Stand Up To Cancer

I’m hoping most of you watched and donated to Stand Up To Cancer on Channel 4 last night.

Highlights for me were the mini “8 out of 10 Cats” show, The cast of Made in Chelsea showing how NOT to work in Tesco’s and the fact that Jimmy Carr didn’t know what a Cheeky Vimto was!

For me though it was all about the personal stories. Ruby’s Story. Clint’s Story. Many of them had me in tears. Especially the ones involving children and parents. As a parent myself, I reflect back on my own experience of cancer and know it must have hurt my mum, more than it hurt me. 

I loved watching the Stand Up To Cancer Choir (The Big C Choir). Every hair on my body was standing on end, knowing that these inspirational people are standing up on stage, with cancer, in front of millions of people, singing their hearts out for such a noble cause. It’s so sad to think that some of them are dying and will NOT survive their cancers. 

Here’s a little YouTube clip (credit: Stand Up To Cancer UK):

I am so so lucky to be a survivor of cancer and I will be blogging how I Stood Up To Cancer tomorrow.

Right now though I want to remember my dear, wonderful Granny who we lost to Lung Cancer. We knew from diagnosis that it was terminal and she didn’t have the chance to Stand Up To Cancer. My gran was amazing. Such a loving person. I have so many fond memories of her teaching me things as a little girl. She taught me how to make lace, how to ice a cake, how to care for a rabbit. Together with my grandad they taught me how to ride a bike. She’d spend hours playing vets with me and my teddy bears. We’d walk to the lakes in Woodley and feed the ducks. She’d take me shopping, read me stories, show me how to plant flowers in the garden. She saw me fight cancer.

I miss her so much and I wish she’d gotten the chance to see Bunny grow up, watch me get married, and meet my twins. I like to think of my twins as a gift from my gran, as she was a twin herself and it is her from whom I inherited the hyperovulation gene, which gave me my twins. Thankyou Gran for these beautiful blessings.

My wonderful Grandad held her hand through an admirable 60 years of marriage and will always have a broken heart from losing her. I’ve never seen love between two people as strong as what they had and I hope that me and Jonny are still holding hands 60 years from now. My Grandad too has cancer, but whilst he will never be free from it, he can control it with drugs. I am so proud that my brave, strong Grandad is Standing Up To Cancer.

Grandad if you are reading this – I am really sorry if I have made you cry. I want you to know I love you so very much and Gran is always in my heart.

Every word of what they say is true. 1 in 3 of us will get cancer, and every single one of us, will be affected by it.

You can still donate. You can still buy the T-Shirts. You can still organise fundraising activities. You can still use your blogging voice to get more people to donate. Click here to visit the Stand Up To Cancer website and see what you can do to get involved.

So far the Stand Up To Cancer campaign has raised £6,483,995 but with all of us affected by it… it’s not enough until we reach a cure! If you are reading this, and you haven’t donated… please do it now!

Here’s one more video – showing that cures are within reach…

Video Credit: Stand Up To Cancer UK