We were thrown into the world of Macmillan in February 2006 when Bella first became ill with leukaemia. Unless you have been touched by Macmillan you probably have little idea of what the nurses do, or you just have a general idea. I don't know what they do for other people, but I can tell you what our Macmillan nurses did for Bella and for us. And, indeed it was nurses, plural. Bella was ill on and off for over 5 years and in that time we had 3 Macmillan nurses all specialists in paediatric oncology, each as good as their predecessor.

Bella's treatment was complicated, involving 3 hospitals in London - Great Ormond Street, Chelsea & Westminster and St George's Hospitals. Our Macmillan nurses pulled it all together, saw the whole picture and guided us when we needed it. They were also there, and had time, when I just needed to chat.

Trying to live normally when dealing with such a serious illness and for such a long period of time was extremely difficult, but our Macmillan nurses made things possible. We always had to be within an hour of a hospital with the right facilities for Bella - for routine blood tests as well as emergency care. We did not want to be trapped at home, so we left London to see friends for weekends and took UK holidays.

Our Macmillan nurse researched hospitals for where we wanted to go, got all the details for us - ward name, telephone number, address etc and notified the hospital of Bella's circumstances. Consequently Bella had blood tests in Exeter, St Austell, Taunton and King's Lynn hospitals and had various stays in Hereford and Exeter hospitals, with infections. If there was not a hospital with the right facilities closeby then we would change our plans.

We had excellent medical care from all those who looked after Bella, but it was our Macmillan nurses who saw beyond the disease, saw it as a way of life, and helped us to continue our lives in the best way possible, given the constraints.

Our Macmillan nurses were all 'can do' people - whenever there was a problem, they tried to find the solution, always speaking honestly and never offering pointless platitudes.

Our Macmillan nurses were such a tremendous support, both for when we were still full of hope and, after Bella's second relapse, when all our hope was gone.

It is now over a year since Bella died - I don't keep in touch with our Macmillan nurses because I don't feel that I need to, but I know that I could if that changed.

As you know I am holding a Macmillan Coffee Morning on 28th September in London and I hope very much to match (or exceed) previous coffee morning totals of around £1,500, if possible. I have not done a justgiving page before but a friend, who can't come, suggested it, so here it is! I realise that many of you have been extremely generous in the past to charities important to us, so please do not feel under any obligation to dig too deep ... whatever the blurb below says!

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.