The brilliant news is that chemotherapy has been delayed indefinitely. Following my visit to MRI on Friday - it was a family day out due to half term and the children were superbly behaved too, my Myeloma levels remain really high but my haemoglobin levels and kidney function are returning to normal. The likelihood is that my illness throughout summer and subsequent surgery has had an impact on these readings.
I return to MRI this Thursday for a full skeletal survey. This involves numerous X-rays of every major bone in my body from 2 or 3 angles. The purpose is to ensure that the Myeloma isn't causing any bone lesions which is quite common given it exists in the bone marrow. As I've no major bone pain I'm confident on the all clear on this too. Following this I will attend Myeloma clinic at MRI once a month for monitoring. At the point treatment is required all consent forms, permissions etc have been completed and we are good to go with the Myeloma XI trial. Hopefully this will be a long time in the future.
On Friday night it was good to relax and enjoy a beer or 2 with Jen. It was good to see her relax too - the first time that we've enjoyed a meal without the stress and dread that seems to have loomed over us since June.
As mentioned in previous blogs I believe children, and adults for that matter, should play as many sports as possible. Trying many different activities not only gives the individual a richer experience but also enables them to develop several different circles of friends. I am very fortunate to be involved with 2 fantastic sports clubs and am lucky to have developed some lifelong friendships.
Team Martlew also has a fantastic support network of friends. The support comes from several different circles of friends, from work colleagues to school friends to neighbours, but many are friends that we have made at the 2 sports clubs and these friendships have developed and blossomed over the past few years. Without the messages of goodwill, the practical support and the listening ears, it would have been an incredibly difficult summer - far more difficult than it has been.
It's essential that sports clubs provide the opportunity to play sport on a variety of levels. Different people have different motivations to play sport. Some wish to play on a serious level, wishing to be the best and compete at the very highest level. Often this may be at district/town team level or even professional club/county level. Often many of these types of players do not stay at any particular club for a long time, moving round to different clubs, taking the view that the next club may offer a better development opportunity. There is nothing wrong with this and it is a fact of life.
Some players motivation is to play for enjoyment and its essential that clubs offer this facility too. These players are the ones that will make up the large majority of your membership, and are the future of your club. If you retain them, by providing opportunities to play for enjoyment, then you are likely to produce future coaches, secretaries, Child Welfare Officers, groundsman etc from this cohort.
At Whelley Alexandra and Wigan Cricket Club, I believe we have struck the right balance between these 2 drivers for involvement. At the cricket club there is a pathway from the youngest junior cricket team to the first team. We provide a variety of coaching on this pathway from the fun and enjoyment side at the very early age to focused group and 1:1 coaching at the higher end - we even have a New Zealand Test opening batsman, our pro Aaron Redmond, who is available to do 1:1 batting sessions - I challenge any club in the area to match that!!
At the football club it's slightly different. We do insist on fun and enjoyment no matter what level (I hate the word division) the team plays at. However what we find is the higher the team rises in the divisions, the more transient the players become. We do have a hardcore cohort of players that have been there since day one, but around them players come and go with more regularity as they look for "the next best thing". Sadly this can often be a parent rather than a player decision.
My hope for my children playing cricket and football at the 2 clubs is that they have fun, enjoy themselves and make some lifelong friends along the way. I would also like them to stay loyal, develop to the best of their ability and when the time is right develop new skills such as refereeing or umpiring, scoring or officiating, coaching or another volunteering role to put something back into the club that has served them well over the years.
This is already happening at the cricket club with some of our younger senior cricketers. They have taken the view that they should help the next group of young players coming along by taking their coaching qualifications. It makes me incredibly proud to see 19 and 20 year old young men choose to coach rather than us having to twist reluctant dads arms up their backs. As a result I believe that the quality of coaching is better as it wasn't that long ago they were in the position of the learner.
Already at the football club we have under 14s players asking about coaching and refereeing courses. We have elder brothers who will become qualified coaches later this year and are willing to specialise in areas such as goalkeeping, to help develop the younger goalkeepers at the club. Add to that the maturity that many of our older players are now beginning to display, helping tidy up at the end of the session, not requiring prompting to undertake a warm up or cool down, makes me really proud and positive that the future of both clubs is rosy but the future or these young people is even rosier.
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