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2019 has been has been an amazing year. The fundraising total for the year stands at around £2000. This means that since I began fundraising in 2012 after mum had surgery for bowel cancer around £10,000 has been raised for Bowel Cancer UK (inc Beating Bowel Cancer) and over £450 has now been raised for the Love Hope Strength Foundation. None of this would be possible without the continued support of every single person who has so kindly bought something. I am truly so very grateful.
At the beginning of the year the Stop Bowel Cancer Teddy Bears were a phenomenal success, which has carried on throughout the year. I have received around 300 photos from pretty much every corner of the globe. People have taken them on their holidays and I’ve also had orders from many different countries. In April a mini army of the bears went to New York for The Alarm’s New York Gathering. This helped to reinforce the importance that a fun item can play in helping to raise awareness about bowel cancer. I am hoping that the bowel bear adventures continue in 2020 with plenty of new photos coming my way to share with you.
In the summer my third fundraising book The Record was published. It had taken me over two and a half years to complete following mum’s death in 2016, and the book is dedicated to her memory. It’s probably the best and most rewarding thing I have ever done. It was a very cathartic experience for me, and brought me into contact with so many amazing people making new friendships along the way. At the heart of the book is the bowel cancer community whose support has been fantastic. So many people have gone through / or continue to go through very difficult times, and yet were prepared to open up to me about their experiences and tell me their stories including Gina Shergold who lost her husband Steve to bowel cancer at such a young age. The foreword for the book was written by Kelly Smith – an amazing young woman with stage 4 bowel cancer who continues to inspire so many people by sharing her story and supporting others. Others include Deborah Alsina, Steve Clark, Lauren Backler, Deborah Louise James who sadly died in 2017, Deborah ‘Bowel Babe’ James, Olivia Rowlands, Greg Gilbert and Stacey Heale, Richard and Sarah Haugh, Nicole Cooper and Gillian Wood.
The Record is not just about bowel cancer though. It features chapters on many famous people from the world of sport, televsion and music including Christine Ohuruogu, Sian Lloyd, Billy Ocean, Steve Norman, Kim Wilde, The Alarm, Victoria Derbyshire and Bill Turnbull. So far the book has raised over £850 for Bowel Cancer UK. It is available in paperback, hardback and ebook and click here to see all the ways to you can buy it. My target during 2020 is to get to the magic £1000 mark and then I can finally take a step back from it.
In the final months of the year I launched two charity reindeer. Poodolph the Bowel Cancer Reindeer supporting Bowel Cancer UK, and the #14 Reindeer raising funds for Love Hope Strength. These reindeer have proved extremely popular and have raised around £660 for the two charities with the sales and amounts raised bizarrely being dead equal. The reindeer will still be available to buy from the online store throughout 2020, and of course will make a prominent return next Christmas.
As for 2020 the current plans are to move more towards events, where I can take the products directly to where people are going to be, but that all depends on whether I can suitable and practical events to go to of course. I am hoping to plan an event at my house possibly in the spring, so hopefully more news about that in the new year.
I think it’s time to scale down the amount of sales posts on social media just a little bit. I appreciate most people are more than aware of what I do by now, so I will try not to keep posting the same ‘buy my product’ posts. Having said that social media is my main route for fundraising, so I will not be stopping either. It is also perhaps time to focus a little more on myself though during 2020, and do a little bit more stuff just for me. Ultimately it’s just about tweaking the balance a little. I can’t stop fundraising and raising awareness – it’s been such a big part of my life in recent years, making so many new friendships, and massively changing me as a person, so long may that continue.
I wish everyone a very happy, healthy and peaceful 2020.
