5) InspirationMy original plan for this segment has been pushed to June’s newsletter by the incomparably awesome Dame Deborah James (@bowelbabe). Since being diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in 2016 she has done so much to raise awareness and destigmatise the disease. Earlier this month she announced that she has ceased active treatment and moved to hospice care at home where she will spend her remaining time surrounded by her family. Since that announcement, she has raised almost £6.5mn to fund research and treatment, been awarded a Damehood, delivered in person to her parents house by Prince William, topped the Amazon chart with pre-orders for her second book How to live when you could be dead, publication of which has been brought forward to August this year and a huge array of other amazing things. She has long said that she wants “to slide in sideways when her time is up, with a massive smile, no regrets and big glass of champagne” and here she is, a woman of her word to the last. My cancer diagnosis was forgiving and my treatment effective, but I vividly remember the weeks in 2020 between ‘you have cancer’, and ‘this is how bad it is’, and the three months after my treatment waiting for the scan which would tell me whether it had worked or not where I felt like my world had been turned upside down and it was impossible not to realise that the worst might, in fact, be possible. I am, and feel, exceptionally lucky to be writing this two years on healthy and happy. You can donate to the @bowelbabefund here and I would be overjoyed if you felt able to do so, or to support Dame Deborah’s ongoing work in any way. Thank you!
|
