Hi, it's me, Alice, I just thought I'd send through a quick update to let everyone know how I'm getting on and why my wolfpack and I are entering the Mount City to Surf run this year.

People often ask me how I am since my cancer diagnosis 1 year ago, and I still haven't figured out an easy way to answer this. The easiest answer is "I'm doing ok", which is definitely true, I am. I'm exercising most days and still playing some football. I need less naps (but sometimes still have them because I love a nap!) and I'm working from home which allows me to be home when the kids get home from school, and also have regular dog/cat petting breaks. I can travel - the girls and I just got back from an amazing six weeks in the UK making memories with our family and friends...and seeing the England football team win the EUROs!

Most importantly, the targetted chemotherapy treatment I'm on is working to keep the cancer at bay ..."for now". Those two words are the rest of the answer that I often leave out, but in reality I still have advanced lung cancer and it remains incurable. We know that at some point the sneaky cancer cells will mutate and I'll need to go onto another targetted chemotherapy treatment. I'm hoping that I have really dumb cancer cells and it takes a while for this to happen! I have CT scans every twelve weeks and I'm learning how to manage the scanxiety of not knowing the outcome every.single.time.

At this stage the treatment I would go onto next isn't funded by Pharmac here in NZ, which is why I continue to fundraise and why I'm so grateful for all of your generous donations and support.

I hope that taking part in the City to Surf event will also raise important awareness of the prevalence of lung cancer and it's occurrence in younger people and those who haven't been smokers. I have some other fundraising events coming up in November for Lung Cancer Awareness month too so watch this space!

In the meantime I plan to continue to live well with cancer, and try to enjoy every moment with the beautiful family and friends I'm so lucky to have around me.