Synchronicity strikes in the strangest places. Our regular reader(s) may recall that we visited Castle Drogo on Tuesday? As we were descending the Hunter’s Path we passed a lady heading up the hill, wearing a big pack on her back. I thought to myself “She looks just like Tamsin Edwards, but that’s just not possible”.
This morning I headed over to XTwitter to publish the latest update from the road works here in Halwill Junction, when what should I spot but this:
It turns out that the lady we saw was in actual fact Prof. Tamsin Edwards!
Tamsin is currently finishing the first part of her solo walk along the Two Moors Way, raising money for Bowel Cancer UK. You can donate to that very good cause at her Just Giving page:
https://www.justgiving.com/page/tamsin-two-moors-way
August 2023 marks the end of my monitoring for bowel cancer recurrence: my final CT scan and blood tests, on the fifth anniversary of the end of chemotherapy. I want to celebrate that, to reflect on that time and on getting here now.
I also lost two people to bowel cancer in 2023. My uncle Jerry Rolling, who I’d only been able to meet for the first time in recent years: a curious and kind devotee to the arts, sciences, and helping his community. And a sweet colleague, Tom Lindsay, fellow trustee of The Champernowne Trust art therapy charity, which my dad worked with for decades, who died very suddenly in his fifties. Last year, I was very sad to see Deborah James finally die after years of raising awareness: her podcast began the week before I started chemotherapy, and was the best source of information, comfort and camaraderie anyone could ask for…
My dear departed mother had bowel cancer many moons ago. She didn’t tell her two sons about it until long after a successful operation. She died well into her eighties after several strokes, but not every cancer sufferer is so fortunate.
