I’ve just cancelled our upcoming holiday, the fourth one this year. This cancellation was my fault as I booked a few days away around our wedding anniversary more in hope than certainty.

Mr McGregor had been feeling less than 100% since before last Christmas. He was reducing the anti- depressant he had been on since 2023 at the suggestion of our new doctor. She told him tiredness was an expected side effect. At Christmas we had dragged him to a local beauty spot to look at a cascade with petit fils and fils. He stopped just short of the fall as the path was getting tricky. While he waited for us sitting on a useful large rock he was amused to be offered a biscuit by a passing walker!

His fatigue got worse and we cancelled his birthday visit to Laguiole. Some weeks later he had a fall and ended up in our local urgences where heart failure was diagnosed. It was a shock but we were pleased to finally have an answer for his failing strength. His admission to hospital meant I had to cancel my 80th birthday celebratory trip to Paris. I amused our dentist when I told him I had said to Mr McGregor he didn’t have to go that far, he could have just told me he didn’t fancy Paris. Oh, your British humour, I was told!

Friends rallied round, as they always have, bless them, and my big birthdy was marked by balloons, cake and presents and hospital visiting sporting a t-shirt that told the world I was 80 and fabulous! (A present from a sister).

The patient came home after a fortnight with weekly nurse visits while we waited for a date for heart valve replacement surgery.

This happened at the end of April in Toulouse. I rented a room for the duration in an apart hotel and found myself rattling around in a one bedroom flat! The weather was good and I explored the local area most mornings and visited himself each afternoon after lunching in a cheerful cafe opposite the clinic. A change of scene but hardly a holiday.

The subsequent recovery didn’t seem to be as immediate as expected but we put it down to how frail he had become before the procedure and his advanced years!

Unfortunately, we were mistaken. A troublesome mole which had not been commented on throughout his hospital stays turned out to be nodular melanoma. Much to our horror it had matastised to his liver, lungs and bones. He was now very gravely ill.

All this took place in June, the month we have recently been going off to find sun, sea and sand and, unknowingly, after discussion during which Mr McGregor had said he’d prefer a new location I had booked a few days in Saintes-Maries-de-la-Mer, near the Camargue, a seaside town we’d last visited on a day trip from the Ardeche (as you do!) back in the 80s. Of course, recent events meant that had to be cancelled too. Meanwhile I tackled the pool cleaning and filling!

July was a manic month as we went for consultations, assessments plus scans and the family made their usual summer visits. The cyclist and partner came during the Tour de France but we were all disappointed when the town we had identified in which to go and cheer from the roadside was eliminated due to a shortening of the stage because of the canicule on the day.

Fils and petit fils came as the heat abated somewhat and spent most of the time in our piscine hors sol. I knew those back breaking hours scrubbing it ready for filling up would be worth it.. I’m still swimming most days!

Ultimately the outcome of all that rapid attention from the wonderful French health service was a course of immunotherapy at Limoges that started the day the last members flew home from Brive. Wonderful friends stepped in again to make sure they made their late morning flight as we left home by medical taxi at 6.30am to arrive in Limoges for le traitment at 8.30….

Mr McGregor has had two transfusions thus far and it’s a long old day. We’re hoping the next one won’t be as long winded as he will not be deemed as needing surveillance after the drips are finished. There is a long list of possible side effects which have not manifested themselves…yet. But himself is very tired and feels very weak. Hence the cancelling of the next getaway.

But the weather is still holding and we have the luxury of the garden and the pool, family in daily touch and good friends around us. Reasons to stay positive….