As many of you know, I'm incredibly passionate about working for Bowel Cancer UK. They're a fantastic charity doing some amazing work to stop people dying of the disease. 

I'm lucky that I get to meet some fabulous people who have been affected by bowel cancer. Here are a few of stories that they have shared with me:

Anna: "My six year old son has a lot of questions about my
cancer: why did it happen? will it come back? can you catch it? should I be worried? Three days after all these questions he explained my diagnosis... in his words: "It's like Star Wars. You see, you had the dark side in your body, Sid. He was the death star. The doctors are the goodies and they killed the Death Star and now Sid is gone. But, mummy, the dark side has a big army, so when the Death Star was destroyed, not everyone was on it at the time, so some baddies were left around. So the doctors now need to use the force to find the baddies that are left and kill them all, keep you safe and win the war."

Deborah: "At the age of 35, I always thought that a declaration of
my name would be followed by "and an alcoholic". It surprised me too
that cancer came first! I was blindsided at 7pm on an idle Thursday before Christmas, staring an ugly 6cm tumour in the face. I found myself in 2017 Googling my expected chance of living to see 2018, whilst hugging my nine and seven-year-old and hysterically sobbing into an extra, extra large glass of wine."

Chris: “A cancer diagnosis hits everyone, it’s like dropping a bomb
and the ripples touch everyone. And the closer you are to the person
that more impact it has on you. It changes you and affects you forever. It is the worst. Unless you’ve gone through it, you just can’t explain it. It is total devastation.”

So whilst we're trekking the Pen Y Fan in the Breacon Beacons, starting at 2am, I'll be thinking of all the people I've spoken to over the my (nearly) 3 years at the charity, and I'm sure Lewis will be thinking of all the people he knows that has been affected by the disease too. 

Be part of the Bowel Cancer UK community and donate!! 

Together we can stop people dying of bowel cancer

Lots of love
Franny and Lew xx

We’re the UK’s leading bowel cancer charity.We fund targeted research, provide expert information and support to patients and their families, educate the public and professionals about the disease and campaign for early diagnosis and access to best treatment and care.We’re here to stop people dying of bowel cancer.