Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I was diagnosed with oesophageal cancer in August 2008, and the only ray of hope we found in that first awful weekend after diagnosis was the OPA. The wonderful lady on the helpline made me realise that maybe, just maybe, I hadn't been given an automatic death sentence. And indeed I hadn't, thanks to the wonderful team at Nottingham City Hospital!

Life is very different with half your stomach and gullet gone; plenty of challenges, short and long term, but the OPA is helping me through all of them.

Two years down the line, I felt an overwhelming urge to give back to this wonderful charity. We set up a support group near us, serving much of the East Midlands. More recently, I've joined the national committee as Chairman, and as one of three spearheading our fundraising group.

We want to achieve so much:

·         to raise the profile of the help we offer, to reach more patients and carers through the helpline

·         to save lives with a vigorous awareness campaign

·         to increase the availability, spread and effectiveness of local support groups

·         to become a recognised centre for the dissemination of top quality information on all matters affecting oesophageal and gastric patients and their carers.

But we need to raise our income significantly to achieve this. We're looking to increase our income by £90,000 this year alone.

Every little donation helps. For example, we calculated once that the helpine costs about 70p a minute to run. So your donation of £10 could fund an entire conversation with a newly diagnosed patient, helping him or her find the strength and positivity to be able to start on his or her own cancer journey. Or your donation of £20 might provide enough awareness campaign posters to cover a whole town. You alone might even actually save a life with that donation if one of the posters you paid for encouraged someone to go to the doctor sooner rather than later about their persistent heartburn.