A Season in Saudi Arabia

They began in February - headaches - which never seemed to stop. I've never suffered from them before, so I knew something was wrong. The problem with melanoma is any little innocuous symptom you might have - let alone constant headaches - could indicate something very serious. Headaches are a symptom of around 50% of those who experience disease progression in the brain. I spent a lot of time online researching any articles which might help establish whether my headaches were melanoma or something else. The most disturbing article I read was about chronic headaches being experienced by a cohort of breast cancer survivors. For those whose headaches went on longer than 9 weeks, 51% were later diagnosed with brain mets. Of course, the article was about breast cancer, but melanoma loves the brain even more than breast cancer, so when the headaches wouldn't quit after three months, I became utterly convinced I was gonna die soon! Of course, I had to jump through a few hoops to prov...

Something positive finally happened and, ironically, it was connected with Saudi Arabia. Completely out of the blue, the British guy in charge of the newly formed Saudi surf team invited Raf and I to join him and the entire Saudi team at Bristol’s Wave - an outdoor wave pool with pretty good waves - and onto Newquay for a surf competition. All our expenses were to be paid and I’d get a little extra for doing some social media reels. While I knew I couldn’t continue my nutritional therapy, I decided to accept the offer but only for Bristol (which meant only two nights away from the juicing and enema routine).  On a sunny day in the middle of May, Raf and I boarded trains in Cromer and Norwich, crossed London, jumped onto a fast train to Bristol, before checking into a lovely hotel on the outskirts of the city. The Saudis arrived much later than us, so our first afternoon was alone in the mall, where Raf devoured a beef burger and I picked up a bargain beanie for £4 (never one to was...