'The Rambling Potters' will be doing their 4th sponsored walk to raise funds for the NET Patient Foundation on Saturday 6th April.  This year we will be walking around The Wrekin, in Telford, Shropshire.

The purpose of the foundation is to support and inform patients and families from diagnosis, enabling access to the best care and treatment, whilst stimulating Neuroendocrine Cancer research, increasing national awareness and influencing improvements in outcomes. 

I am a Neuroendocrine Cancer (NET) patient diagnosed in June 2015, I am in my late fifties, married with children, and one grandchild. I strongly believe that I still have a full life to live, with plenty of new experiences and opportunities along the way.

I have a Neuroendocrine primary tumour in my small intestine, which has metastasised to my liver and peritoneum, as well as various lymph nodes. I cannot be cured, and I am currently classed as in-operable, but medication along with regular tests and scans help to keep it under control and manageable for most of the time.  I have also recently undergone a course of PRRT treatment, which will hopefully slow down progression, and if I’m lucky kill off a few of my uninvited aliens too.

NETs is becoming a fairly common yet still unknown cancer, and as such can take many years to diagnose.  Many patients are diagnosed by accident, often as a result of medical interventions for other conditions. So as well as raising money, I also want to help raise awareness, and hope that this sponsored walk will once again go someway
towards this.

The Net Patient Foundation is a great source of support, and I have met many new and lovely people in the same situation as me in the uk and abroad. So this walk is a way of giving something back.

If you would like to know more, please check out the NET Patient Foundation site, Facebook page, and Twitter feed. I also write a blog too, and if you would like to follow my journey here is the link to a "A Road Less Travelled": https://crystaltipps24.com/