Skincare Advice

The Ideal Skincare Advice 

Ideally you should have a morning and evening skincare routine. 

You must know that not everyone has the same skin type.

There are those of you that may have oily, some may have dry, maybe some normal or combination.

Please note that if you suffer from acne or any other skin condition, you do need to ask advice when you go to buy products.

The first this you must do is wet your face and neck, with warm water and double cleanse.

Yes, DOUBLE cleanse. 

Rinse the first application of cleanser off then apply the second.

First lot of cleanser just removes any dirt that is on the skins surface.

Whereas the second cleanse will clean deeper in the skin. 

Always apply cleanser with your hands and in circular motion.

Next, apply a toner to some cotton wool pads and apply to the cleansed areas.

Make sure to do this as upward motions, 

so you prevent pulling your skin downwards.

Obviously we don't want to drag our skin, we want to tighten it.

I only do this stage, once or twice a week, depending on how my skin is.

I also do this in the evening.

Exfoliating and a face mask.

This is vital that you make sure to have the right product that will benefit your skin type.

Exfoliate in small circular motions and rinse.

Apply the mask, in a even coverage and leave for the advised length of time.

Finally,

Moisturise.

This also needs to be the correct beneficial moisturiser.

After all, it is no good having a oily, heavy moisturiser if you have super oily skin.

If you suffer from the odd breakout,

the best thing, I have found to work for me is a tea tree spot stick.

My skincare products
(I am not advertising any of these products)

I hope that this helps you to keep your skin in tip top condition for you.

My Dancing Life Achievements

In my opinion, I have surprised myself in dance life achievements. 

Baring in mind I am 20, but all of these happened by the time I was 18.

When I was 7 years old I got into Irish dancing. And no, I don't have any Irish family background that I know of. 

I went to a dance school quite local to me and had some pretty incredible experiences there. I traveled to Belfast in 2006 with our Ceili group (8 hand (8 people) and we competed in the World Championships. I was 10. The following year the same team traveled to the 2007 World Championships in Glasgow. 

These were no leisurely trips, no matter where we stayed we just kept dancing. There was no time for rest, it was always about putting your best foot forward. 

We also competed in the Great British Championships, which were held in Brighton. This was the closest competition to home for us. 

With this dance school we practiced for about and hour or 2, once a week. We were a commission school so it was hard work. No slacking basically.

Later that year, 9th November I had a operation on my foot. I was 11 and had only been dancing for 4 years, I was told that I may never be able to dance again. 

I was devastated by this, but also very determined to show the doctors that they were being stupid. 

I wasn't allowed to put any weight on my foot for 4 weeks and had to be on crutches for a total of 6 weeks. 

Lets just say week 8, I was back to a new dance school and dancing. Just in time for Christmas. Nothing was going to stop me from doing something I love, DANCE!

In 2009, it was time to go solo with a big competition. WIDA (World Irish Dance Association) European and World Irish dancing Championships.

Solo dances I can still remember getting four:2nd places

                                                                      two: 3rd places

                                                                      one:4th and 5th places

Group dances: we may have kicked some butt. With the 4 hand (4 people) we can 1st. Beating a very good dance school from Ireland, with a dance we learnt a week and a half prior to the competition and we also came 2nd (I think it was) in a 8 person figure dance. Which may I say was and still is one of my favorite dances.  

Germany was a great experience there is no doubt about that and it was with some incredible people.

That same year we decided to compete in a dance competition against other styles of dance in London. We won the finals, with one crazy dance. 

We couldn't quite stop there.

2010 We competed in Britain's Got Talent as The Celtic Colleens. A glow in the dark Irish dance group of 30 girls. We made it through to the semi-finals and came 4th on our night, leaving us in the top 20 out of millions that first auditioned. When we did Britain's Got Talent we trained every day. But we also did our 4 hours a week on competition dances and still all did solo competitions. We were crazy that's for sure. Social Life went out the window. Plus I was also studying for my first year of GCSEs when this was happening. And we still did the yearly dance show. It was great fun being with all the girls, although we did hate it if one another did something wrong as that meant 50 sit ups for everyone. I remember one nights practice we did 200 sit ups in a hour as well as dance. 

The week leading up to our semi-final night was half term, we danced all day every day. We calculated dancing 40 hours in 4 and a half days, as well as travelling up to London twice that week for studio rehearsals. 

It was an amazing experience and the closest I am ever going to be to seeing outlines of a 6 pack. Ahaha. 

I can also officially say that I was signed to Simon Cowell's record Label for 6 months. 

David Hasselhoff : One of our BGT judges

The troupe unmasked

Show Time

Finally at the end of 2011, I competed at the Celtic Association Nationals, Finishing in 2nd place on my solo dance entry (beating a 30 year old,and I was the youngest competitor in the age group), 1st places in my group dance entries. 

They are my key memories and achievements for dancing. 

Me, Myself and the 'C' word!

This is my first blog entry, and I am about to tell you the biggest thing about me.

My Cancer Story.

I am going to try and remember as much as I can for you, but I was only 3 when I had to fight the battle. 
Yep, I was a 3 year old girl fighting a battle my parents didn't know if I could fight.  I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukaemia (ALL). Which is a cancer of the white blood cells. These white blood cells are meant to work together to fight infection. Normally, white blood cells develop, repair and reproduce themselves in an orderly and controlled way. 
In Leukaemia, however, the process gets out of control and the cells continue to divide in the bone marrow, but do not mature. 
These immature dividing cells fill up the bone marrow and stop it from making healthy blood cells. As the leukaemia cells are not mature, they are not work properly. This leads to a higher risk of infection. This is because, the bone marrow isn't able to make enough healthy red blood cells and platelets.
There is no know cause for this disease. 
I underwent chemotherapy for 2-3 years (can't exactly remember). 

Although there are quite a few things I can remember. 

My dad is a fire fighter and I remember the fire fighters from Haywards Heath station and other surrounding stations that knew my family, they tied 2 ropes to the front of one of the trucks and pulled it up the hill and around the town. Stopping at each pub for a rest so they could have a pint or so. I remember this happening clearly. My Granddad was also a fire fighter so he even helped pulling the truck.  
They did a lot to help raise money for treatment, not just for me, but also for other children. Four other fire fighters took their bikes over to Australia and cycled around Australia to raise money. 
The photo below shows my dad with the 4 crazy men who cycled Australia.

 

I don't just remember the good memorabilia though, I also remember the bad. Like the day I had all my hair shaved off.
 I can still close my eyes today and be able to walk the corridors to my room of the main hospital I was treated at. Remembering nurses names. Days I actually made it into school and not having a lot of hair. The amount of times I suffered from nose bleeds. Not being able to run through muddy puddles just in case I got an infection. 

About a year and a half ago I started to get really vivid flash backs, as if myself today was stood in the room with the young me watching each of these things happening. 
Obviously because I had no hair and being so young I wanted one of those pink tinsel wigs. Of which I had. 
My most not so bad flash back, was I was standing a meter behind and looking at the 4 year old me, looking out of my bedroom window, the pink tinsel wig was perched on the small windowsill. (Of course the pink wig had to be in it).

Please don't get me started with food. Even when I was on treatment anyone was to be stupid if they thought they could get between me and food.

I finished my treatment in 2001. I have yearly check ups now, the best part about those check ups,  they are still with the doctor of whom diagnosed me 17 years ago. I think of her as a family member. 

I hope that you have enjoyed reading my story. And I hope that it helps anyone who may be going through treatment. Just remember you are not alone, and you can kick cancer's arse!!

Sending Love xx

 P.S. Thank you to those who gave me a helping hand.