Thursday, December 22, 2005

Yet again time has flown by with all sorts of busy-ness taking place. Sarah's fancy dress party was a great success, with some wonderful costumes (one girl coming as the sea which I thought was fab) and I thoroughly enjoyed wafting around in my full satiny dress playing the princess part rather well.

When christmas shopping on monday, I receieved a call from Richard and Judy, to ask if they could feature me the following day. In a matter of hours the camera crew was at my little house, rearranging my furniture and then filming footage that would be used to create a short VT to be shown along side Heather Mills-McCartney's appearance supporting the donor family network.

I watched the R&J show on tuesday night from the comfort of the largest bed I have ever seen, as my man and I went away for a luxury break at a gorgeous hotel which had beauty treatments and a spa, and we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves! Watching myself cry on TV was slightly strange, and weirdly made me cry again (how egotistical!) but I think that it was quite a powerful clip, and if even one person signed up after watching that then it was worth doing! Incidentally you can watch the clip here I believe (if that hyperlink has worked I am in fact a technological genius. Fact.)

Am now off to wrap christmas presents as I really should have finished doing so and havent.

Tuesday, December 13, 2005


It is really quite chilly outside now; the birdbath has remained frozen over for the last few days, much to poor George's dismay (the robin that lives in the garden, yes I have befriended him as he makes the most suitable pet for me by far - if I forget to feed him, he finds food elsewhere!) and I just love the feeling of being snuggled up indoors, with the fire on, looking at the frosty garden!

After promising myself I will have a much more restful week this week, so far I, erm, havent. Yesterday I went christmas shopping as I was beginning to get slightly unnerved at the high number of people who were talking about "last bits and bobs" they had to get when in fact I had yet to even start. However I have now made a good start, and have nearly finished writing all my christmas cards, so they can go in the post tomorrow. YAY!

I went to the costumiers today with my mum as we are going to a party on friday which is "come as something beginning with S". I am absolutely over the moon as I found a sleeping beauty style dress, deep rose pink and white satiny material, which is essentially every little girls dream, and therefore perfect for me! Whilst we were there, a lady approached me and said "excuse me, aren't you that girl off the telly?" (yes her exact words). I found the "off the telly" bit amusing, as you could add up my minutes of airtime on one hand, but it was fun being recognised! The nasal specs and O2 cylinder do give it away some what I suppose. She told me that both her children had phoned and registered as organ donors after watching, which was the highlight of my day. Second to finding a princess dress that is.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Wow, what an insane week!

I have loved it though, it's ages since I have been this busy and I am thriving off it! Saturday the Times article came out, then monday I spoke to the Daily Mirror. Tuesday another journalist came over to interview my mum for one magazine and me for another, and Wednesday was GMTV. Then today a photographer came for the Mirror piece and I had some more questions to answer for the magazine interview. And the highlight of the week being my sparkly shoes made a guest appearance on GMTV because the camera zoomed out to show my O2 cylinder! Woohoo!

So what a week it has been!! The magazine interview was very tough emotionally, as my mums interview was first, and obviously they ask some extremely taxing and probing questions which made her quite upset at points. It is heartbreaking watching my mum cry, I am fiercely protective of her but extremely proud because she did an amazing interview despite finding some of it very hard. But she says she also found it incredibly cathartic, which I do too, and so I think she understands slightly better why I do these things.

I have put a link up to the Times article, for anyone that wants to see it that hasnt already! Hope everyone else has had a simply splendid week...I am looking forward to a good quiet weekend snuggled up in the warm. Oh and lungs have started to comply again and the pain is much better so a big yay for that!

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

Wow, the last few days have been crazy! The times piece came out on Saturday, and I was really pleased with it. Thanks to a fantastic journalist, Hilary Freeman, all the key issues I wanted to raise were clearly put across, and she had used a lot of my own words and writing as well. So a big thank you to her and to the Times for doing that brilliant piece of awareness raising.

I have had an incredible response from it all, and I spoke to the Mirror yesterday, am speaking to a journalist for B magazine tonight, and hopefully an appearance on GMTV tomorrow morning! It is all a bit overwhelming, but I did this with the intention of getting heard, so I am going to take full advantage of my privileged position of being able to speak up about these things while I can. It is all very cathartic for me as well, because whilst it is difficult speaking about my inner most feelings on the matter, it is helping alleviate the feeling of helplessness which accompanies this situation.

I received some really lovely messages and emails from people as well; whenever anyone starts doubting society they should come to me as I have so much proof of the amazing human kindness that is out there.

Health-wise, things are ok, although my chest muscles appear to have gone on strike, and I am getting rather a lot of grief from them in the form of pain and difficulty breathing. The physio came out to see me this morning, and my stats look ok, so I we aren't taking any action just yet. Hopefully my lungs will get over their little strop and start complying again soon!

Saturday, December 03, 2005

The workings of my mind...

Ok in a moment of genius (honest) I think it has just come to me to be able to explain my mental attitude towards life. People are ALWAYS talking to me in awe about the way I view and handle things, and I genuinely believe that there is nothing special about me, it is just how I naturally see things. To me, it is a logical perspective. And I think I have found a good analogy.

You are walking along a road, in the mountains (lets say) trying to get to your destination. Suddenly, there is an avalanche, and in front of your eyes, the rocks come crashing down and the path is blocked by debris. You are shocked, shaken, and pretty scared. And now the route you were about to take is blocked.

Now here is where you have a choice. You can stand and look at that route, curse the fact you can no longer go down it, scream at it, hurtle abuse at it, and generally put a lot of energy into things which don’t actually help you advance further on your journey.

What I tend to do is sit down, have a good cry (after all what you have just been through was pretty scary!) and then stand up, turn round, and start walking in a different direction, to find a way around it. Yes it wasn’t the way I had planned to go at first, but that route is no longer an option. Surely to sit and focus on the route that could have been would just waste more time and energy? And I have places to go! So I go another way. To me this is logical. I can’t sit and focus on what I cant do or what could have been or what I wish I could be doing, because it’s just not how my brain works! I hope it makes more sense now.

I do find it slightly amusing that it is 8am on a Saturday morning and I am up because my lungs decided they did not like breathing in a horizontal position any more, and that is when I decide to try and explain the inner most workings of my mind!

Think I will go and make a cup of tea. Have a good day!!