Moving The Goalposts

Eighty year old Mattie has Stage 4 cancer. Words are becoming more and more difficult to find. Is this because of cancer, dementia or just old age? Duty. Burden. Dignity. Fear. Pain and Humour are words she'll never forget. You can add Bloody-mindedness to the list and the refusal to call cancer a battle to be won. Mattie regards her cancer as a pantomime villain who is, by turns, devious and full of dark humour.

She is given 18 months to live which allows Mattie the golden opportunity to plan her 'future'. There's a will to make, a funeral to organise and possessions to give away. It's an empowering experience. But then, unbelievably, she doesn't bloody die. Four years later, Mattie is left with very limited mobility and exhaustion - a condition she shares with many cancer patients who are supposedly cured of the disease. Thank god for her wicked sense of humour, her irreverence and her ability to appreciate the ironies of the situation.