Many of you will know that my wife, Laura, was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma (again) a matter of weeks ago having beaten it in 2021. She is undergoing treatment once more by the awesome team at St James’ Hospital in Leeds. Cancer simply isn’t fair and Cancer can affect anyone.

The horrendous statistic that 1 in 2 of us will be affected by Cancer are odds that need changing. The only way to do that is to get funding to those more intelligent than you or I, and keep conducting research into ways of beating it. For good.

I know things are hard across all of your households right now but if there is any loose change down the back of that sofa, put it to good use. To raise some funds, general awareness and just to feel like Laura and I have some control of one aspect of her journey, on the 27th November I am going to walk from our home here in Leeds to the Yorkshire Cancer Research Centre in Harrogate, carrying, dragging and lugging with me a log. For those with a military background the mere mention of a log will make you shudder. They are painful, annoying, uncomfortable and never easy.

So, if you find the thought of carrying a telegraph pole 20 or so miles amusing, inspiring, disgusting or are just glad it’s not you, show your support.