Austin Birks
Life Is A Roller Coaster, Just got To Ride It
Well-known blond, Irish warbler Ronan Keating famously sang in his big pop tune of May 2000 that life is indeed a roller coaster, and you...
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Austin Birks
Aug 265 min read
Sep Sis For A Game Of Soldiers
I very nearly died in the early hours of Tuesday 20th August 2024. I got sepsis; it was swift, frightening, aggressive, relentless,...
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Austin Birks
Aug 264 min read
I Said A Hip Hop, I Need An Op
I had the good fortune recently to visit the orthopaedic hospital in Birmingham, having been on a waiting list for 43 weeks, and now at...
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Austin Birks
Jul 84 min read
Would You Rather Have Cancer Or Apply For An Electronic Signature?
Now I do not know about you, my dear reader chum, but I am finding that as I get older, it is the small things in life that cause the...
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Austin Birks
Mar 291 min read
Press Release - Black belt in karate is kicking cancer with over 100 doses of chemo
A press release about my journey with cancer has recently been published by the South Warwickshire University NHS Foundation Trust. You...
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Austin Birks
Mar 194 min read
Trouble and strife with the strawberry tart
In my adolescent years, I had a mate of mine called Eamonn Martin. One of the things that we used to do was make up our own version of...
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Austin Birks
Dec 20, 20233 min read
Treatment Number 100 Of Chemotherapy
The Bard himself famously said that life is but a stage, and we are all but players on the stage. Well, the older that I get, the more...
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Austin Birks
Jul 25, 20236 min read
Reflections On Chemotherapy Dose 90, Small Scratch....
As my good friend Noah, the nurse, delicately uttered the magic words "slight scratch," he seamlessly inserted the needle into the vein,...
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Austin Birks
Jun 10, 20233 min read
Two Fat Ladies Click Click Click, Dose 88 of Chemotherapy
I used to enjoy playing Bingo once upon a time in this strange and wonderful world that I have lived in for 63 years. It was a different...
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Austin Birks
Mar 13, 20236 min read
The Dark Side Of Chemotherapy
Over the course of my 4 years and 6 months of living with cancer, a lot of kind people have said to me: “So, if you don't mind me asking,...
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Austin Birks
Feb 11, 20234 min read
Dose Number 82 Of Chemo, And 3 Broken Ribs… And A Partridge In A Pear Tree
And so it came to pass, my dear chums, that yesterday I had my 82nd dose of chemotherapy and what a strange case it was. Basically, 4...
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Austin Birks
Jan 7, 20236 min read
Review of 2022 - In Short: No, Thank You… Things Can Only Get Better
One of the benefits of being a rather sad, old, English gentleman like myself, is the fact that even though technology allows us to have...
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Austin Birks
Dec 18, 20224 min read
The Joy Of Meeting New People In Hospital
Forrest Gump famously said “Life is like a box of chocolates.” Now, I honestly have absolutely no idea what that means, but I always...
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Austin Birks
Nov 10, 20227 min read
Cancer And The Snakes And Ladders Conundrum, Or Shake Rattle And Roll!
When I first started writing these blogs back in late 2018, I had absolutely what was going to happen, or indeed what I was going to...
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Austin Birks
Sep 13, 20225 min read
Blood Clot MAAANNN......Rastafari
When I was a young punk, living in Birmingham in 1977, I would regularly go to gigs in the city centre. Watching the likes of The Clash...
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Austin Birks
Sep 12, 20224 min read
Chemotherapy Treatment Number 70, Reflections On A Life Well Lived
So, today my dear chums was on reflection a landmark day, I do not know if achieving 70 doses of chemo is a lot, or a little, and if...
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Austin Birks
Sep 11, 20224 min read
Reflections On Life And Death As Her Majesty The Queen Embarks On Her Final Journey
As I write this blog, I am watching the mortal remains of her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II leave Balmoral castle for the very last time, as...
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Austin Birks
Aug 20, 20227 min read
From The Top Of My Head To The Tips Of My Toes... Nobody Knows Where The Cancer Goes. Part 3:Bottoms
When I set off on this little journey to explore what the side effects of the chemotherapy actually do to you physically, across, well,...
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Austin Birks
Jul 30, 20226 min read
From The Top Of My Head To The Tips Of My Toes…Who Knows Where The Cancer Grows… Part 2
Following on from the first part of my journey exploring what the side effects of chemotherapy are and what they are actually like. I...
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Austin Birks
Jul 30, 20226 min read
From The Top Of My head To The Tips Of My Toes…No one Knows Where The Cancer Goes….Part 1: The head
I often get asked what having chemo is really like, and my reply is consistent: the chemo itself is actually quite manageable. After 68...
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