The final week of October 2009 started badly for me, when Nature closed its stem-cell blog The Niche - one of my favourites as it covered my field. A few days later, events took a more serious turn for the worse when - out of the blue - I was diagnosed with aggressive prostate cancer. I was 42. Blogs and blogging were suddenly the last thing on my mind. More than a year and a half later, I am in remission and doing great. The battle against the cancer was the most difficult of my life and I still worry that it may come back.«But the experience also had positive effects. For one, I still missed The Niche, and assumed that others did too. Once I recovered, I found the courage to start a replacement. After all, how hard can blogging be when compared with facing cancer? A year on, it has been a remarkable experience.
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