rivers2cross

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Cricket features in my bowel cancer fundraising book The Record with four terrific people taking part.

Mike Selvey the former England Test bowler, who went on to become cricket correspondent with The Guardian, and provided expert analysis on Test Match Special for many years. We met close to Milton Keynes, and he was fascinating to talk to and had so many wonderful stories to tell.

I met George Dobell in the press box at Edgbaston on a very chilly day at the start of the 2017 cricket season. He is the senior cricket correspondent at ESPNcricinfo, and covers the England side all over the world. He was ever so helpful, and I even discovered that he was a fan of The Alarm in his younger days. I then met him again at The Ashes Headingley Test last summer to give him his copy of the book.

I met Test Match Special commentator Daniel Norcross in Tooting in late 2016. He had just broken through into the commentary box, and he was such fun and I enjoyed a couple of hours in his company. He is now a main part of the commentary box. He came up with a classic Tooting pose for the book photo.

In 2017 Natalie Germanos was in the UK from South Africa commentating on the Women’s World Cup, and she very kindly made time to meet me in Central London in a very packed schedule. I think she is one of the best cricket commentators broadcasting at present. She returned to the UK to commentate on the Men’s World Cup in 2019, and we met up at Lords to giver her a copy of The Record.

All four told me the first record that they bought – in George’s case it was more than one!

I began work on The Record shortly after my mum’s death in 2016. She died of bowel cancer, and the book is dedicated to her memory. All proceeds raised from sales are donated to Bowel Cancer UK. The book is available as a paperback, hardback and eBook and click here to see all the ways to buy the book.

Bowel cancer claims 16,000 lives in the UK, and is the second biggest cancer killer. However if caught early at stage 1 it is very treatable, and the five year survival rate is over 90%. When detected at the late stage 4 the five year survival rate drops dramatically to 7%. This shows how crucial early diagnosis is to getting a better outcome. Knowing the symptoms is so important.