Lives & Times Meets Shaun Keaveny From BBC Radio 6 Music

After 18 months of travelling here, there and everywhere to meet and photograph people for the Lives & Times fundraising book supporting the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, one of the final photos I took for the book back in October 2015 was when I met Shaun Keaveny, who has presented the breakfast show on BBC 6 Music for the last decade. As Shaun will testify the photography would have been completed a week earlier, had it not been for a bit of a mix up at his end with me coming off second best to Bloc Party! The full story features in the book.

We met at the 6 Music headquarters in Great Portland Street, and Shaun was very generous with his time for me, especially having been up since some god unearthly hour to do his early morning show. Following on from our meeting, Shaun was happy to send me a photo of himself with the recently published book, and he also kindly did me a video snippet to help promote the book. He took a great interest in the book, bowel cancer and my mother who, at the time, was still battling with secondary cancer from the primary bowel cancer. Sadly, in August 2016, she passed away after a 4 year brave and courageous battle with bowel cancer.

Lives & Times was published in November 2015, and has so far raised over £3500. All proceeds I receive are donated to the charity, so please support the book if you can. As well as raising funds for the charity, the book is also helping to raise awareness about bowel cancer. It is the second highest cancer killer in the UK, claiming 16,000 lives each year. However if detected early it can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases.

Lives & Times Photo Gallery - I Want Your Photos With The Book

I have tried to get as many people as possible, who have bought Lives & Times, to send me a photo of themselves with the book. I have created a photo gallery, which in years to come will give me a fantastic reminder of many of those people kind enough to buy the book.

There is also an important marketing side to this as well. Each time someone buys the book it potentially opens up a whole new audience to me. If someone sees a friend holding the book there is always the possibility they will want to know what it is about. If they were then to buy the book, another new potential audience is opened up and so on. For me, who is self publishing, this is a great way to build momentum for the book. And social media sites, especially Facebook, is where this kind of marketing can be very successful. 

The use of tagging in photos is key. For instance in the above photo you will see Pauline Redman. Pauline was a great sport recreating a scene from 25 years ago which gets mentioned in the book. She tagged herself, which undoubtedly led to a few sales and interest from people who know her, and she didn't even have to show her face in the photo. Like wise Eddie Macdonald, the former bass player in The Alarm and now part of Smalltown Glory, by being tagged and with a large Alarm following helped generate sales. 

Getting famous faces such as Sir Steve Redgrave, Freya North, Carrie Grant, Shaun Keaveny and Lorraine Kelly, who all feature in the book,to pose with their copies of the book can only help the profile of the book. As well as being a famous author, Freya is also an ambassador for Beating Bowel Cancer. Then you also get photos from bowel cancer survivors like Deb James, who I have only recently come in to contact with. She very kindly supported the book even when she was going through the final stages of her chemotherapy. Having my young niece, Anna, on hand also helps with the cute factor. There is always some kind of positive to doing a photo.

So the potential benefits are huge. If you bought the book and not yet done a photo for me, please take a few minutes to take a picture for me. If you are camera shy be as creative as you like. It all really does make a huge difference. I reckon that the posts with people and the book attract up to ten times more views.

The book has now raised over £1350 for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, and to see all the ways to order the book click here. 

My Mum, the inspiration behind the charity book, had the lower lob of left lung removed at the beginning of March to remove the cancerous nodules and hopefully prevent the secondary cancer from the bowel from keeping returning to the lung. Attention is now back on the brain cancer as one of the tumours has increased in size so it will need more treatment.

Gabby Logan, Lorraine Kelly, Steve Redgrave, Shaun Keaveny, Freya North & Many Others Feature In New Charity Book

Over a period of 18 months I met Gabby Logan, Lorraine Kelly, Steve Redgrave and many others for the recently published Lives & Times charity book. All proceeds from sales of the book will be donated to the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, which I have been supporting since 2012 when my mother was diagnosed with bowel cancer. To see how you can buy a copy of Lives & Times click here.

The journey gave me so many fascinating experiences. To meet such a diverse range of people including many household names was fantastic. Everyone gave up their time to participate in the book, and the support and encouragement I have received from them has been amazing. To see a more complete list of the celebrities taking part click here.

I have had some great support from best selling author Freya North. She is an ambassador for the charity, and we actually got to meet up to take her photograph for the book before a gig by The Charlatans at The Roundhouse in London. 

Shaun Keaveny, host of the BBC 6 Music breakfast show, was one of the final photographs I took for the book, and the chapter on him also describes how I had to make the trip up to the BBC twice to get his photo. 

I met Sir Steve Redgrave in Marlow by his statue on the banks of the River Thames. We chatted more about local rowing than his Olympic exploits. My late father was a keen local oarsman and it was fascinating to how many names in the local rowing fraternity they had in common. 

To date the book has raised over £700 for the charity. Every purchase makes a difference, and I hope that people will find the book interesting, entertaining and uplifting. Bowel cancer remains the second highest cancer killer in the United Kingdom, and as well as raising funds the purpose of the book is to help raise awareness about bowel cancer.