Celebrating ‘aliveness’

12 weeks ago I was in an operating theatre having surgery for prostate cancer.

I’ve not got the all-clear quite yet, but I’m feeling back to normal and living life to the full. One thing I wrote down in my notepad in my hospital bed that Friday afternoon in December was how I wanted things to be different afterwards. I haven’t gone through all this, I wrote, to come out the other side exactly the same.

Last night was a wonderful gathering at my local bookshop Read on Sea where I shared some stories behind my book 365 Ways To Have a Good Day. I had a laugh, shed a tear and through the questions at the end we talked about the ups and downs of being human.

Being in a room full of people, a few I knew but most I didn’t, with all their brilliant questions and engagement with my stories reminded me the importance of being part of a community and also to hold a space for others to voice what really matters.

One member of the audience asked me that if I was writing this book today, having gone through a cancer journey, would I change much? I told him that I would. It’s a cliche that life is short and we never know what’s around the corner, so we should live our lives to the full. But it’s true. Last night it was wonderful to share my stories in front of a roomful of people. You could say it was a moment of aliveness, a celebration where I could say, ‘yeah I’m ALIVE!’