Cancer and life: A Game of chance?

I don't gamble. Not at casino's, the horse or dog track, on sporting games or any game of chance. I don't really see the point of putting my hard-earned cash in the hands of chance however having said that isn't life a bit of a game of chance? Sure, I like to control the controllable things in my life, to get after life deploying ownership and responsibility in pursuit of my best version of it, but then, sometimes chance plays its hand; Not always with positive or desirable results.

Some of you may recall that in July 2018 my mother in-law was diagnosed with cancer, had an operation within 2 weeks and has been on a six-month course of chemotherapy which she is now over half way through. "Life" paid her a visit and decided to stay, in the form of cancer, and yet she's not alone.

138,321 Australian's were diagnosed with cancer in 2018 and 48,586 died in the same year. In Australia the chance of surviving for 5 years after diagnosis is 69% (2010-2014 period). It's pretty interesting that the overall number of deaths from cancer actually increased from 17,035 in 1968 to 45,782 in 2016. Hmm...Cancer research, and all those charities raising money for it, don't seem to be heading in the right direction do they? There's no on-going revenue in curing cancer for the pharmaceutical companies I guess.

Anyway, that's a conspiracy theory for another post. This one is about my mother in-law's ongoing success-story. She is over half way through the course of chemotherapy and is seemingly on-track now despite a week-one complication that was 12 hours away from ending her life. She's now starting to think ahead rather than day to day.

See that image above? That's an image of Mt Earnslaw on the south island of New Zealand about 25 kilometres from Glenorchy. In summer snow-melt creates the waterfalls you see. This area, and those surrounding it, were featured in the Lord of the Rings movies by Peter Jackson and if you do some research you'll find it's one of the most stunningly beautiful places on the planet.

Anyway, my mother in-law, who has never actually been out of Australia, is now loosely talking about a trip with us to New Zealand and she mentioned this place as one she would like so see. We're on-board because it's somewhere we have on our long list of places to go also.

We have started to think about the trip and are currently working through attractions and have this heli-tour firmly on our list. It's not cheap, in fact it's bloody costly, but we figure it's something we'd do once in life and considering my mum-in-law's on-going illness...Well, why wouldn't we? It's about $940/person to do the helicopter trip and whilst that's a bucket of cash we are going to do it. The Heliworks tour-operator did a video as below which might go some way towards demonstrating why this is a must-do activity.

Video courtesy of Heliworks on YouTube Ph: 0800 564 354

Life throws down challenges and opportunities in a brutally unequal proportion sometimes. Floating around on the tide of life is not a state of being my wife and I value; We are more about designing and creating our lives and opportunities rather than waiting for them to float along and into our reach. Some may see what we do as working at odds with life, in conflict with it however I don't understand how working towards furnishing ones life with that which is valued, (for us experiences) can be determined as working in conflict with life. Sure, sometimes things don't work out to plan but it's those lessons that can shape actions and attitude ready to succeed next time. Just my way of thinking.

My wife lost her dad to cancer when he was 33 years old (she was 11). Her mum lost her subsequent partner last year to cancer. My mum died at 59 years old, from cancer. Hmm...Seems to me that waiting around for life to happen may not be the best way to go. Ask the 48,586 who succumbed to cancer in Australia last year if they would attack life with their full vigour should they have a second chance...I reckon you'd get 48,586 yes answers!

So, our New Zealand trip is in the planning phase as we speak. We have never been there but my brother has, the non-steemit one, and I've seen his images and well...I gotta get me some of that! We are looking forward to sharing My wife Faith's mum's first overseas trip with her and hope it won't be her last. As a first-time overseas-traveller she feels more comfortable knowing she has us along and it should be a great way to sign-off her six months of chemotherapy and remission! She has to get the all-clear first though which we hope comes soon after the chemotherapy ends.

Heliworks -website/bookings - Image source