Lives & Times Book Aiming To Raise £1000 For Beating Bowel Cancer

As winter draws to a close, and just over three months since Lives & Times was published, the amount raised for the Beating Bowel Cancer is heading towards £900. My greatest wish is to reach £1000 and to keep spreading the message to raise awareness about bowel cancer. So this target is now tantilisingly close, and I'm sure is now within reach.

After the initial surge of purchases, with most family and friends having now bought the book, the challenge remains as to how to get the book to reach out and appeal to the wider audience. As ever there has also been the fantastic, warm and generous support from the bowel cancer community. February has also seen some great support from fans of The Alarm. Their support was not just a reminder of how friendships and communities are priceless, but also how bowel cancer affects so many people. Eddie Macdonald, bass player from The Alarm, pictured below with his copy of the book taken at Christmas.

Pictured above is author Freya North, who is an Ambassador for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. She features in the book and has been incredibly supportive all the way through. The chapter on Freya is typical of many in the book in that there is a bowel cancer connection. In Freya's case it was losing her friend Hannah Berry to bowel cancer, and this is mentioned in the book as I wasn't going to shy away from bowel cancer. However Freya was spot on when she described the book as "warm and inspirational". The chapters focus on the experience of meeting and photographing the people and hopefully makes for a really fun and entertaining read as well providing a gentle informative read about bowel cancer. I met Freya outside The Roundhouse in London where we both going to see The Charlatans in concert. Totally random meeting place, but it made for a fascinating experience to write about in the book.

So here I am with my copy of the book. Every chapter tells a different story. Some people in the book are household names, and some are people you might never have heard of. The one thing everyone had in common was they have a story to tell. The book was hard work putting together, but it was also a tremendous amount of fun, totally worth the effort and I hope this comes across in the book.

To see how you can order the book click here. Please support this book and help me raise as much money as possible for the charity. Bowel cancer remains the second biggest cancer killer in the UK, but if detected early has a survival rate of over 90%. I am looking for new ways to promote the book, so I would love to hear from anyone who has any ideas to suggest.