17/03/2024
Hey friends,
You may (or may not!) have noticed my absence from social media for the most of this year and I finally feel ready to come on here and give a little update about the road I am now travelling on with my family.
Devastatingly, back in January our 10 year old son was diagnosed with an aggressive, high risk cancer called Alveolar Rhabdomyosarcoma that has metastasised from the primary tumour in his pelvis to his lungs and bones. It was completely unexpected as apart from a few days leading up to taking him to A&E he was completely well and had spent the summer holidays swimming, biking and generally being an active kid. Our worlds as you can imagine were completely turned upside down and the pain and grief we have experienced I wouldn’t wish on anyone.
I’ve thought long and hard about whether to share on my business pages what is happening; should I keep it private, if not how much do I share. The first month after diagnosis I was in a state of shock and wasn’t coping too well, and to be honest my mind couldn’t even comprehend continuing to run a business. (Ill come back to that point in a minute). Ultimately though, I have chosen to share to mainly bring awareness to this cruel disease (there is a real lack of awareness and funding of childhood sarcomas, and many other childhood cancers) and to have some transparency over what the year holds for my business.
The next few months will be tough as Hugo undergoes multiple rounds of treatment and my main focus will of course be supporting and caring for him through that. However I will have the capacity and mindset now that we have adjusted to our new normal, to take on a limited number of commercial jobs each month and a small number of elopements/intimate weddings for next season.
Thank you to my amazing photographer community (you know who you are) for your support and help over the past 2 months covering weddings and shoots for me (especially dear friend and fellow photographer Steph Killip who took the reins of my business despite running her own and encouraged me to not give up on mine!). I started building my business… (cont in comments)