rivers2cross

May saw another fundraising project and adventures with the launch of the BowelBabe teddy bears. Deborah James had announced that she was on end of life care and had set up The BowelBabe Fund. I sold the teddies to support the fund and thanks to wonderful and generous support they raised around £1500. I’d known Deborah for almost 5 years, so this meant a lot to me.

I was fortunate to have met Deborah on a couple of occasions. We met in Richmond in 2017 for my book, The Record, where she told me about her life and bowel cancer to that point. It was a really enjoyable evening and apart from being fantastically Debs, she was also really kind and interested about Mum and what happened to her with bowel cancer. My lasting memory is of Deborah arriving late walking over the cobbled streets in her stunning red high heel shoes! The next time we met was at the Henley Literary Festival a year later and this photo was taken by Lauren Mahon! I can’t claim to be one of Deborah’s closest friends, but I am grateful for the friendship we had and her support for what I was doing. Tragically Deborah died in June, but not before seeing her BowelBabe Fund raise millions of pounds. My final message from Debs was a thank you for doing the BowelBabe teddies. Still very much missed by so many of us.

I had a great adventure with the BowelBabe teddies on a weekend trip to see my brother in Leeds. The idea was to try and get the teddies into a couple of Premiership football grounds, Leicester City and Leeds United. It was all a bit last minute, and I wasn’t sure of my chances post pandemic. A month earlier I had gone to Leeds United to see if I could take some photos with my Stop Bowel Cancer Teddy, but was told they couldn’t allow that with their security protocols. This time I was given the contact details of Rich Williams who presents on Leeds United TV and he very kindly put the wheels in motion and arranged it to come together. It was superb. The club and staff were very helpful and I was taken pitch side and got the perfect photos I wanted.

Leicester City was not as straight forward. I had not received a response from my request, but as I had a spare hour on the way to Leeds, I decided to just go there and try my luck. It almost ended at the security gate before it started. The security guy was really nice but said there was no way. I explained about the teddies and Deborah and he softened a little and told me I could ask in reception. Two ladies awaited me at the reception desk. As soon as I mentioned BowelBabe one of them knew all about her and was a follower on Instagram. From that moment I knew I was going to get in. With some quick phone calls and help I was once again taken pitch side to get some brilliant photos. These kind of days and the kindness and support for the fundraising make it all worth while.

I went to Guildford to see my friend Billy Liberator and his band. Paul Huggett aka Billy is also a fan of The Alarm and is a fantastic artist in his own right releasing the brilliant Companions album in 2021. He also very kindly did some backing vocals for me last year on the Fields of Dawn Friends release. The gig was at The Star and the function room was a superb setting for local artists to play. A really great gig with Billy performing a great solo acoustic set before a quite wonderful set with the band. Paul was really encouraging when I was wondering whether I could actually put a Fields of Dawn album together, which was invaluable help at the time.

My phone camera is usually quite busy in May. It’s my favourite month of the year with all the wonderful colours on display in the gardens and countryside. The last of the cold weather has gone and there is just so much colour everywhere. It all seems a long way as I type this on a cold December day, but it won’t be too long again when we get back to this kind of scenery.