This summer, at a lovely lunch party in a friend’s garden in Sussex, I was introduced to Vivien and we started talking about what she’d been doing recently. A lot, it turned out, and all of it interesting. She had just completed a year of 60 challenges, following her retirement on her 60th birthday, and had written a blog about each one. The tasks included raising money for two charities she really cares about. 

It sounded an excellent way of marking a key milestone and once I’d read her blog, I was hooked on the idea. Over the next few months, with help from my husband Peter and various friends, I came up with a list of 60 things I’d never done before. Some I’d meant to do or had vaguely considered for years but had never got around to. Others were frankly scary. To see a list of the tasks, do please visit my blog at http://60at60challenges.blogspot.co.uk/ 

The most important task is to do some fundraising, for two charities that mean a lot to me: Beating Bowel Cancer and Arthritis Research UK. The smiling young woman in the photo is Peter's first wife Carole. She died of bowel cancer only a few years later, aged thirty, when their children Richard and Helen were just four and one.   

To know that you will not live to see your children grow up must be devastating. So too must losing your wife at such a young age. To be without your mother or even any memory of her hardly bears thinking about. This was long before Beating Bowel Cancer existed and Peter simply had to grit his teeth and cope as best he could, helped by friends and family. If he had been able to turn to the charity for support and advice, it would have made his life that bit easier, at a time when he needed it most.

Over the last few years, three of my friends have been diagnosed with bowel cancer – one in her mid-forties and the other two in their late fifties. The first has been through her treatment, which she found very tough, and has been clear of cancer now for five years. The others have only recently been diagnosed and are starting their treatment. Both are brave but are understandably fearful of what lies ahead – who wouldn’t be?   

All their friends and family are rallying round and supporting them as best they can. Sometimes, though, it really helps for them to be able to talk to someone who isn’t emotionally involved. It is a relief to feel they can “offload” without worrying that they are adding to the burden of those they care most about. Having the opportunity to speak to others who are going through the same experience and know first-hand what it is like – and can offer practical advice – also makes a real difference.  

These are some of the ways in which Beating Bowel Cancer can help people cope with everything that comes with the diagnosis, as well as campaigning for the highest quality of treatment and care for patients. I hope never to need their support, but with your help I want to do what I can to ensure it is there for anyone who does.