It's been a while since I wrote my last blog which hasn't been intentional, I'm just still processing everything that has happened recently / in the last two years and trying to get back some form of normality, which is doing its best to hide at minute! So, as I lay here feeling totally exhausted, sorry for myself and waiting for the Martian to wake, I thought I would share with you someone else's blog that I've been reading recently.

It's written by a young lady who has been fighting Hodgkin's Lymphoma (and I mean totally kicking cancer's backside!) for the last 10 years. She recently turned 30 and celebrated it by completing 30 random acts of kindness. After telling her friends about the task on Facebook and asking if any of them would like to join her by also carrying out their own 'RAOK', she was soon overwhelmed by the response she got.

You can find out more and read Lauraine Frank's inspirational blog here: Always a Silver lining

Thanks Lauraine for giving me the energy to crawl out of bed and start my Sunday so brightly. ​

Martyn's story
The biggest fight of Martyn’s life began at the age of 31 when he was told he had cancer in January 2012, but in December 2012 the fight got even bigger when he was told his cancer had spread to both his lungs. He was told there was nothing more the National Health Service (NHS) could do to cure his advanced bowel cancer; other than palliative care consisting of fortnightly chemotherapy and a super drug called Avastin, which unfortunately had caused blood clots in his lungs. Being realistic, we knew that there was only so much of the palliative care his body could cope with so Martyn (now age 33); who has not once given up hope of finding someone who could help him, increased his own research and for many hours trawled the internet in the search for someone who might be able to give him hope.  

After looking up various leads, one particular medical paper he found stood out from the rest and was about a German surgeon called Professor Axel Rolle.  The report detailed information about a laser machine (Nd: YAG 1318) that had been developed by the Professor in which he could remove multiple lung metastases (+100) by resecting areas of the lung. The results showed there were minimal complications and a very good success rate.  The main criteria for a referral is that there is no other cancer outside the lungs. Martyn met this criteria, as in September 2012 his primary cancer had been successfully removed so he decided to pursue his find further... 

Did you know that it isn't just humans that have taken to Twitter, but dogs have too? 

In fact, there is a whole new world out there of animals tweeting their way into people lives.  My discovery of this trend happened when I discovered several conversations taking place - not by humans, but by tweeting dogs.  Those that know me accept I'm barking mad (which I'd like to add is perfectly normal when you have a creative brain ; ), so when I discovered the pack of tweeting dogs I got rather excited.  I immediately had a light bulb moment in my head and I knew I had to contact a special individual that came to mind, to see if I could assist them in setting up their very own Twitter account...  

Nelson, is Cornwall's highly intelligent fire investigation (FI) dog who works at Cornwall Fire & Rescue Service.  He is great at his job (sniffing our ignitable liquids that are potentially used in arson), who is also brilliant at engaging with members of the public.  People refer to him as an ice breaker due to his natural ability to grab and hold peoples attention and melt hearts, all whilst getting rather a lot of attention, fuss and belly rubs!  So as you've probably guessed, Nelson (even though he is a dog) seemed to be the perfect personality Cornwall Fire and Rescue Service needed to assist in delivering their safety messages and campaigns. 
 
The negotiation
With a few treats up my sleeve in preparation to a negative response, I asked Nelson what he thought about the idea of becoming an official Service tweeter.  Relieved at his enthusiasm, I had nothing to worry about as (being a dog) he got rather excited (like they do, tongue out, panting and darting all over the place).  He quite literally jumped at the chance and so our journey began.  I set up his account (@Nelson_FireDog) and with him, have watched his followers grow steadily.  There is an immense interest from a vast range of people, other dogs, animal lovers, animal shelters, organisations, and other Service dogs.   The best part is, they are all happily engaging with Nelson on a regular basis and assisting him by retweeting his safety messages.  Just by having Nelson's presence on Twitter, his messages are reaching not just Cornwall or the UK, but other countries far and wide who have a real interest to stay in touch and find out what he's up to. 

I totally understand that not everyone will get how a dog can be on Twitter and what all the fuss is about and that's fine.  There is no right or wrong way about using social media and everyone is entitled to their opinion.  Some like the serious type of communications and others like a little bit of fun mixed into the day. To be able to offer a choice is proving to work extremely well and benefit a whole new group of individuals that may not have followed otherwise.  

The discovery and meeting new friends
Since training Nelson on the wonderful world of Twitter, I'm pleased to report he has taken to it pawsomely! He has made lots of new friends and has discovered he is the first UK Fire Investigation Dog on Twitter, which is quite an achievement - something I'm sure will be short lived when other fire and rescue services catch on.  

Once Nelson's account was set up, it wasn't long before my two Greyhounds; Brew and Hex wanted their own Twitter account so they could join in the fun and record their lives and things they get up to.  So I set them up and they are now tweeting jointly as @TheCauldrons.  Slowly they have started to gather their own unique group of friends and are enjoying engaging, sharing information and photos to other Greyhounds, dogs, humans and any other individual that wants to follow along.  As they are brother and sister you will often find them teasing each other and and taking it in turns to tweet about their activities - usually about who's turn it is on the bed!  

Meeting Spaniel Harry
One evening, I caught the tail end of a conversation with a tweeter called Harry (@SpanielHarry), who kept making me laugh and was an author of a book I wanted to purchase called "Help my dogs on Twitter".  I noticed that Harry also did interviews on his blog, so Nelson, the Cauldrons and me started to follow.  I began  to prepare an email asking Harry if he'd like to interview Nelson on his role of being an FI dog, but before I could finish it, my phone whistled telling me I had a new Twitter interaction; to my surprise it was Harry:  

As you can see, Harry is one clever dog and had worked out that not only did I know Nelson but that I also liked knitting - hence the tip off about following them!  After several lovely (and funny) conversations with Harry about Nelson, the interview questions were prepared, answered and a venue arranged for them both to meet.
     
Since that day we met electronically, the interview has been shared (link at the bottom of this page) and a competition held, where a random follower was selected as soon as Nelson reached 999 followers.  The prize was Harry's book (which he kindly donated) and pawtographs of them both for the lucky winner, who was @rosieposiepuppy that lives in New York City.  Thanks to Harry and all of Nelsons new found friends, he now has 3,272 followers. 

So here we are today; Wednesday 20 February, the day when Nelson and Harry finally got to meet at Torpoint Community Fire Station to have their photos taken to support their amazing story.  I'll let you see for yourself how their friendship unfolded.  A great time was had by all, memories were made and they now have a bond that will last a lifetime.  Special thanks to Heather and Bob for allowing Harry to be there, Spaniel Meg and her owners who travelled up to meet the pair and my very supportive Martian who is never far away.

My love of animals led me to watch the hollywood movie "We bought a zoo" last year.  Little did I know just how much hope and inspiration this true story was going to give me.  During the film, I sat and watched in awe at the heart break and lengths one man - Benjamin Mee took despite all the odds, to restore a dilapidated zoo from ruins in order to save the animals it contained.  After the movie ended, I was captivated and wanted to find out more about the zoo and the real life story and people behind it.  

On a beautiful sunny September day, it was the perfect window of opportunity to make a visit. We drove up from Cornwall with Marty's mum and dad to Plymouth, where we met his sister Jacqui, brother-in-law Romi and two excited nieces to make the final journey to Dartmoor Zoological Park.  

As Marty was still making a steady recovery from his second operation of the year, it gave us the perfect excuse to take our time to walk around the park and enjoy all the displays that were on offer.  One of our best and most memorable experiences was standing, watching and listening to the amazing roar of Soloman; a very vocal lion, who I am sad to find out recently passed away.  The park certainly lived up to my aspirations and as planned, I purchased the book "We bought a zoo" by Benjamin Mee, which I couldn't wait to start reading.  

The book was; as I expected, better then the Hollywood movie because it was the true, uncut version and was written by the man who has achieved so much with so little.  I now take an avid interest in the developments of the zoo and last night, along with Marty, Jacqui and Romi, attended the Zoo's first ever "Evening with Benjamin Mee."  As ever, things happen for a reason and we found ourselves sat on a table with a couple whom Benjamin knew.  Therefore when he came and sat down, we were rather fortunate to be able to have a brief conversation with him before he went off to do his final presentation.  Benjamin Mee is down to earth, enjoys a joke and a laugh, is friendly and very approachable (if you aren't a shy dingbat like I am!) and best of all just a normal guy, trying to do the best for his zoo.  The evening ended on a high when we got our books signed by him.  

To fully understand why I find Dartmoor Zoo and Benjamin Mee so inspirational, you'll just have to read the book or visit yourself.  This blog post is to remind me there are people in this world like Benjamin, who despite everything, beat the odds and don't just give up.  It's to remind me when I'm having a bad day to pick myself up and dust myself down.  It's to remind me how lucky I am to have met Martyn, who has lit my life up in a way I never thought possible.  It's to remind me to be thankful for all the true friends and family I have.  It's to remind me I no longer have to dislike my birthday because I can now, not only share it with my two beautiful Greyhounds who were born on 7 July 2005, but I can also share it with Dartmoor Zoological Park too, which opened on 7 July 2007.  How much of a coincidence is that! 

To find out more about Dartmoor Zoological Park, visit their website: www.dartmoorzoo.org 

Or view their blog post from the evenings activities: An evening with....