Calling The Rest of The World

 

The vast majority of sales so far have been in the United Kingdom, which when I think about it is not so surprising. I live here, my family are here and most of closest friends live here so as the book began its life the net that it spread originated from close to home. Also Beating Bowel Cancer is a UK based charity and perhaps this puts off people from abroad? I don't know about that so much...

When I made the kindle version of the book available for 24 hours a few months the uptake was excellent and especially so in the United States where about 50 people took advantage and downloaded the book. Slightly disappointingly I have not managed a single paid download in the USA since then.

Bowel Cancer like any cancer is not just a UK health killer, it can devastate families all on every corner of this planet. I have sold 269 copies to date and with the justgiving page the fundraising tally is around £400 now, and every single penny I get goes to the charity. Not only would overseas sales be a vital and much appreciated source of revenue for the charity, but also equally as important is that every single sale no matter in which country helps raise awareness about the disease.

So come on the world please support this fundraising cause :)

So where ns the world was the photo taken?

The Price is Right

Come on down the price is right! Eight months ago the paperback version of the book cost £7.21 from Amazon with my £1.01 all going to the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. Amazon then reduced the price to £6.49 whilst continuing to give me the £1.01 for each sale. The good news is that they have just reduced the price again, and the book now costs £5.52 with the same amount coming to me and the charity. This price reduction can only help the fundraising efforts and brings the price a little closer to that of the kindle version, which still costs £1.65 with £0.97 going to the charity. Sales stand at about 262 at the moment so I still have a very long way to go to reaching the magic 1000. The support so far has been fantastic and I can't say how much I appreciate it. For those reading this still undecided please buy the book and make a difference to bowel cancer. It is the book raising funds for bowel cancer, that is not about cancer...

Happy Retirement Mum

Mum was unable to work during her treatment for bowel cancer. Even at an age when she should have stopped working years ago she continued to enjoy doing her 2 half days each week working as a receptionist at the doctor's surgery. In fact this job probably played a big part in saving her life, because as soon as she realised something was wrong they sent her straight to the hospital for tests and therefore the cancer was caught quite early. I now appreciate more than ever just how fortunate she was, as many bowel cancer patients have not been so lucky :( 

It was important for mum to return to her job after her treatment. Just being able to return to work after everything she has been through was a massive achievement, but there is no doubt that the 3 operations she has had have possibly led to her to coming to the decision to retire a little sooner than she ideally would have wished. But now is the time for her to just enjoy life and do all the things she wants to do without having to worry about how much holiday she has left to take etc.

She has worked at the surgery for over 30 years and they gave her a lovely send off on her last day. She got a "retirement" rose, balloons, a beautiful card and they put on a great spread. Knowing her love of the garden they also very generously gave her gardening vouchers, and with some of those vouchers she bought the cherry in the photo which we have just planted. What my late father would think of a cherry in the middle of his lawn I dread to think! :) 

It's a well earned retirement and let's hope she has many more years of retirement to enjoy now that she is post treatment.