Yippeee I am not cured, gin and tonic and white burgundy never tasted so good!

Thank you very much for your support over the last 6 weeks, you've made it easier than I ever dared hope at the beginning and I've appreciated your emails and texts of encouragement.
Together we've boosted LLR year-end by £5147 and you know it will be invested in the very best UK research, we will beat blood cancers thanks to you.
Have a lovely Easter and thank you again, I'm very touched by your support,
Love Cathy

 

ONE DAY TO GO!!!!....and ironically yesterday was the closest I've got to giving up thanks to end of the world type weather in Berwick! I arrived to a horrendous storm with horizontal rain and wind that was off any scale, gale force or not...mixed with a bit of snow just for fun.I met our wonderful North Numberland Fundraising Group who are inspired by leukaemia survivor Helen Tait and then Helen and I went to Berwick High School, where I presented Duke of Edinburgh Awards to about 30 children. A wonderful couple, Elliot and Pam Hill selflessly give of their time to help young people through the Award and over the years have put thousands of people through successfully, it was a privilege and another reminder that the youth of today are not what the press would have you believe. This year's D of E candidates helped to marshall our Forget me Not Walk on Holy Island (Sign up for September 26 2010) and raised nearly £2,000. Inspiring evening but sadly affected by the weather as several families couldn't get to the school because of snow, rain and new-born lambs. I stayed at 8 The Walls, where Suzanne Deighton creates truly a sanctuary in a storm, wonderful place to stay, in spite of incredibly good value I didn't avail myself of the honesty bar. Over breakfast (local smoked haddock yum!) I chatted to Suzanne's husband, whose mum sadly died from leukaemia, hopefully recruited a new member for the fundraising group. And then the day went down hill. Clear from the news that there were major transport problems, no trains going North at all due to landslides, however after I arrived at the station (still gale force winds), it was announced that there were landslides South of the station too! All credit to North East trains who organised a bus to Alnmouth (unbelievable flooding on the way) and then a shuttle to Newcastle, 45 minute journey took 3 hours! Waited at the station for my 12 year-old niece Katy, managed to resist a large glass of red wine, but Starbucks had run out of Earl Grey Tea! Great journey to Derby reading Sugar and Bliss, brought bang up to date on Disney Channel presenters and other important business, very happy to be picked up by Dad and taken to a welcomingly cosy Holbrook. Drank tonic and lime while thrashing Katy and Dad at Sorry-a treasured board game owned by my Granny. Bottles of Madeira from parents' recent holiday lie temptingly in wait for Friday,not long to go!!

Day 39 08.08 : Met Greg from the Olympics on Monday(running London & New York Marathon for LLR), with such a creative entrepreneur involved with the Games, 2012 will be amazing, inspired me to have lots of new ideas. Decided not to go on holiday and earn fortune renting home as holiday let during Olympics, think it's a once in a lifetime opportunity not to be missed. Had two sharp reminders of the need for research this week. 1:Attended a reception on Tuesday at Downing Street hosted by Sarah Brown and Andy Burnham, perfectly pleasant but clearly thinly disguised electioneering. Met Eastenders' actress Wendy Richards' husband, lovely man who has been raising money since Wendy died from breast cancer last year, also met John Hartson, footballer, who ignored a testicular lump for 4 years, the cancer spread to his brain and he has had five operations in an attempt to beat it. The reception felt a bit self congratulatory for my taste, focusing on the success of the charity Chief Executives rather than the organisations that they represent-however good choice of soft drinks, I enjoyed my elderflower cordial! 2:On Day 3 of my Marathon I visited the founder member of our Barnet Branch,  just 34 days later she finally lost a very brave battle with lung cancer. Rene set up the Branch in 1969 following the death of her daughter Pat to leukaemia and has been an inspiration to us all. Our comfort is that she fervently believed that she would be going to a better place and I am sure that she will be there with Pat, we will never forget her. Her legacy will be in the lives that continue to be saved thanks to her fundraising efforts. It's hard to believe that 39 days have gone quite so quickly, the messages referring to Easter right at the beginning made it seem so far away and now on Friday I will be with my family in Derbyshire sooooooooenjoying that first glass, as I said at the beginning, no alcohol is not a lifestyle choice for me, but at least I know I can enjoy life without it!....5 days to go!

Day 32 08.00: Very busy week with 50th Anniversary Celebrations hotting up, suddenly find myself at day 32 and can't understand where that week went! Swimming disrupted this week by man in micro speedos swimming butterfly, will start international campaign to ban speedos on men, made me feel quite queasy at 6.30am. Event of the week was the British Antique Dealers' Association Gala Reception hosted by Lord Cadogan, amazing exhibition of beautiful antiques and art, including a Lowry owned by Kenny Everett! Lovely dinner which felt like a very good family wedding with Alastair Campbell (Father of the Bride!) as the warm up act for auctioneer Jeffrey Archer. As ever, a great speech from Alastair highlighting just how many people in the room had been personally affected by blood cancers including Lord Cadogan, Chris Corbin, The Calendar Girls, Lindsay Nicholson,Erika Burnett and a very special guest Nic Fiddian Green. Nic and his wife Henri donated the beautiful maquette for the statue of a horse's head at Marble Arch. This is what Nic said "''This is the Maquette for the monument that stands at Marble Arch.  This piece was modeled in plastercine (being the only material the doctors would allow me to work in) whilst under going my first wave of intense chemotherapy treatment. It was made from my bed in the Budd Flanagan Ward in the Royal Marsden in Sutton, my only view was facing north over the Leukaemia Research building, where my cure was made.  I was commissioned to make the 30ft Horse at Water by Sir Anthony and Lady Bamford for Daylesford, just before being diagnosed with AML.  It was probably one of my most important commissions, and the piece gave me great hope while struggling with my illness.  I felt this was very appropriate to give to tonight's auction'" The statue was purchased for £11,000! It is such a privilege to meet someone like Nic, full of courage, modesty and kindness and Henri who is so passionate about our cause. Funny thing happened yesterday, had a meeting with Ken Lomas and Frank Renton the geniuses behind our Christmas Carol Concert, to prepare for 2010 (not to be missed by the way!), then took them both for a thank you lunch. The restaurant that we went to didn't have a licence so they gave Frank and Ken 2 bottles of wine for free, ironically my ginger beer cost more than their alcohol! LLR team all now visiting said restaurant for a bowl of soup with a bottle of wine!......oh how I look forward to a chilled glass of a lovely provencale blush rose in the garden....only 12 days to go!!

Day 25 18.12: That time of the week when I miss alcohol the most, watching Songs of Praise. Sang heartily to Love Divine all Loves Excelling, don't think husband and Maisie & Mouse (pet rats) enjoyed it as much as I did! That was one of our wedding hymns and it's also been chosen for LLR Service of Thanksgiving for our 50th Anniversary on June 29th at St Lukes, beautiful church and wonderful Vicar, Brian Leathard. You know he's a proper vicar when he suggests Pimms instead of tea! Very busy week meant that I did not mark the HALF WAY POINT on Thursday or the fact that my total, with Gift Aid, is now more than £5,000, I'm very touched by everyone's generosity and encouragement. LLR needs the money more than ever as yesterday at our Board of Trustees' Meeting we decided to invest £2 million in one of our most ambitious projects to date, to get more patients in to Clinical Trials....18 days to go!

Day 19 22.48: 1250 metre swim today,deep excitement that it was almost light as I left home at 6am, but freezing! Couldn't get warm all day after swim, read in Sunday Times that for "regular" drinkers, the liver converts alcohol to heat rather than fat, thinking of launching eco friendly campaign of switching off all radiators and having a bottle of wine instead...that should raise eyebrows at the Board of Trustees meeting on Saturday!....24 days to go!

Day 16,17,18 22.43: Received e-newsletter from wildlife centre where I volunteered to microchip watervoles, clean out harvest mice and do blind date with dormice, have a vacancy for a water vole keeper, my second grand passion after LLR. Sadly calculated that £11k salary would not pay for commute to Canterbury. Consoled myself with trip to British Wildlife Centre in Godstone, beautiful day, first people in so saw red squirrels, stoats, weasels, otters, water vole, bank vole and harvest mice, life doesn't get better than that with or without alcohol.....Discovered delights of Pentemans Ginger Beer mixed with bitter lemon, thank you Waitrose......25 days to go!

Day 15 Cathy Gilman House 7.45: Lovely day yesterday. Press launch and photo shoot with Beefy and the 10 children who are the mascots for the cities on Beefy's walk in April. The children and their families are an inspiration, for example little Maisie who had vincristine in the morning but still joined Beefy, Jack from Birmingham who is planning to visit researchers so that he can see his leukaemia through a microscope and action hero Ian to name but 3 very special children. Delighted to see Grace aged 5 who we first met on our EuroDisney trip, she looks like she's at least a foot taller since September, she's coming to the end of her treatment and her mum was explaining how that's almost more frightening than the treatment. Grace has her own special film http://animoto.com/play/f4kMdFZETDyfOhjbzi9osg. Beefy as always was fantastic with the kids and an inspiration to the parents, who made sure they got autographs and photos of a very special day. Sign up for Beefy's walk www.beefy25.com. I didn't miss a glass of wine at the Cumberland (who kindly supported the launch) after the launch at all!!.....28 days to go!

Day 14 Cathy Gilman House 8.27: Two days of swimming completed, 1000 metres yesterday to get me going, 1250 today. Good (and bad) thing about swimming is it gives you lots of time to think, this morning wondered if I am strangely morphing in to Alastair Campbell who gave up alcohol and took up fitness in his mid-forties...No addiction to chocolate or writing novels yet, but have considered telling some people to F*** Off of late!.....29 days to go!

Day 13 Cathy Gilman House 08.09: Postponed start of swimming yesterday when I realised that I was out for dinner, always been a lark, certainly can't do lark and owl. Had dinner with Euro RSCG Life to say thank you for the great work they conducted on our name change. The effort they took in really understanding the charity and the rigour of the research conducted has helped us to give our supporters a name that better communicates the scope of our work in blood cancers, this supported by a strategy to target and support patients better will help us to meet the huge amount of money needed over the next 5 years-at least £120,000,000!! Enjoyed my mango and blackberry juice-ish, and inhaled the chablis fumes when no-one was looking!!...Is that cheating?!...30 days to go!

Days 10, 11, 12 Cathy Gilman House 15.57: Discovered catching up with work at home on Friday was cure for sleepless nights! Now have to think of another excuse why alcohol critical for my health..I'm sure that won't be hard, I can be very creative when necessary. Tried M&S soft brew, " a soft drink brewed in a brewery" malt, hops with alcohol replaced by blackcurrant...I know it sounds disgusting...well it was! Drink of choice definitely cocktail of M&S still lemonade with lime & lemon sparkling water- work equally well with a slug of gin in 31 days time. Next phase of Lent plan kicks in tomorrow, 1000 metre swim before work every day, general sinking, splashing etc will remove need for liquid refreshment of any kind during the day....31 days to go

Day 9 Cathy Gilman House 6.55: Exciting day yesterday, saw first draft of new ad campaign created by "Heavenly", great to work with people who take such care to get to really understand the charity they are working with- even though most of the hour was spent making provocative comments about alcohol! I rose above them and scoffed most of their chocolate biscuits due to permanent state of hunger, that'll teach them...34 days to go

Day 8 Cathy Gilman House 18.40: Good news! 190 Queensgate serves great non-alcoholic cocktails, bad news! they cost £8.50, I reckon £1 for the juice and £2.50 each for the raspberry, blackberry and strawberry! Went to see Cinderella on Ice at the Royal Albert Hall and had the chance to meet the acting CEO. The Royal Albert Hall have generously donated their charity free let to The Night of 1000 Voices on May 2nd, which means we have the opportunity to raise even more money, thanks to Producer, Director and all round genius Hugh Wooldridge. The CEO is flying down from a friend's birthday party in Glasgow just to be there, so make sure you are too, it's one of our biggest Birthday celebrations http://www.royalalberthall.com/tickets/night-of-1000-voices/default.aspx , can't wait! ...35 days to go

Day 7 Cathy Gilman House 18.00: Yay, first week over! Am I feeling better for no alcohol? Honestly? No! I have discovered that I do not have a chemical addiction to alcohol, I just like the taste and all non-alcoholic drinks are pretty disappointing in comparison! I also have recognised that a glass of wine is a symbolic  distinction between work and relaxation, so not only am I not relaxing I'm not sleeping either! Also due to dramatic reduction in calorific intake I am ravenously hungry all of the time! Professor Charlie Craddock is so right, red wine is soooo good for you!...36 days to go!

Day 6 Cathy Gilman House  10.15: Went to see Beth Neilsen Chapman at Cadogan Hall last night, first time I've had cranberry juice pre-show-it won't become a lifestyle choice ! Bumped in to generous sponsor Maggie Rodford who was integral to the success of leukaemia survivor Patrick Doyle's concert at the Royal Albert Hall in 2007- one of the highlights of my life so far. Beth did stunning rendition of " I Find Your Love " from the Calendar Girls film and mentioned Pat and her performance at the concert, still can't get through the song without thinking of Angela Baker and shedding several tears! How lucky am I to have worked with these people?...37 days to go!

Day 5 Cathy Gilman House 16.01: Kindly allowed other team (s) to beat us last night, would have been impolite to win (ahem). In anticipation of Sunday roast, craving glass of red but divine intervention- received Facebook message from Erika Burnett with link to short film about their son Jack who is going through treatment for leukaemia. Reminded me again why I'm doing this and what a truly amazing family they are, take a look at the film and you will see why http://animoto.com/play/7iPKgEECtzPWc6wUPA7zBw?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=share&utm_campaign=one_click_share ...38  days to go

Day 4 Cathy Gilman House 8.56: Richmond & Twickenham Branch quiz night tonight, always used dimming of brain from red wine as excuse for not being able to answer questions (saw this verified on favourite programme "Embarrassing Bodies" last night), not sure lemon squash carries same weight as excuse? Fellow directors and other members of LLR team will be present, amount of wine consumed by them will be inversely proportional to score on performance/potential matrix for salary review tee hee....39 days to go

Day 3 Cathy Gilman House 7.46: Sad day in CG House today, I am visiting one of our most longstanding supporters of Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research who is in the late stages of cancer. Giving up alcohol is such a small price to pay, if the money raised helps just one person not to suffer like this....40 days to go.

Day 2 Cathy Gilman House 7.00: All not so quiet in CG House, husband who agreed to support campaign by not drinking now says he will support campaign by not purchasing alcohol during campaign-those of us who know him well think "no change there", Darren "mine's the last round " Beadle. Predict he discovers liking for Jack Daniels, we have a crate given to us as a gift some time ago and neither of us, to date, like it! He also finished off my Rock's Organic lemon juice......41 days to go

Day 1 Cathy Gilman House 21.28: All is quiet in the CG House, in spite of desire to kill husband who agreed to support campaign by not drinking- arrived home at 20.00 to find him polishing off last of sherry. Speak to sister-in law who thinks sherry is an "old lady" drink...well she is from Hull..I am Captain of a ship of fools..only 42 days to go!

You can have your life mapped out and then something happens that you could never have imagined and strangely your life is a mix of so much better and so much worse all at the same time.When my 8-year-old cousin Rob died from leukaemia in 1999, it seemed that really had to be the worst that life had to offer and yet just a few years later my cousin Zoe died from lymphoma having refused treatment while she was pregnant.

I had to do something about it, so I joined Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research as a volunteer in 1999. From that day my life became very different but so much better- I certainly never imagined that I would become Chief Executive!

I am in awe of the wonderful people that I've met since then and I believe that I am the luckiest person in the world to be head of this amazing charity. Why is it amazing? Well thanks solely to the voluntary support of people throughout the UK, we are delivering results.Since Rob died in 1999, survival rates for children with the most common form of leukaemia have risen by 10%-we now MUST achieve the same for adults.

I'm not a cyclist or a marathon runner, so my own personal Ironman is to give up alcohol for Lent, from February 17th to April 1st I will be alcohol free...close friends will appreciate the challenge this presents!

Times are hard, but perhaps you would be kind enough to buy me a "virtual" glass or bottle of one of my favourite tipples-so please sponsor me:

A glass of Davy's White Burgundy        £6.50

A Bottle of M&S Macon Uchizy             £8.99

A One Aldwych Cosmopolitan              £10.50

A Bottle of Vats Wine bar St Veran      £24.00

If you can afford more I can assure that you more money means more lives saved.

Thank you for your support and please don't forget to gift aid your donation if you are a UK tax payer,

Cathy Gilman

Chief Executive Leukaemia & Lymphoma Research

P.S. Update:14/02/10 Thanks to Mr Campbell's bossiness and your kindness, I have amended my target to £2,000. Clearly there are more people that appreciate the hardship involved than I thought!!

P.P.S There's more to that Campbell bloke than meets the eye, turns out he was right, (never, ever admitted this before!) upped target to £3,000!!