rivers2cross

This photo was taken at my parents grave this week. It’s a place that I always draw comfort from going to, and although it’s their resting place I always enjoy seeing the bulbs breaking through at this time of the year – a sign of new life and Spring not being too far away. It’s also a peaceful place where I can spend some time alone contemplating…

My fundraising began back in 2012 after mum had her operation on her bowel, which was a success at the time, and I’ve no idea what happened inside me to start raising money for bowel cancer. It’s something that I had never really done before, but here I am seven years later, and three years after mum’s death still hard at it.

I have met the most amazing and inspirational people through the fundraising. Many of them have told me their stories for my books, whilst others have become firm friends on social media. It’s an amazing community. This awful disease still takes too many people, and many of these far too young as well. In recent times there have been some real highs and lows within the bowel cancer community with pieces of good news as well as sad news. There are many thousands of people who continue to live with bowel cancer and have their own difficult struggles on a daily basis. and love and thoughts are with these people and their families especially. There are also many people in my position who have lost a loved one to bowel cancer and trying to come to terms with it. The love and support within the bowel cancer community is very special and seems to know no bounds.

I come to the subject of my motivation for fundraising. There’s no denying that I’ve found it to be very cathartic – a real positive to come out of Mum’s death. It has changed me massively – I would like to think that I am a much better person these days. Every time there is news from the bowel cancer community good or bad, it helps to reaffirm my determination to continue. I won’t deny that there have been times where I have wondered if I have taken the fundraising as far as I can, but then I think back to mum’s illness and yes she lived a long, happy and full life, but that doesn’t make her dying of this wretched disease any less painful. So I carry on, and will continue fundraising until people tell me to go away!

The Record remains a real passion for me. The book has raised £870 for Bowel Cancer UK, and my hope is for it to get to £1000 this year. In my humble opinion it is the best thing I’ve ever done, and I want it to be read by as many people as possible. The book took me over two and a half years to complete, and I put absolutely everything into it. The help and support I had from the amazing cast of people it features was quite wonderful. Famous people from sport, music, television and the media, and those quite remarkable people from the cancer community.

Self promoting is quite challenging, and it has not been easy. Spreading the word about it is difficult, and breaking the book beyond family, friends and the cancer community is almost impossible. However, at the same time this challenge is also enjoyable. Perhaps one day I will have that eureka moment and the book will become a best seller. Until that happens please click here to see all the ways that you can order a copy or simply go to the online shop here to order it.

This year I am definitely trying to get a little more balance into my life, and focus on me a little more, but of course leaving plenty of time to raise as much money as I can.