rivers2cross

I found out recently that I have been nominated in the Fundraiser of the Year category in the 2019 Pride of Reading Awards. This came as a complete surprise and out of the blue. There is a really nice article about the nomination, my mum, her bowel cancer, and my fundraising that you can read on the Get Reading website which you can read by clicking here.

If you read the article you will see that I have been nominated by a couple of people, one of which is my lovely friend Debbie Meredith. She is married to Howard, one of my oldest friends from school, and I was best man at their wedding back in 1995, and I am godfather to their now not so young children Rebecca and Charlotte. A few months ago I found out that Debbie has been diagnosed with bowel cancer. She has recently undergone a course of chemotherapy and radiotherapy, and all things being equal will have an operation in the next couple of months to remove the tumour. This brings home once again how this awful disease does not discriminate and can affect any of us. I know that I post time and time again about my fundraising on social media, and as well as raising vital funds for Bowel Cancer UK there is also the equally vital part of raising awareness about bowel cancer. I make no apologies for continuing to do this, but most importantly my thoughts are with Debbie and Howard at this time.

I have to admit that the article gives me some welcome publicity too, which can only help especially with promoting my recently published book The Record. Getting any sort of publicity has been very tough since the book was published, so this has come at a good time. The awards are being held in November, and I think that I will be attending the ceremony in Reading. I’ll post more details about that as and when I get them.