rivers2cross

April is bowel cancer awareness month, and I make no apologies for upping the bowel cancer content to all my social media outlets for the next 30 days. Pretty much 10 years ago to the day Mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer. She was 76 years young and over the next four and a half years she came through everything that was thrown at her. Sadly bowel cancer spread to her brain and she died on August 29th 2016. I began fundraising and raising about bowel cancer in November 2012, and Mum lived to see many of my projects come to fruition. I have been fortunate enough to meet some of the most amazing people over the last 10 years and made some quite wonderful friendships, which is one massive positive to come out of such an awful situation.

It is so important to be aware of the symptoms of bowel cancer. Early diagnosis is key, as over 90% of patients who are diagnosed at the early stage 1 will survive for 5 years and beyond. This figure drops to less than 10% at the late stage 4. Bowel cancer is much easier to treat at the early stage. We all know our own bodies and if something doesn’t feel right then please get yourself checked out and don’t take no for an answer. Almost 43,000 people are diagnosed every year in the UK and 16,000 lives are lost each year.

This month I shall be taking my fundraising teddy bears out with me and take as many interesting photos as I can. It would be great if some of you who also have supported the bears over the last few years would join me in doing this. It’s a great way of raising awareness about bowel cancer and having some fun at the same time. I got off to a great start in Leeds starting outside Elland Road the home of Leeds United. I did to try to get inside to the pitch, but sadly I was politely declined. That didn’t stop me getting some cracking photos outside the stadium.

I then took my Stop Bowel Cancer teddy to see The Alarm in the evening. These small bears are ideal to take to places as they fit easily into a jacket pocket or bag. Many Alarm fans have supported the bears over the years and the small army of bears that travelled to New York in 2019 was quite something!

All the teddies that I took to Leeds are available in the store and you can order them by clicking the links above. All the profits raised from sales of the bears are donated to four different bowel cancer related charities. Stop Bowel Cancer teddies support Bowel Cancer UK. The Kickasskell bears raise funds for Cancer Research UK in memory of Kelly Smith. The Life of Mique teddies are raising funds for Monique Buckingham’s Go Fund Me Page to pay for treatment not available on the NHS. The Kindness Vs Cancer bears are supporting the project of the same name set up up by Laura Kendrick who died of bowel cancer just a few short weeks ago. All support is greatly appreciated.

I will keep up with my daily blog. I am sure there will be a lot of crossing over during this month, but let’s see what happens. Until tomorrow x