rivers2cross

Until I began fundraising back in 2012, I had a small close knit circle of friends. Being quite a shy person I always found meeting people a little daunting and making new friendships, as a result, wasn’t easy. However, when I started to sell my first book Beating Bowel Cancer I began, slowly but surely, to make new friendships. It might also seem a bit strange that I then chose to write two books on people, which involved meeting and interviewing celebrities as well as people connected to cancer and the wider cancer community at large. I knew that to get the best out of these wonderfully kind people, who were giving up their time to meet me, that I would have to come out of my shell and engage fully. This turned out to be a massive game changer for me, and perhaps one of the single most biggest and positive changes in my adult life.

What followed was not just building some lovely friendships with the people involved in both Lives & Times and The Record, but also the many friendships I have built over the years through people who I have got to know through raising awareness about bowel cancer and those generous folk who have support my numerous fundraising ventures. Going back 5 or 6 years I could go and watch my favourite band, The Alarm, and barely know anyone and hide in the shadows. The fan’s support for my fundraising has been unbelievable, but more importantly the arm of friendship shown to me has been beyond heart-warming! These days I have really good friends all over the UK and across the world. I went to New York twice to see The Alarm and as soon as I got there it felt like home from home.

It’s not all been plain sailing though. The last couple of years were especially tough for me. I think having dived into writing The Record so soon after mum died was a good way for me to cope with the loss and cathartic too, but at the same time I probably didn’t allow myself time to grieve. The book took three years to complete and I think once the book was published in 2019, all of a sudden the crutch that I had been using was no longer there and it took me to quite a low place, and I felt very disconnected. I was close to stopping fundraising altogether last year.

Ultimately what has helped me get through this period have been the friendships both old and new ones. I think the quote on the image is absolutely perfect, and I feel truly blessed to have so many friends who have been there for me. It may be that people reading this might not feel that they have done anything special for me, but trust me the huge amount of kindness, love and support, that I have had from too many people to mention, means the absolute world to me. There are so many of you who I hope to get the chance to meet in person one day. I try to be a good friend myself and hope that it isn’t all one way traffic x

I just wanted to write something about this today. Thank you for reading my ramblings. Until tomorrow x