rivers2cross

As bowel cancer awareness month draws to a close I thought I would write down my own personal reflections. I’m certainly in a very different place to where I was this time last year, although perhaps just how different I wasn’t aware of at the time. As this month began I had no plans to do any specific fundraising, mainly because I have recently been hard at the fundraising with campaigns supporting Monique Buckingham and the recently deceased Laura Kendrick. However, on the spur of the moment I decided to turn 4 lines of lyrics about checking poo into a two and a half minutes full on song. Of course there had to be a video to accompany it , so I asked for poo photos and I got some great pictures sent through. Thank you to everyone who supported the video x Tonight I have donated £23.75 from the downloads of the track to Bowel Cancer UK. Perhaps not the biggest amount in the world, but the aim of the song was to raise awareness about blood in your poo, one of the symptoms of bowel cancer, and to that end I think the song has achieved what it set out to do.

I also wanted to say a massive well done to so many amazing people in the bowel cancer community who have worked tirelessly during April to raise awareness about bowel cancer and raise funds for cancer charities. This year more than ever I have had my eyes open to what others have been doing, and the quality of posts and originality has been off the scale. Many of the people doing this are people with advanced bowel cancer and going through daily struggles that few of us can totally comprehend.

Mum was diagnosed with bowel cancer 10 years ago at Easter. My connection with fundraising and raising awareness began a few months later after Mum’s bowel operation when I published my first book called Beating Bowel Cancer. It was at that point that I began to make connections in the bowel cancer community. The support for that book was amazing, but I hadn’t realised that it would bring so many people into my life and as a result mean that I am still here 10 years later continuing to meet and make so many wonderful friendships. It really has been life-changing, and something amazing to come out of Mum’s bowel cancer and sadly losing her in 2016.

There really are too many people to mention. As a result of two further books and numerous fundraising projects I’ve made countless wonderful friendships. I think the last 12 months has seen more change for me certainly personally. I had been wondering if I had reached the end of the road with the fundraising, although I think much of that was down to my depression and anxiety. In recent times I have rediscovered my enthusiasm for the fundraising and raising awareness, and much of this is down to the support of the bowel cancer community, and especially the new friendships that I have struck up over the last 12 months. The support of the bowel cancer has meant more to me over the last few months than you will probably ever know x

The bowel cancer fundraising even led to a massive change in my relationship with fans of my favourite band The Alarm, who from nowhere supported my fundraising and pulled me out of the shadows where I had been hiding for many years. I now have many many friends from that community and have even travelled twice to New York to see the band.

Sadly there are people who I have got to know that are longer here as a result of this awful illness, and these people have also left a profound mark on me. Too many lives are still being lost to this awful disease. The fact that bowel cancer is very treatable if caught early, yet it remains the second highest cancer killer in the UK with 45 lives every single day! This shows how much more still needs to be done. Too many people are getting diagnosed at the advanced stage 4 where survival rates are considerably lower. Younger people especially are getting diagnosed far too late and this perception that bowel cancer only affects older people is so far off the mark. You are never too young to get bowel cancer!

Like many people in this community I will continue to raise awareness over the next 12 months. I hope that everyone stays safe. My hope over the next 12 months is to meet so many of the amazing bowel cancer community that I am now connected with on social media. So if anyone out there reading this wants to meet up, please get in touch x