Friendships

admin Bowel Cancer, Fundraising, The Record Charity Book Comments Off 30 October 2019

I tend to do a lot of posts about the people who feature in my books. These incredible people take centre stage, but let’s ease them to one side for a moment, and talk about another very important group of people who are the friends that I’ve made as a result of my fundraising. I have often talked about how one of the positive effects of the bowel cancer fundraising has been the friendships that I have made over the last seven years, and in particular since the Lives & Times book was published back in 2015.

One of the biggest group of supporters has been fans of The Alarm who I’ve followed since 1983. I have been to countless shows with a few close friends, but I made very few new friendships during those 30+ years. In more recent times when I went to gigs on my own I tended to keep to myself, which was the easy option for an incredibly shy person, and once the music starts it didn’t really matter being there alone.

Things started to change whilst I was meeting and photographing people for Lives & Times. I realised that if I was going to meet people willing to support my venture then I would need to come out of my shell to get the best out them, and of course me, to make the chapters as good as I could. This brought about a major change in me.

Once Lives & Times was published something else pretty special happened. Fans of The Alarm began to buy it in large numbers. It helped that I had managed to meet all the original members of the band for the book. People who I had probably been to many of the same gigs with over all those years, but had never spoken to, were showing me great support and extending the arm of friendship. I soon discovered that some of them had also been touched by bowel cancer losing family members, and in fact I am still being contacted by people whose lives have been affected by bowel cancer.

In spring 2016 I was going to a Beating Bowel Cancer Patient Day event in London (Beating Bowel Cancer have since merged with Bowel Cancer UK). I was given a stall to sell copies of Lives & Times. I had never done anything like this before, and realised that I might need some help on the day. I posted on The Alarm’s fan group on Facebook, and Tina contacted me with an offer to help. We had never met before, but she gave up her Saturday and travelled from Cambridge to London to help me. The event went really well and we got on great selling lots of books at the same time, and now over three years on I am firm friends with Tina and her husband Mike, whose mum died of bowel cancer.

When I went to The Gathering in Llandudno to see The Alarm in 2017 I had to take a whole load of books for fans who had ordered from me in the lead up to the weekend. There was to be no hiding place for me even if I had wanted to remain in the shadows. Once again Tina came to the fore as when I arrived for the weekend she introduced me to many of the people who up until that point I’d only really been in touch with on social media. It might not seem much, but it made me feel so much more relaxed, and something I won’t forget. The Alarm community is quite special welcoming everyone, and making you feel part of the family.

My new friendships with fellow fans of The Alarm has been a big game changer for me, and I can’t believe I missed out for so many year. I can now go and see The Alarm and always know lots of people and enjoy catching up. It certainly beats being there and hanging out on your own! I’ve also been to New York a couple of times to see the band, and I am continuing to meet new friends all the time. Life-changing would be pretty apt, and one of the big positives to come out of the awful disease that is bowel cancer.

The amazing support from my Alarm friends has continued. They have been buying Stop Bowel Cancer Teddy Bears in large numbers and more recently have been buying Poodolph and #14 Reindeer, which are raised funds for the Bowel Cancer UK and Love Hope Strength charities respectively.

Please click here to buy a reindeer…

The Record has already raised over £800 for Bowel Cancer UK. The Alarm feature once again, and this time I met James Stevenson, Jules Peters and Smiley from the band, and they were all very supportive. The three chapters are quite different to each other, it was fascinating. Once again the support from fans of The Alarm has been pheonominal.