Meeting Rick Witter From Shed Seven for Bowel Cancer Charity Book

Another great chapter for the bowel cancer fundraising book I am putting together, as yesterday I went to meet Rick Witter, lead singer with Shed Seven, before the band's sold out gig at the Northampton Roadmender. 

I'd made contact with Rick a few months ago, and the Northampton gig was the perfect opportunity to meet up. I thought I'd committed a schoolboy error as the date clashed with the England v Belgium World Cup match, but instead of having a support band, the game was shown on big screens in the venue. 

The gig was utterly brilliant, which more than made up for the football score. As you can see Rick was a great sport wearing the bowel cancer tie to help raise awareness about this awful disease. My mum died from bowel cancer in 2016, and all proceeds raised from the forthcoming book will be donated to Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK. The book will be called, The Record, and everyone in it is revealing the first record that they bought to me. And Rick's first record is a belter! For each chapter I write up about the experience, and Rick was a really top man, and probably the coolest person I've met on my adventure so far. The book will hopefully be published next year.

Meeting Richard & Sarah Haugh

I met two of the nicest people tonight for the forthcoming fundraising book, The Record. Richard and Sarah Haugh kindly agreed to be part of it, and it's taken a while to meet up as they live in Scotland. Before moving there they were based in Sonning Common just outside Reading, so we grabbed the opportunity to meet up whilst they were down visiting Richard's parents.  We went to The Crown at Playhatch, and it was a perfect place to enjoy a cool drink outside at the end of the hottest day of the year so far.

Richard has had bowel cancer, and his cancer was confirmed after being screened for bowel cancer when he turned 50. The screening age in Scotland is 50, whereas in England, Wales & Northern Ireland it is still 60. They have been involved in the campaign to get the screening age lowered to 50, which could save around 4,000 lives a year. Until fairly recently Sarah has worked tirelessly as a volunteer on the Beating Bowel Cancer chat forums - not to mention being a wife and mother, and caring for Richard during his illness. Their story is fascinating, and I am so very thankful to them for sharing it with me to put it in the book. They were great company, and I had a lot of fun with them tonight.

All proceeds raised by sales of the new book will be donated to Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK in memory of my mum who passed away in 2016

The Alarm - The Band & The Fans Supporting My Bowel Cancer Fundraising

When I started putting together the Lives & Times bowel cancer fundraising book, one of my big ambitions was to meet and photograph all four original members of The Alarm. However, little did I realise that  this would be just the beginning, and what followed would have a huge impact on me.

One of the first people I contacted when I started the book was Eddie Macdonald, and I managed to photograph Eddie and Nigel Twist together in London. Eddie has been a tremendous supporter, and he got Nigel on board, when Nige was in the UK on a rare trip over from the US, where he now lives. Jules Peters was instrumental in sorting out a photograph with Mike Peters. This took place at Abbey Road studios when I was truly honoured to be part of The Scriptures - the world's longest song. Finally just when I was beginning to think it wasn't going to happen, I met and photographed Dave Sharp in Winchester. I got to see him soundcheck before his gig, and that was observing a real master craftsman, and he was really nice when we sat down for a chat. As well as the original band, along the way the current line-up also got snapped at Abbey Road. In fact Steve 'Smiley' Barnard popped up twice in the book, as he also features in the chapter on From The Jam.

New York, May 2018

The good news is that I have already met and photographed 'Smiley' and James from the current line-for the next book, The Record, which is well under way. This will also hopefully feature Jules Peters, now also a regular in the current group. She has recently been treated for breast cancer, and her story is a huge inspiration for many. I recently also met Gareth Jones (Gaz Top) for the new book before the band's recent London gig, so it will have plenty of Alarm in it too. Who knows what else could happen before the book is published. In the meantime you can still buy Lives & Times from my ETSY online store. 

Alarm fans with Lives & Times

I've followed The Alarm since 1983 when I heard The Stand on John  Peel - never has a record made such an impact on me. Until I started my fundraising I had followed the band with a few close friends, and had kept myself pretty much to myself. In fact during my first 33 years I barely met more than a handful of fellow fans. My mum's illness, and the subsequent fundraising has changed all that. The friendship, and amazing support for my books and t-shirts, from fans has been utterly amazing. I have lost count of the amount of books they have bought so far, and some of these have lost people to bowel cancer too. When I went to a bowel cancer patient event in London in 2016, I was joined by fellow fan Tina Atkins to help me sell the book there. We'd never met, but she very kindly agreed to come and help. That has been the start of a great friendship, and the friendships have kept on coming thick and fast ever since. I can't believe why it took me so long to come out of my shell. At The Gathering in 2017 I seemed to spend as much time selling books as anything else - it was quite astonishing. I can now go the gigs and know plenty of people, which makes each gig so much better and fulfilling. I recently went to see the band in New York, which was an amazing experience making many new friendships there. Every single person who has supported me, has helped take the fundraising past £4000 so far. I thank you all 💓

The Alarm - New album Equals out on June 29th

Bowel cancer is the second biggest cancer killer in the UK taking 16,000 lives each year. If detected early it can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases. The key thing is to increase awareness, and improve early detection rates. At the moment on 15% of patients are diagnosed at early stage 1. All the funds that I raise are donated to Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK. These two charities joined together at the beginning of the year to become the UK's leading bowel cancer charity. My mum passed away from bowel cancer in 2016, and as well as fundraising I am helping to raise awareness about this awful disease, and hopefully by the year 2050 no-one will die of bowel of bowel cancer.

Bowel Cancer Skydive Countdown

It's now less than four weeks until I do the charity tandem skydive to raise funds for Bowel Cancer UK. The support so far has been absolutely incredible, currently standing at £1300. I can't thank everyone enough, and it would be fantastic to get this figure even higher. Sponsoring me is very quick, and easy at my justgiving page. 

I've made no secret at my fear of heights, I am absolutely petrified. On my recent trip to New York I went up The Empire State Building. It was one of the most scary things I've ever done, but one little bit of training for the jump. Don't be fooled by the smile in the photo I was hanging on for dear life!

Mum passed away in 2016 after living with bowel cancer for four and a half years. This jump is being done in her memory raising vital funds for Bowel Cancer UK, and also to raise awareness about this awful disease, which is the second highest cancer killer in the UK. However, if detected early, it can be successfully treated in 93% of cases. The problem is that only 15% of patients are diagnosed at the early stage 1, so much more work needs to be done to improve this.

Set the date. Saturday July 14th. Tim's charity bowel cancer skydive!

Meeting Jacquie Beltrao at Sky HQ

The latest meeting for the new bowel cancer fundraising book was with Jacquie Beltrao, who is a sports presenter on Sky News. We met at the state of the art Sky Central building in Isleworth, which was mightily impressive. Jacquie has worked at Sky since 1992, and it was fascinating talking to her about all kinds of things. She was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of 2013, and thankfully has come through that, but of course she still has regular scans. I was very grateful for Jacquie's support, and I know she spends a lot of time working with breast cancer charities. I have to say that Jacquie's first record is an absolute belter! This will be a great chapter to write up.

The new book, called The Record, will hopefully be published within the next 12 months. I am raising funds for Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK in memory of my mum who passed away in 2016 from bowel cancer after being diagnosed in 2012. Bowel cancer is the second highest cancer killer in the UK, but if detected at an early stage it can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases. Unfortunately at the moment just 15% of diagnosed cases are caught early, so raising awareness is vital. The new book will be available on my www.bowelcancerfundraising.co.uk website, which has raised over £4000 so far. And next up for me in terms of fundraising is my charity tandem skydive in July.

Catching Up With TV Smith at SUB89 in Reading

I met and photographed TV Smith, one of the original punks and former front man of The Adverts, for the Lives & Times bowel cancer fundraising book four years ago in April 2014 when he played at the Rising Arts Centre in Reading. It was an amazing gig in an intimate setting, and on the back of that I have bought a few of his albums. 

I managed to have a short chat with TV before he came on stage. He is always very accessible to his audience, as he hangs around the merchandise before and after his performances. It's always nice to meet up again with people from the book and update them, so I was able to thank him for his support, and tell him how it has raised over £4000 so far. When I met TV in 2014 mum, at that stage, was in remission from bowel cancer. She was diagnosed in 2012, and passed away peacefully on August 29th 2016. All my fundraising for Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK is done in her memory.

TV was supporting The Skids at SUB89 in Reading, and I wondered what the experience would be like seeing him in a larger venue as a support act. He was superb! How one man can get so much out of an acoustic guitar I do now know. TV played songs from his days with The Adverts right up to a couple of new songs. For the last part of his set he was joined by Leigh Heggarty of The Ruts, and it just went up that extra notch. If you ever get the chance to see TV live I'd highly recommend it - a terrific evening. And after all that The Skids played a blinding set too! I had hoped to meet Richard Jobson and get him for the new book, but sadly all my efforts were in vain.

Time To Focus on The New Book

I am going to spend the next few months focussing, and putting my efforts into getting the new book finished. It's been an incredible year so far, and the support I've been getting for my fundraising has been phenomenal. However, I think I have been pushing the fundraising pretty hard, possibly a little too hard at times, and I don't want to risk losing the goodwill of everyone. It's something that I have been thinking about for a while. The new book is hopefully going to be near completion towards the end of the year, and I would like people to look forward to it, rather any feeling of obligation... So the time has come to prioritize the book, and give you generous souls a bit of a break. 

Everything I am selling to raise funds for Beating Bowel Cancer / Bowel Cancer UK will remain available on the www.bowelcancerfundraising.co.uk website, which thanks to all the wonderful support has raised over £4000 so far. 

The new book, The Record, has been making steady progress, and the challenge now is to try and tie down the remaining people, who have said yes to being in it, to a date for meeting up. This is of course, not just a challenge, but also very much part of the story. So over the coming months the updates will focus on what is happening with the book. I am still determined not to put myself under any time constraints, and to continue to enjoy the whole experience. So although I am hoping it will be finished around the end of the year, this is no by no means set in stone.

However, there is one exception to the rule... On July 14th I am doing the charity tandem skydive, and I will continue to ask for sponsorship for this. The support for this terrifying adventure has been unbelievable with £1280 donated so far on my justgiving page. So please excuse me for posts on this over the next 6 weeks or so...