When my mother died from a haemorrhage earlier this year, she had been suffering for a few years from a rare type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. A few days after she was diagnosed, she sought out a local support group. The medical treatment she had started on was excellent, she said. But she wanted people to speak to who understood what it felt like and found that community through the group, organised by Myeloma UK. 

The woman she was she soon joined the group's steering committee and one of her first suggestions was that they meet every few months for a walk through the beautiful countryside around her Wiltshire home; to be sociable and have a chance to talk. 

When she died in January, the group announced it would start an annual walk in June each year to raise funds for Myeloma UK. And they decided to call it "A walk with Janet"

On Saturday June 24, Sam, Nicola and I will be joining my Dad, brother and one of my sisters, and half a dozen members of the group and their families for a walk along the canal past my mum's old home to Bradford on Avon. If anyone can give something small to Myeloma UK, it will be well used.