I have always said that the new fundraising book, The Record, will be ready when its ready, and I wouldn't be putting myself under any time pressure. So here I am setting a deadline for the end of this year... This deadline is in fact for the finishing of the meetings and photos for the book.This will still mean that the book probably won't see the light of day until next spring.
There are sensible reasons for this. The people I first met at the start of this adventure will have been waiting over two years for the book to be finished, which is quite a long time, and already quite a few chapters will need updating, so if I carry on much longer it could almost become out of date before it's published. I've also been waiting of some people who said yes to come through for me, and some have gone very quiet on me, so how long do I wait in the hope that I get to meet them? I'd love everyone to be in the book who has said yes, but I can't force people, and I want people to want to be part of it, rather than for me to hassle them into it. I think that in some cases waiting for a couple of years is long enough though, and it's time to draw a line under it.
The other thing that I need to sort out is a book cover design. This is way out of my capabilities to do myself, so I will need help with this. There are one two ideas floating around and possible offers of help, but if anyone reading this would like to get involved, then please do get in touch with me.
Regardless of who else I manage to meet before the end of the year, this book has already gone past my expectations in terms of who I've met, and I can't wait for it to be seen and read by as many people as possible.
It's been an exciting time for the bowel cancer community this month. The recent news that screening in England and Wales will be reduced from 60 to 50 is excellent news, but we now need to know when this be rolled out. And Bowel Cancer UK (Beating Bowel Cancer Together) is the new name for the charity following the merger of Beating Bowel Cancer and Bowel Cancer UK at the beginning of the year. The new brand was unveiled at the beginning of this month, and all of us connected to the charity have certainly been lifted by this.
But let's not forget that bowel cancer remains the second biggest cancer killer in the UK taking 16,000 lives each year, and much work needs to be done to get this figure down..
