Mostly Cancer Honey

Yesterday, it was Cancer Research UK again, but this time I was talking to the Marketing and Communications Race for Life team about my dance with cancer and my Race for Life experience. I was really impressed by the team and by how keen they are to improve and develop what is already a pretty astonishing feat of awareness raising, fundraising and organisation. But then again, as we trainers love to say, you don't have to be bad to get better.

Today, it's to Maggie's Centre in London for another chat about the Excellent Idea, and this afternoon I'm seeing Gaynor from Breast Cancer Hope, and although we are friends and will probably mostly be talking knitting and doing a bit of shopping, the Excellent Idea will no doubt come up.

Tomorrow - actually, let me give you a bit of preamble about tomorrow. Shortly after I was on Radio 4 talking to Eddie Mair (swoon) about dancing with cancer, my friend Rebecca rang me up and said 'what I really admire about you is how brave you are - your ability to do things that are really quite scary, without worrying about them'. I reassured her that I wasn't especially brave, I just like to please people so generally agree to things without thinking and then realise how scary they are when it's too late. So, in that context: a few weeks ago I was asked whether I would model the Race for Life merchandise for next year's race publicity and marketing. I'd be delighted, I said. So tomorrow, I will be playing at being a model, which I'm sure will be great fun. The scary bit comes in January when yours truly will be all over Race for Life everything. Gulp. (Actually there's another scary bit which is going to the venue without any make up or hair product on. I haven't been out of the house without mascara since 1984.)

I usually try to organise my life so I haven't got too much cancer-based activity going on at any one time: it's always been really important to me that my dance with cancer is only a small part of my existence. After all, so many other things are so much more important. But this week I don't mind. It feels as though I'm turning the tables: the cancer stuff this week is all about empowering and informing others, about getting the Bah! message out there, about dealing with cancer on my terms. If that's being a Cancer Honey then I like it.