Willow Tree Weekend – Special Day Out – Cancer may have started the fight, but I will finish it!

As a cancer patient I come under the Teenage and Young Adult category and I have three people from TYA that look after me, one is a nurse at Plymouth hospital, one is a macmillan cancer representative from Derriford and one is from the Clic Sargent charity. They help in whatever way possible.

One of the ideas brought to me by them was a charity called Willow Tree Foundation which gives a special day to remember to people who have life threatening illnesses (between certain ages). The idea is to give people something to look forward to or some time away from the bad. I was given a form to fill in and send off. I thought it would be lovely to have something to look forward to and aim for, all I had to do was think of something I wanted to do, it could be anything that could be done in the UK (same land your on, not abroad), anything from a football match to a weekend in a spa or a shopping trip. You have to put multiple ideas down in case they can’t make one possible and they have to go to the next choice.

I put down my ideas down in this order…

Adele Concert

Coldplay Concert

Beyonce Concert

Justin Bieber Concert

I think you might be able to notice I like live music, sadly by the time they got in touch with me the Adele Tour was no longer in the UK, they couldn’t get Bieber tickets and they tried for Coldplay but couldn’t get tickets and then they were going to try for Beyonce. Not long after they called me to tell me this Coldplay realised more tickets for their tour so I called them to see if it was possible to try again and thankfully they managed to get Coldplay tickets for June 2016. This meant myself and a carer (as I needed to be looked after as I had no idea how I would be at the time of the concert, thankfully I had finished chemo) would be going to Coldplay! Ahhhhhhhh I was soo excited! Finally I would get to see Coldplay after years, I mean like 16 years of love I would get to see them! And an extra bonus tick something off my Bucket List!!

As it was Coldplay I decided to take my middle brother to see them as he liked them too and he had done a lot for me in hospital and we, I hate to say it, get on really well even if he is annoying at times I do love him and enjoy spending time with him (I never said this if he asked, he has a big head already).

A representative from the Willow Tree Foundation kept in contact with me and asked questions to do with the trip and just a few weeks before the actual concert I received a package from them full with my itenairy for my special day. My special day actually ended up being a weekend as we had to travel up to London and back. Willow Tree had sorted everything and nothing had been forgotten.

A taxi picked us up from my home and took us up to Exeter train station, where we caught a train to London, a taxi picked us up from the station and took us to our hotel. From then on we were free to do what we wanted with our day and had no plans until the next evening when we had a taxi pick us up from the hotel and took us to Wembley Stadium for the concert and after the concert a taxi took us back to the hotel. The next day a taxi took us to the Station and we caught a train back to Exeter and another taxi home. All paid for, all pre booked by Willow Tree Foundation and a few extras put in the package like a Tastecard to help get discounts on food for the weekend. It was a wonderfully planned out weekend, the hotel was well located and was quite plush, and the concert which we went to was unbelievably good and my brother was impressed who is not the biggest concert go er, so that says something.

While away in London, we also explored the shops and did many of the childish things like Hamleys Toy shop, Nickelodeon shop, Disney and any shop where we could take a funny picture with something, whether it be a Transformer or a Stormtrooper. While away we also enjoyed a lot of food and a pint or two in a couple of pubs, somehow we managed to become friends with a stag group as soon as we walked into one pub, I don’t know what they saw in us but they decided to befriend us for an hour or so which was a laugh. It was a random but highly enjoyable weekend in which we walked miles, acted like children and highly enjoyed ourselves. I had been looking forward to it for a long time and it did not disappoint! This is a truly great charity and what they do is wonderful!