That Feeling You Get When You Publish A Book..

Victoria Derbyshire's book, Dear Cancer, Love Victoria, detailing her account of a breast cancer diagnosis and treatment is published later this month. It's a book I am looking forward to reading, and the above screenshot is taken from a lovely video Victoria posted on her Twitter feed this week when she received the first copy of her book.

It got me thinking back to when Lives & Times was published on November 27th 2015. It was a day that I was naturally looking forward to with much excitement, as its not every day that you have a book come out. A few people had received their copies in advance including Mum, who was reduced to tears (good ones) by it, which took me by surprise and was very moving. It still makes me feel emotional now when I think back. The day of publication itself is one that I will never forget. What should have been one of the happiest and exciting days of my live ended up quite different. I got a phone call in the early hours from my brother, as Mum had been taken into hospital with what turned out to be her first brain seizure. Of course all thoughts about the book and how many copies it might sell on the first day went completely out of the window. Mum was in hospital for a week or so, and came home knowing that she would have to undergo CyberKnife treatment after Christmas. Looking back now this was really when the pendulum began to swing the other way, and Mum's health began to decline. The secondary bowel cancer cancer on the lung had been treated successfully each time it had occurred, but once the cancer went to the brain, and didn't successfully respond to the treatment, options became limited. Mum passed away on August 29th 2016 four and half years after her original  bowel cancer diagnosis.

The Lives & Times book is without doubt one of the finest achievements of my life. It's something I am immensely proud of, and it has successfully raised a significant amount of funds for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity, and hopefully played its part in helping to raise awareness about bowel cancer. This awful disease claims 16,000 lives each year, but if detected early it can be successfully treated in over 90% of cases.

Victoria kindly agreed to be in the new fundraising book I am doing. The Record still has a long way to go before before being published, but it is hopefully shaping up to be every bit as good as Lives & Times.