I’ve been absent from my website for nearly 6 months. I moved house in March into a renovation project and, as these things always do, it’s taking longer to complete than I anticipated. I now have a new kitchen, spare bedroom, office and master bedroom with en suite, but my bathroom currently looks like this! I started off full of enthusiasm and am now at the fed up and skint stage 🫤.

The delay in finishing the renovations has been due to life changing circumstances. Seven weeks ago I woke with a numb tongue and to cut a long story short ended up in hospital with a suspected stroke. The good news is I didn’t have a stroke. The bad news is I have a brain tumour. A grade I frontal lobe meningioma to be precise which, if you’re going to get a brain tumour, is one of the best. Thankfully it’s benign and although it’s pressing on my brain and causing headaches (sometimes for days on end) it’s causing no other symptoms, so it’s just going to be monitored for growth.

My numb tongue, it turns out, had nothing to do with the tumour. I’d had a throat infection which had compressed my facial nerve and the numb tongue progressed over the course of 3 days into total right sided facial paralysis. It’s now nearly 2 months later and I still have zero movement on one side of my face, known as Bell’s Palsy. I have no idea if the movement will ever come back and if it does to what degree (please don’t tell me about your friend that had it but recovered in a couple of weeks, it’s not helpful). I can’t blink my right eye at all (dreadfully sore), have to drink using a straw, eating is difficult (I’ve lost a lot of weight) and my speech is affected. It has gotten me down more than the tumour to be honest. The infection which led to the paralysis really knocked me about and I was beyond exhausted for well over a month. I’m back on my feet now a little bit more, but still don’t have the energy I did and can’t do as much in the house. Hence the delay in getting the renovations finished.

In need of a pick-me-up, I was informed today that one of my images has been awarded an Honourable Mention in the professional self portrait category of the 2024 International Photography Awards 😊. It’s my 4th year running being shortlisted then awarded and I’m absolutely tickled pink. It’s just so amazing that other people like the images which take root in my mind and can see what I’m trying to portray with my photographs – I’ll never get used to it and it never gets old.

Part of the reason I bought the house I did is that it has a small integral garage, which I’m going to convert into a dedicated photography space. I’m determined this winter to seriously get back into my photography which has been neglected really since the start of the pandemic. It’s my passion and my stress release and I’ve missed it more than I can say.