Thanks for visiting my fundraising page. This February I’m ditching sugar for a whole month to raise money for Cancer Research UK.

It was 2010 when my Dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer which came as a big shock to all of us as he had always been in reasonably good health; he had even been told that his heart was in such good condition that it was like that of a 25 year olds'!

It was quite simply a bit of bad luck that it happened to Dad, and worse that it was undetected for months meaning that by the time he was diagnosed it was too late.

Dad died in 2012 at home with his family by his side.

I have to say, it was hard to see him die but it was much harder seeing him deteriorate before my eyes in the last few months of his life.

He should have lived to see me graduate, shown me how to drive and be my Dad for decades to come. More than anything else, I wish he could have at least been here just a few months longer to know he was going to be a Grandad to my nephews.

I'll always remember him though as my lovely, funny, grumpy, bus-driving, cricket-mad Dad.