I am a very moley person. Moles all over me. I have therefore, always been very cautious about spending time in the sun. I wear high factor suncream , hats and sit under umbrellas when I feel myself heating up. I have also always gone to have my moles checked regularly just to be on the safe side.

After one of these checks last year, back when I was pregnant, I was referred to see a dermatologist about one on my left boob. He did various checks, took special photos and lots of measurements and suggested that I go back after I had Sam as sometimes moles can change due to pregnancy.

I went back in February and was told that I was to have the mole removed. I thought nothing of this. I have had moles removed before, it’s just a precaution. I went in one morning. They anaesthetised the area and cut and bit chunk of my left boob out. It was unpleasant, I’ll tell you that. Not because it hurt, obviously I couldn’t feel anything, but it’s the fact that I could see them scraping out my skin…from my boob!! Afterwards, I went home and thought nothing of it.

Imagine my surprise then, when I got a phonecall from the hospital to tell me to go back in. That they had to take more skin. That the mole was in fact in the early stages of a malignant melanoma. A what? Basically, early stages of the most aggressive form of skin cancer there is. Thankfully, they think they got it all with the initial biopsy, but to be on the safe side, we’d like to take an extra 1cm of skin from around the original scar.

Back to the hospital I go, more anaesthetic, more gouging and afterwards a whole load more pain and a whopping scar on my boob.

I am to go back in the next couple of weeks to have the results back and for the dermatologist to check over all my moles again. I will have this done fairly frequently over the next 5 years to be on the safe side. I am very impressed by this, by the level of care that will be given.

Although, I have nothing to worry about with this, it’s a very scary and unsettling thing to be told that you have escaped cancer, no matter how early it was in development. If I hadn’t gone to have it checked, it could have been very different. If I’d ignored the itch, if I wasn’t so careful in the sun.

I am writing this as I just want to stress the importance of being safe in the sun. I see some girls I know who are so flippant about burning, about not wearing suncream. The statistics with regard to skin cancer are terrifying when you are actually presented with them and so I urge you all…

WEAR SUNSCREEN!

I’m a city girl. I’ve always been a city girl. I grew up in central Edinburgh, went to university in Liverpool, moved back to Edinburgh and then to Marylebone in London. You can’t get much more central than that. Selfridges food hall was my local shop! After a spell there, I moved to Clapham, still pretty central, many pubs, clubs, shops and stuff to do. I now live within the York City Walls. Current local food shop is the M&S in town.

By the end of the year however, I will be in the countryside for we have bought a house in a village. A village with a shop, post office, butcher and pub. That’s it. No Topshop round the corner, can’t just nip in to Waitrose and get some of their yummy sunblushed tomato bread. No no. That’ll be a 20 minute drive thank you very much.

As scary as this is to me. I am so excited about the country life that awaits me in a few months time. I look forward to making new friends. I look forward to Sam going to the frankly brilliant nursery and primary school that are at the bottom of our street. I can’t wait to put our stamp on our very own house, to get a slide and a swing in our back garden and to be able to have summer barbeques with our friends. To be able to light a log fire (the best bit about the house) in the winter and be all cosy on dark nights.

Most of all I am excited to be starting a new chapter. Our first home. The home I hope to stay in for a very long time and watch my son grow (hopefully, at some point, there might be another little person to watch grow too) where he might take his first steps, where he’ll leave for his first day at school. It’s going to be brilliant!

Ness x

It’s Real Nappy Week this week and there have been lots of posts and competitions to encourage people to start using cloth going around. I have had my ups and downs with cloth nappies, but one thing I have stuck with and LOVE are my Cheeky Wipes.

Cheeky Wipes are reusable baby wipes and are the brainchild of Helen Blaber. Helen had used washable nappies but hardly any of her friends did for various reasons. She also used washable wipes and thought that maybe, if she created a washable wipes kit that was convenient and easy to use, then maybe even those people who didn’t use washable nappies would use them. Helen created the Cheeky Wipes all in one kit after 6 months of development and they have been going strong since September 2008

Cheeky Wipes will SAVE YOU MONEY – at least £200 vs using disposable baby wipes

Cloth Baby Wipes that are Environment Friendly – do your bit for the planet – less landfill

Soft Baby Wipes that are Gentle on your baby’s bottom - no harsh chemicals, just fragrant essential oils

Hassle Free Baby Wipes All-In-One Kit - convenient and no extra loads of washing

Cheeky Wipes are super easy to use and I have to say are so much better at cleaning my babies little bottom than any other disposable wipes that I have used. Less poo smearing, more poo clearing! They are kept in tub with water and few drops of lavender and chamomile essential oil and then when they’re used I throw them into the nappy bucket that is lined with a mesh bag with some tea tree oil to keep any smells at bay. The essential oils are gentle on Sam’s bum too. I would recommend them to anyone and even my husband, who hates anything reusable for Sam, is a convert and that’s saying something.

The full Cheeky Wipes kit contains the following:
25 lovely soft Terry Towelling baby wipes – 15 cm x 15 cm
1 Fresh Wipes container
1 Mucky Wipes container with mesh bag insert
1 Fresh Wipes waterproof out and about travel bag
1 Mucky Wipes waterproof out and about travel bag with mesh bag insert
1 bottle of Lavender & Chamomile ‘Fresh Wipes’ essential oil blend
1 bottle of Tea Tree & Tea tree lemon ‘Mucky Wipes’ essential oil blend

Helen has also just brought out fabulous new boxes that are easy to open when you’ve got your hands full with a wriggly baby.

Currently the new kit is for sale at a Special Price of £35.00 including UK postage (will be £36.95, plus £4.95 postage), available pre-order only, orders sent 1st class w/c 6th June and for this week only to celebrate Real Nappy Week you can get a further 10% off with this code: E6802F98

After the initial cost, Cheeky Wipes will save you a fortune. We very rarely buy disposable wipes because we use these pretty much all the time so have definitely saved some cash.

Go and buy them, you won’t regret it, I promise you! www.cheekywipes.com

We went on a day trip on Saturday. Sam got the giggles. It was really funny.

Enjoy!

Ness x

The MAD blog awards celebrate British Mum & Dad bloggers and it would be really lovely, if you enjoy reading my blog, if you would take just a few minutes to nominate me. I really put my all into Total DeliciousNess and although I have a long way to go, bit by bit I hope that I am turning it into a site that people enjoy visiting.

To nominate, just click on the link above and enter your details and mine too. These are the categories I think I fit in best -

• Best New MAD Blog
• Best MAD blog writer
• Best MAD baby blog

Thanks in advance if you do this for me. It is greatly appreciated!

Ness x