Hello everyone, on the 21st of this month I’m heading to the Skeleton Coast in Namibia to walk 20-25 km a day for 5 days, camping along the way. I’m taking the challenge with my friend Annie who has had two close calls with bowel cancer. Her story is included on the 40tude page, but what she doesn’t mention, and what anyone who has had to have surgery knows, is the fear an impending operation induces. Fear of the anaesthetic, the operation, the risk of infection. Assuming you make it through that gauntlet the next hurdle is the recovery. A long, debilitating process with the ever present threat of infection. Annie suffered with three severe abdominal infections post op involving yet more pain, more drugs and extending the recovery time. An earlier diagnosis could have reduced the extent she needed surgery considerably.

I’m also walking for James, Connie’s boyfriend. At the age of 17 he was diagnosed with cancer of the colon. He had to wear a stoma for 4 years following the removal of his colon until he underwent extensive surgery to insert a new, 3D printed one. A truly remarkable feat of medical ingenuity and he was extremely lucky. He’s had to endure so much by the age of 22 but he’s still with us. Thankfully.

In 1970 my mother-in-law was diagnosed with bowel cancer at the age of 39. She was in hospital for a year and spent the rest of her life with a stoma.

But these three stories close to me are the lucky ones. Their cancer was caught in time. A stage 1 diagnosis saves 90% of lives, a stage 4 diagnosis kills 90%. My mother-in-law was able to watch her two sons grow up and even got to meet her first granddaughter. James can pursue his career as a talented chef and Annie gets to spend a week in a tent with me!

Thank you very much for helping me to support 40tude curing colon cancer. 40tude is working to raise awareness of the importance of getting tested regularly for colon (bowel) cancer, currently the UK's biggest cancer killer of non-smokers. Early diagnosis can and does save lives.

Your donation will be directed very carefully also to specific, leading-edge research already making a difference to transforming the early diagnosis of colon cancer. Together we can reduce the number of people seriously affected by this treatable disease.