However, with the birth of my daughter in 2012, the pressures of work and the realisation that my time was no longer my own, the posts became fewer and further between, eventually becoming annual - which made this blog about as appealing to its followers as hayfever. CluedUpDads had effectively gone into hibernation.
Over the past year though, my life has taken a wholly unexpected turn. In December 2017 - seven months after my 40th birthday - I was diagnosed with prostate cancer.
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| Not the 40th I had anticipated |
I had endured countless tests, scans and biopsies, but despite suspecting that I was going to be told I had cancer, the news still struck me like a sledgehammer. I was a husband and a father, I was 40, my children were seven and five, how could I have cancer? It seemed so unfair, so out of my control and so frightening.
Today, however, as I write this - four months after that date in December - I can say I am technically cancer-free. I have had the surgery I needed, I have come out the otherside and I can honestly say that cancer is not always the demon it is portrayed to be. Thanks to our brilliant National Health Service, it can be conquered.
My road to recovery continues, but as I am now back at work, running (slowly) and keen to get on with life, I thought it about time that I really relaunched CluedUpDads, not solely as a vehicle to recount all the times I find myself arguing over missing shoes and empty school bags, but also as a place to talk about prostate cancer. There is so much to say, so many things I have learned and so much that I would like to share, to breakdown the stigma surrounding men's health issues, to help other men in similar situations and to demystify prostate cancer for men in their forties.
So please continue to read, follow, like, share and spread the word in any way you can. Let's enjoy our forties, as loving dads who love life.
Take care,
Tim
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