Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

My bowel cancer campaign challenge came about because my grandfather died from bowel cancer at 42, and my dad has had the disease 3 times. They inherited a gene condition called Lynch syndrome which carries a high risk for colon cancer, and increased risk of other cancers. My dad has survived though, he had an operation last year and now at 78 lives each day with renewed appreciation of life! This includes going back to university again. Much thanks can be attributed to the people who enabled him to have this quality of life- the excellent doctors and nurses at Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge, we are lucky to live in the remit of such a great hospital and I know not all are so lucky.

For many people who have suffered from bowel cancer it means rethinking how they eat, my dad was vegetarian for some time and because the disease runs in the family we all try to think carefully about food. Our family still finds food one of the joys of life though!So that is why Im doing a foods of the world challenge. The idea is to cook a main meal and desert from 52 countries in the world each week and as a citizen journalist- write a blog about the research and experience. This might be redefining the definition of 'challenge' i.e. cooking and eating a meal for oneself and friends each week- but its not that easy I promise. The idea is to discover different cuisines. No country was spared from the lottery when I drew the names so there are some rather obscure entries such as Turkmenistan, or for example Tuvalu, the fourth smallest population in the world. Any advice would be gladly received so please see my list and please donate to this entirely worthy cause.

http://worldrecipechallenge.blogspot.com/