My health

Hi, a while ago, I posted to say how much this game had helped me during my battle with cancer and my stem cell transplant, which was done to try to push the cancer into remission. My transplant was done on Aug 1st and the results are known after 3 months, we'll although it's only 2.5 months, I was called in to see my consultant today. The news was good, the transplant worked and my cancer is in remission. It's only locked away, there's a good chance that it will return but its hoped that because I've shown such a quick response, I'll have a long period of remission, some people are still going after 15 years.
If/When it does return, they collected enough stem cells from me to give me a second transplant, so everything is looking good so far
Thanks again for all your good wishes
Paul

Thanks guys, I really appreciate your good wishes.
Jack, I have a chronic pain condition which means I only manage to sleep 2 or 3 hours at a time so I'm awake most of the night.
As for me being brave, I'd say it's more a case of what is doing necessary to make sure you come out the other side, fighting through. I came very close to dying when I had my first pulmonary embolism  it made me realise that life doesn't have a reset button, when you're done, you're done. I'm too curious to give up, I want to see what happens tomorrow or next week, to see what lies around that next bend.
That's what makes this game so important to me, there's no reset button, if you have a bad race, you have a bad race, you take it on the chin and move on and it makes you stronger, just like life. 
I don't know if you know, but I'm a musician/songwriter, it's how I made my living (when I'm not ill lol) and music was the thing that kept me going, gigging, recording, writing, it all helped, I was even allowed to take a guitar into hospital with me, music always helped. Now, in exactly the same way that music took away the pain and the worry, so does IGP, we race every day with a short gap at the end of a season, and the beauty of iGP is that it isn't just the 40 minutes that we race, you've got so many aspects to the game, so many subtle elements that can change the shape of your season, it helps me to take my mind off my health in much the same way that music can, and when I'm having a bad day and can't play the guitar, I can still turn to IGP and ignore everything else, so thank you for creating it. Sorry, I've waffled a lot, my wife is decorating and I'm keeping out of the way lol
Paul
PS. My band (Skyeladder) will soon have a new EP available and to celebrate me beating cancer again, we've called it Life Is For Living. An apt title, we thought. 

That's a great title Paul I look forward to hearing it. To the devs this is why I've dubbed Paul our 'resident bulldog' always the fighter and hanging on in there. Since we merged our leagues over 14 seasons ago now (if I'm remembering rightly) Paul has been the stronghold for us all and as you can see our Bulldog will never give up and I hope you never do mate. Wishing you the very best in your health for the future. See you at the first race on the 27th ;) 

@Paul. I'm lost for the right words to say so I will just say plus 1 to what Jack Basford posted. Best wishes, Kev.

Thanks guys, and yes mike, the bulldog will be battling, if not for the win, certainly for points or the podium.
#NeverGiveUp

Late 2016 I had bowel cancer, an 8 hour op to cut the infected part of the bowel out and to attach the 2 remaining parts, successfully got rid of the cancer but a recent scan revealed that a cell had broke free and has made its home in my lung. This means that I now need an operation to remove it before it becomes a major problem. Luckily the op can be done as keyhole which only means a 3-4 day spell in hospital rather than the 2 weeks I was expecting. I don't know when the op will take place cos the consultant said that he wanted it to grow a bit more so that it's easier to grab but also because he said that my immune system is still too low following my stem cell transplant and that I'd be at risk of contracting pneumonia. I was quite relieved when he told me cos I was expecting to have to have it done this week and today is my birthday lol
I'll keep you updated as to when my next, and hopefully, final operation is. I'll never give up tho. 
Thanks
Paul

Happy birthday Paul!  All the best!
I hope you have many many more!
Incredible how you have managed through all that.  Keep that dogged fighting spirit going.  You are an inspiration to many of us! 

Thanks Mike, I appreciate that, and your mail. I certainly will keep fighting
Paul

Yesterday I had to go to see my consultant for a review. 
She sat us down and started by telling us that she always looked forward to seeing me because I always have a smile on my face and, no matter what the news was, I always had a positive attitude. She said that seeing us, made her day and that she thought that she had become a better person having met us. That made me quite emotional 
My wife, Janie is a member of a Multiple Myeloma (the kind of cancer I suffer from) group on Facebook they have a forum in which she posts a photo of me almost every day and I'm always smiling in them. She gets comments on her posts of how they look forward to her posts because of the photos, how the photos lift their spirits, make them feel more positive and that living a normal life is possible. Anyway, back to my consultant visit. She said all that lovely stuff about me and asked how I could remain so positive given everything that's happened to me. Then she told me my blood numbers. If you have Multiple Myeloma  it can be kind of grumbling, you have it but it's not cancerous yet. That's if your para-proteins measure between 15 to 25. If they're over 25, they start to be concerned  in January, mine measured 53. I was in serious trouble but after all the treatment and my transplant, my para-proteins measured 6. 
My consultant was beaming when told me that my measurement had gone from 6 to 3. That was amazing and made me ??? I'm now in complete remission. 
I still need another operation, early next year to remove a pre- cancerous cell from my lung. It's a cell that escaped from my bowel during my bowel cancer operation. 
I've said before that this game helped me through the bad times by taking my mind off how bad I felt. The beauty of the game is that there is always something you can be doing. So when I was feeling really bad, I'd log on and either find something to do for my team, or help someone else, usually someone joining our league as a Rookie. I'd help myself by helping someone else. 
I'm still recovering, still suffering from Extreme Fatigue and probably have around 6 months of recovery left cos it takes a year from when you have your transplant, I had mine in August but I'm a little ahead of the game. 
So, from someone who's now cancer free, please accept my deepest gratitude cos without this game, I'm sure my recovery would have been much slower.
I'd really like to thank Jack and the other developers for all their hard work and their help whenever any of us have a problem. 
So, having typed all that, I'm off for a well deserved snooze ?

Good morning,

Glad to know that you feel better, Paul! I wish you a fast recovery!

Regards, 
Gerard VC

You are an inspiration to so many of us Paul. Reading your story is quite touching and I can only admire the strength and determination that you possess. I am so glad that you're now in Complete Remission. All the best Paul!

Thanks guys, I appreciate it.
I'll keep you all informed about my lung issue but for now, I'm healthy (kind of) and after 2 years of uncertainty, we'll finally be able to celebrate Christmas with a more certain future. 
I wish everyone here a merry Christmas and a happy & most importantly, a healthy new year. ????