Week 1 progress of my Stand up 2 Cancer Squats Challenge - The 3 Ss

A week ago I started a #squatschallenge to raise funds for cancer. I've never done either thing before. Research says One in two people will develop cancer at some point in their lives. That's really scary. Who's going to draw the short straw between me and my husband? Or will we end up like my friend where both he and his wife, had and are recovering from cancer? Touch wood, till now, most of my friends and family are safe and healthy. But who knows.

SCARE - My encounter with cancer

Before you get all worried, I'm blessed to say I have never had the unfortunate pleasure of direct contact with cancer, but people around me have.

My earliest encounter with a cancer patient was my uncle who had throat cancer. I remember visiting him and he couldn't talk much and I think he was at the stage where he needed a tube connected to his throat to help him eat. After his passing, his daughter, my cousin who was only 5 months younger than me, took his death very badly. It affected her for many years, but in typical Chinese fashion, we don't tend to talk about these things.

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About 7 or 8 years ago a very close friend got stage 4 bowel cancer. She is about the same age as me. When I found out, she already had all the operations and had been through the worst. Yes, I know I said she's a close friend, so why didn't I know? Being my friend sucks because I'm not good at staying in touch with people. Plus she was in Hong Kong whilst I was in UK, and she's a very private person. I know even if I was in Hong Kong, she still probably wouldn't have told me.

The first time I saw her again was a year or so after her ops. She'd lost a lot of weight but was making good progress with her recovery, and her spirits were high. Earlier this year we met in Taiwan. The timing was perfect, I was out there for 6 weeks, she in town for business for a few days with just one evening spare. I made sure I went to see her even though it meant a 6 hour round trip bus journey. Then earlier this summer, she was passing through London, again with just one spare evening. London is nearly 200km away from me, and I had to jiggle my plans to see her. I may suck at keeping in touch with friends, but I will move heaven and earth when I think it's worth it.

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During Covid, my sister in law discovered she had breast cancer. Luckily she discovered very early and was treated very swiftly. But it was a big scare for the family. It must have been especially terrifying for my brother who had to deal with this. Due to lockdown, visitors, even from his own children were very restricted. The rest of us could only offer virtual moral support. My sister in law had always taken good care of my brother, and we joked now he'd have to learn to cook. Again being a Chinese family, we didn't really talk about his feelings and how he dealt with it. But my sister in law pulled through cancer, as did we all Covid.

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Not everyone with cancer is so lucky. My cousin Jan drew the short straw and didn't make it. It's so sad to see how cancer can destroy a person, and a family. And that person, that family could have easily been me.

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SUPPORT - The Squats Challenge

All the above stories are one of the main drivers for me to do the Stand up to Cancer Squats Challenge. I mean it's the least I can do, it's only 100 squats a day, and I get a very nice free T-shirt 😀

I've been sharing my progress via my alt account @lut-studio to give myself more pressure not to drop out. Something that I had not really expected is the moral support from the Hive community. We offer words of encouragement and support to our friends here when shit happens, or there's a cause for celebration. What I hadn't expected is for some to actually join in the squats challenge. @dbooster @pardinus @xrayman you guys rock! This challenge is going to be easier, more fun and less lonely for me knowing I have your support.

SHARING - Answers to November HPUD Guessing Contest

I've been running my HPUD Guessing Contest for quite a few years, and every month I give out between 20 to 40 HBD in prize money. It's not a significant amount of money but I could get myself a decent takeaway with it. However, sharing is caring as they say, especially if the prize can make a difference to some people. I'd much prefer to do that. Sometimes there are many winners and the prize can be small, but a win is a win, and I think that is what matters. Sometimes there's only one winner, and if they HPUD that month, they could land the maximum 40 HBD prize money. Like this month. On day 1 of the squats challenge, I asked people to guess how many squats I could achieve over and above the 7 day target of 700 squats. I had no idea what I was capable of or if I could even do 100 squats a day.

Turns out it wasn't too bad and I managed to do 140 squats over the target. Congrats @coolmidwestguy you're the sole winner this month, and since you HPUD you win 40 HBD!!!!!

_{PS Been debating if I should/could post this in the Relfections Community as I'm rolling a lot of things into one single post. Hopefully this won't be muted 😑}