Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

As most of you know, 10 years ago I was rather poorly. I came back from a season working in France feeling rough but put it down to nine months of too much boozing. I got progressively worse, was treated for pneumonia but it got to the point where I was unable to walk because I couldn't breathe properly. It transpired that this was because the tumour in my chest was so big that it was crushing my heart. After a couple of months of unknown and scary times (including being blue lighted to hospital one night) I was told I had a form of blood cancer, though it was still unknown which type. I was to begin treatment straight away as an inpatient at City Hospital in Notts.

When they read the 'chemo contract' out to me they told me I would be sterile after treatment. I asked to have some sort of fertility treatment so I had a chance of children at some point in the future. They told me it wasn't possible. Fertility treatment takes three weeks and I didn't have three weeks. I could die within that time unless I began chemo treatment immediately

I started an intensive regime of chemotherapy that day and after just three days the tumour had started to shrink so that I was able to walk down the corridor of the ward. (I was bloody determined to go home rather than stay as an inpatient!) I was diagnosed with large diffuse B cell Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma.

My then waist-length hair had begun to fall our because of the chemotherapy, so on Valentines Day 2012 I shaved my head and my fantastic friends and family helped to raise an incredible amount of money for Clic Sargent. I vowed then that if I survived that and lived for another 10 years, then I would shave my head again as a celebration and an attempt to raise some more money!!

I completed my treatment and was declared in remission on the 5th July 2012, two days before my 21st birthday.

Ten years and two amazing daughters later, I am keeping the promise I made back then and it's time to 'Brave the Shave' for a second time.

I will also be donating the best part of my 19 inch head of hair to the 'Little Princess Trust', a charity which provide real hair wigs free of charge to children and young people who lose their own hair through cancer treatment.

I have decided to raise money for Cancer Research UK this time, as so much of their funding has been pulled during the Covid -19 pandemic. Cancer is an ongoing disease that affects all of us in one way or another and the statistic that 1 in 2 of us will have cancer in our lifetime is just shocking. I would like to contribute in some tiny way to helping fund the research for treatment so more people are able to survive and thrive, just as I did.