One year on

Hi everyone,

This time last year my family and I were mourning the loss of my dad, Phil, shortly after he was diagnosed with a brain tumour. (Usually one would say "...after a brief battle with cancer" but Dad didn't even live long enough to start fighting.)

His loss has devastated our family. My mum should be looking forward to spending her retirement with her husband, but she's been robbed of that. His grandsons will grow up with only memories of him. His granddaughter, and his fourth grandchild yet to arrive, will only ever know him from photographs, or in stories we tell them about this wonderful, loving, deeply intelligent man. We will do our best to make sure the memories don't fade, and that the stories we tell are good ones. Not a day goes by that his absence isn't felt, and it hurts.

Please go to Rob and Adam's Dryathlon page to donate if you can - both of them have made it through January without a drink, poor bastards. Tomorrow they will go out to get plastered, as they richly deserve. Feel free to donate to both of them, I won't stop you.

http://www.justgiving.com/teams/buckaroo-banzai


Additionally, did you know you can swab yourself to be listed as a potential donor for blood or bone marrow? I didn't, until tonight. Go here to register and receive the kit, and maybe one day you'll be matched to someone whose life you can save.

http://www.deletebloodcancer.org.uk/

My love to everyone - and I know there are a lot of my friends in this, too many - who has lost someone to cancer, or struggled against it, or still struggles.

Take care x x x