I took this photo 374 days ago, after a chest biopsy. The doctors had detected a large something in my chest that was causing me difficulty breathing. I had a few dark months not being sure which direction things were going in, I couldn’t even walk down to the shop to get lunch without pausing to catch my breath, and I was being told I should prepare myself for bad news. I was injected with radioactive fluid, put through a large electronic donut, and had bits of me taken away for examination.

Fortunately, it turned out the something was a non-malignancy known as sarcoidosis. The cause is unknown. There is a theory that it is an auto-immune reaction, triggered by perhaps an infection (or stress, or grief, or tiredness, or not stopping). It produced a granuloma in the lymph gland in my chest which was pushing into the lungs. But it had appeared to have stopped getting bigger.

So one year, one week and a day later, the sarcoidosis has receded. I look a bit older, but I have given up sugar and alcohol, lost a big chunk of the weight I put on, have seriously reassessed some priorities,  I’m writing every morning and on Friday last week I ran for twenty minutes straight without stopping.

With a bit of luck and application, I might even try a half marathon in the autumn.

Hope all is well with you guys.

Be kind. Be useful. Et cetera.