I hate heights.

Bungee jumps? I always held the jackets while friends hurled themselves towards what looked like certain death. Walking over glass-brick flooring at the top of sky towers? It's my definition of “bricking it”. Tombstoning? The clue is in the name.

The fear has deepened over the years, maybe from being 22 floors up a tower block when an IRA bomb went off outside. Or more recently, falling off the house roof. I struggle to climb the loft ladder these days without turning to jelly.

Why on earth then have I signed up to abseil off the Forth Bridge? Well, I hate cancer even more than I hate heights. And hatred isn’t the most positive of emotions, I know. But there is love too - for LoveOliver, a Fife-based charity that funds research into childhood cancer and provides practical support to families affected by it.

The sponsorship funds raised from confronting a fear of heights will hopefully repay some of the wonderful support my family has received from LoveOliver during Lennox’s illness and his recovery. All donations gratefully received.

The abseil takes place on Sunday 16 June, which is Father’s Day. I was born on Father’s Day - a great joy, I’m told, but this year it will be a new and poignant moment in life for me and two sisters. Launching myself off the Forth Bridge might be the perfect distraction – with Lennox waiting to catch me.