Micky/David, the reason may be similar to me last year. I will try to explain. Last November I had some very difficult to understand discussions with my RO because she wanted to cut out my third induction chemo because it would mean that my radiotherapy would start over the Xmas period when I would only get a short week of rads and she wanted me to start well before Xmas. I found this very disconcerting that I was going to get less chemo (in retrospect I would have really suffered with an extra round of TPF) and I couldn't see what the difference would be because I would still be getting rads over the holiday period, though twice a day for 2 days to make up for the public holidays. I was very suspicious that this had something to do with cuts to the health service and shortage of staff! Eventually she explained in detail, which I didn't fully understand, but the gist is that radiotherapy is most effective when given everyday. Weekends off are acceptable to allow the patient to recover, but adding in extra days off reduces the effectiveness. Therefore as in Micky's 2 days at the end, she didn't want me starting with public holidays causing big gaps at the beginning. Someone who understands the physics of radiation may be able to explain this better! Sally