USA found me that night and after hours of messaging each other I began to get some insight into what this second life was about. Lisa gave me links to research papers, added me to the official EHE Foundation facebook group and then saved my life by telling me all about the awesome Dr Robin Jones who I will forever lovingly know as Jonesie, you will now know him as this also (Dr Jones if you are ever to read this know that this pet name comes from a place of fandom/stalker like affection and will comply with any restraining order currently in place!). After getting a referal to the Royal Marsden in Chelsea I met with this man who became my life extender, you see there is no standard treatment or cure for EHE and also no one line of behaviour so giving a life prognosis is like asking how long will Cliff Richards career be?? But jonesie is running the show now and I have never felt more hope. A lot has happened in the last 2 years which I will tell you about on this blog including my new tumor friends in my rib and between eye and brain, man Im a high maintenance woman, along with the lots and lots of treatments ive had, radiotherapy, chemotherapy, vertebroplasty and now a new therapy im hoping will keep me on this mortal earth plenty more years to cause as much hassle and embarrasement to my boys as possible! I might have lost parts of my first life now but my second life has brought me many gifts, great experiences and new EHE friends from around the world. I know I will live the rest of this second life with cancer but im gonna make sure its a feckin good one…..