Over the last nine/ten months various people have said to me, at various times, 'you ought to write a book about your experiences.'  The answer to which was, and still is, a resounding 'no.'  Many reasons for this.  Firstly check out any online book retailer and there are dozens and dozens of books telling people's stories.  Secondly, and this perhaps relates to the first, everyone's story is unique, just as they are.  Thirdly, well, just plain 'no' I don't want to; I'm a reasonable blogger and a competent preacher but writer I am not.  Lastly, if I stay NED for at least two years, I am contemplating doing some serious research arising out of the experience, but I need time to process it first.

However.

I have noticed that I get quite a lot of keyword searches on my blog from people seeking cancer info, and lots of hits on the post I did summarising my chemo experience.  So here's the compromise... at some point over the summer I will write up my experiences of surgery (as far as it's gone - still some 'tidying up' to be done!) and radiotherapy and post them on here.

To be honest, part of my motivation for this was reading some comments on radiotherapy experiences written by people who did not know, and had not had explained to them, why most hospitals don't use gowns for this (why would anyone but me know about low active waste and nuclear laundries?!) and feeling that maybe I do, afterall, have something useful to add to the plethora of stuff people can access.

But also.

My calling is to be a minister - a weird muddle of preacher, theologian, pastor, mentor, chaplain and travelling companion - and that has to be where most of my energy goes.  My experiences are part of me but not my raison d'etre.  Maybe sometimes I need to be reminded of that!