The best bits of April 2026

In no particular order:

Our next cat. Been hanging around our house and garden for quite a while now despite Pushkins seeing it off on a regular basis, although at the time of writing not seen for a week or two.

Enjoying the sun, but why she has to sit here, I do not know.

Watching us while we do the garden.

Not helpful at all.

A visit to Brockhampton Estate.

A day out at countrytastic with child2, Dil and the grandchildren.

An easter party in our old neighbourhood with our oldest friends.

Three football matches this month. It all went a bit Peaky Blinders for the game against Blackburn.

Attendance was low against Preston North End. I'm in the yellow coat.

Last home game of the season against Bristol Rovers and I got whacked in the head by one of their players.

Great to get the washing out on the line. There has also been a lot of gardening done but too many photos to choose from.

Kath turned 50. She is the one responsible for me running the Brighton Marathon. I've got to blame someone. She is also my motivational coach who kept me going when I didn't think I could do it.

Flowers and good luck card from Kath the day we travelled down to Brighton.

Fundraising was probably the hardest part of the marathon and I'm grateful to each and every one of you who dropped something in the pot, with almost £2000 raised since last September.

Nails painted in the colours of Bowel Research UK. It's a great way to get the conversation started and now I can casually drop in 'oh did I mention I ran a marathon for them to raise funds in memory of Stephanie?'

And finally the Brighton Marathon.

Before:

During:

After:

And my final finally my support crew - Peter. He's not a big fan of featuring on my blog. In 2024 I insisted on taking a selfie a day for a year and he moaned like mad about it. At Stephanie's funeral he acknowledged how grateful he was for all the photos I had taken over the years of us all as a family as we had so many photos of Stephanie to choose from, he's just not a big fan of me sharing them everywhere.

Running away from 2025 and into 2026 and a Marathon. Bowel Research UK

On October 7th 2024 our 36 year old daughter Stephanie died, the end of 2024 passed in a blur. We went through most of 2025 in shock, in a daze, grieving, going through all the firsts, nothing getting easier, just a little more prepared to handle the bumps in the road, with a network of friends helping us navigate our way.

Marking the first anniversary of Stephanie's death was a turning point. I wanted to do something in Stephanie's memory and the one thing Stephanie could do for herself with total independence was to walk. So I signed up for an Ultra Challenge as close to the anniversary as I could and walked 15 miles across the Chilterns.

I trained whilst we were out in Australia visiting one of Stephanie's brothers who had flew home briefly for her funeral and we'd not seen for almost a year, I delayed starting my new job by 2 months.

Whilst in Australia we visited the MONA Museum in Tasmania to see the Poo Machine and I've used every opportunity I've had to promote Bowel Research UK who I'm raising awareness and fundraising for  as Stephanie died from Bowel Ischaemia. It causes around 3000 deaths a year in the UK and is almost impossible to diagnose.

On World Mental Health Day October 10th 2025, I signed up to the Brighton Marathon and started the Couch to 5k. 4 weeks later on November 8th 2025 I took part in my first parkrun at Chippenham Playing Fields in Monmouth. The following week the town was devastated by flooding but I was back at the parkrun on December 20th and on New Years Day I took part in one at Southsea.

I've joined a gym for endurance training and I run 2-3 times a week. I haven't run more than 5k, but I have been able to run/walk 9k and I've been mostly walking/running the Malvern Hills. On Wednesday I'm going along to my first running club evening.

I'm taking part in another Ultra Challenge in London walking a marathon on January 24th. My aim is to complete the route in under 8 hours, as the Brighton Marathon has a cut off of 8 hours to get a medal and along with raising funds and awareness that is my goal.

Please share my fundraising page

Please share this post

Please share our story to help raise awareness of Bowel Research UK

I'd love it if you'd come running with me, if you have any training tips to share.

If you have any ideas to help me raise funds please let me know.

All help and support is welcome. I'm going to need it.

I’m linking up with Anne from Raisie Bay for Word of the Week.

Word of the Week - Bowels

Yes, BOWELS. You read that right the first time.

I'm fundraising for Bowel Research in memory of our daughter Stephanie who died on October 7th 2025.

We requested no flowers at her funeral and didn't have a charity in mind at the time.

She was taken ill in the morning. Died in the evening and her funeral was held 8 days later. There was too much to do with arranging for children to fly in from Africa and Australia and just the sheer shock of her death.

I want to mark the first anniversary of her death and I've found an organised walk I can join in with on September 27th.

So why Bowels? 

Stephanie died from an Ischemic Bowel. She wasn't able to communicate, she couldn't tell anyone she was in discomfort, in pain. She didn't reflect pain in her emotions. Often she would laugh even when injured, she might just cry for no reason at all. So by the time Stephanie reached the hospital for help, it was too late. A stoma was not an option, it was too advanced and she died on the operating table.

Our grandson, now 3 was born with Hirchsprung disease and spent several months in his first year with a stoma bag and had numerous operations. 

I've was diagnosed with diverticulitis after a colonoscopy and biopsy. I don't have any pain or even any symptoms other than chronic constipation caused by my new migraine medication.

I'd really appreciate it if you could share my Just Giving Site on your social media sites. I'm aiming for £1000 and already a third of the way there.

In Memory of Stephanie

Why a walk?

The one thing that Stephanie could do independently was to walk, we used to call her Forrest Gump when she was younger. She'd just head off in any direction she fancied. We had to guide her and she had no spacial or risk awareness and you couldn't take your eyes off her. She would grab onto a pram in the street or a trolley in the supermarket to steady herself if she had to stand still and would go off in a total different direction with us playing catch up.

As she got older, she walked less, swam less, rode a horse less, bounced on the trampoline less, moved around less.

Stephanie was 36 years old when she died.

Post Comment Love #PoCoLo 17-19 August

Welcome to Post Comment Love (#PoCoLo).  Same linky as usual for all all bloggers to link up their favourite post of the week.  Just in a different place.  Morgan is on her holidays at Walt Disney World so I'm co-hosting in August to help Stephanie.  

I'm co hosting this week whilst travelling to Greece. I'm meeting my husband Peter here for a week, he's flying over from Dubai to join me. I've bought myself a bikini, but once I get on the sun-bed I won't be moving off it, until the beach empties. I'm not at all convinced the top will stay on.

Next month I'm returning to South Africa, where we lived for 4 years, to stay with friends and to meet up with some of the children and charities I've continued to support over the years.

I joined in with the #PoCoLo linky a couple of years ago and it's been great to meet a variety of bloggers and connect with a wider audience.

Blogger Showcase. This week is the turn of Kirsten from Obtaining Bliss. Kirsten blogs about her personal journey with depression and her purpose is to help others who are struggling with it, or have anxiety to find their bliss. You can find out more about Kirsten by visiting Stephanie's post 

An InLinkz Link-up

Volunteering has wiped me out

As many of you know I'm currently in South Africa working with several charities and organisations as a volunteer for 5 weeks.

I lived in South Africa for 4 years, moving to Dubai in December 2014 and I'm so happy to be back home, even if it's just for a few weeks.

You can read more about the charity work I do by clicking the 'charity' link in my blog and here are a is a recent post about some of the work I did out here.

I've spent the last 2 weeks working with The Santa Shoebox Project a national charity that aims to collect and distribute 100,000 boxes country wide to vulnerable and disadvantaged children.

This is my 5th and final year of involvement with the charity as when I return to Dubai i will be working full time in a school and I won't be able to travel during the school term and unfortunately the 'drop off' days are in October and November.

In 2011 we collected and distributed 1,200 boxes

In 2012 we collected and distributed 3,300 boxes

In 2013 we collected and distributed 6,000 boxes

In 2014 we collected and distributed 7,000 boxes

In 2015 the boxes are still coming in but we're on target for 7000 boxes

The Santa Shoebox project is a year round job. We are all volunteers in Pretoria and we all give what time and money we can to support this charity. Some of us are involved in supporting the facilities the rest of the year with donations, teaching, building schools, etc.

We have 2 drop offs in Pretoria which are now both closed for this year and run over 2 days and 3 days for drop off.

The year starts in March when we visit facilities far and wide, covering 100's of kilometres, assisting facilities with registering online, making tough decisions as to which facilities we have to decline, collect and upload name lists, sex and age. We market the project, we collect donations, we contact cooperate donors, recruit volunteers, we meet monthly to discuss our progress. We have NO budget, we are all volunteers, sacrificing family life to ensure that every child in every facility we assist receive a santa shoebox.

For the drop off days we have to set up, this involves printing and writing labels, collecting fillers from the Stor_age unit in the Van from Ford South Africa, who both sponsor us. Laying the hall out, sorting the fillers before the public start to drop off.

We then process every single box, we add a PEP carrier bag who sponsor 85% of the operational costs from Cape Town, we check each and every box contains toiletries, clothing (the right size) a toy, educational supplies and sweets. We scan and pack every box into cartons ready for Laser Logisitics to collect and store until the delivery dates ready for the celebration.

The public don't see all of this, they see the box they drop at the already set up hall and that is the end of their involvement, unless they volunteer or attend a celebration day.

We then spend the next two days, cleaning, tidying, taking everything back to Stor_age, sourcing donors and making up the gaps for the people who pledged a box and failed to show and supervising Laser Logisitics collection of the cartons.

We are 158 boxes short of our target, plus our extras and boot magic for when we attend a facility to discover new children have joined or the kids from neighbouring houses 'pop along' in the hope of a gift from us.

Over the past three days I have worked from 8am till 10pm, I have cried with exhaustion, I've broken every finger nail to the bone, I have lifted and moved and numbered cartons to ensure everything is in place, I have swept floors, taken the trash out, I have written lists of the children's names who boxes we need to make up, I've collected late boxes from cooperates, I have contacted and arranged to collect individuals donors boxes who don't understand why we have deadlines. I haven't been doing all of this alone, well actually the last two days there has only been two of us and numbers started to dwindle on Sunday afternoon. I do understand I'm the only member either without a job or children to look after, but I do worry as to who will do all of this next year, when I'm not here.

This is my bedroom at one of the houses I'm staying at.

This is the coordinator and I sorting lists and organising pick ups and additional boxes late into the evenings.

I've drawn up a schedule for Stor-age to meet the other volunteers to tidy, sort and pack up the missing boxes over the next two weeks.

I get such fulfilment from this project and I cry every single time I realise that this will be my last year with them, it may be a few years before I come back to South Africa, even for a visit, I want to stay involved, carry on raising funds. I have just over 2 weeks until I return to Dubai, so I'm making the most of it, there will be Jam Jar sessions in the local bar, there will be visits to facilities for celebrations, I've driven 5 different vehicles so far, I've stayed in 3 different houses and even stopping in a caravan at a share house next week, as well as a few other friends as well.

Several of the volunteers are moving overseas or away from Pretoria, it's not going to be the same again and that also makes me sad, but I'll leave you with a picture of happiness, with my friends after a 12 hour day and promise to bring you more photos next week of the celebration days, jam jars and a visit to some of the facilities with people that I will forever hold close to my heart.

Week 42 - My Sunday Photo

Check out my ride. 

The lovely people at Ford South Africa are allowing me to drive this beauty/beast for the new few weeks as I work on the Santa Shoebox Project, collecting and distributing gifts to disadvantaged and vulnerable children in South Africa.

I lived in South Africa for years up until December 2014 when we moved to Dubai. I left a huge part of my heart here and it was with great sadness when the time came to leave.

I'm back here for 5 weeks staying with some of the most hard working and amazing people I've ever met in my life.

We all met through volunteering with Santa Shoebox. I dropped off my 5 boxes, 1 box from each of our children, and offered to help, I stayed for 3 days. I attended the celebrations, travelled far and wide and by the time I left South Africa between us and a committee and a huge team of volunteers we had collected and distributed almost 35,000 christmas presents. On average attending 10-15 celebrations where the gifts were handed out each year.

The Santa Shoebox project is a year round commitment, it involves much more than just buying a gift and handing it out. First of all facilities are identified, children's names and ages are collected, uploaded onto the website. Donors and sponsorship are sought which involves contacting groups and individuals, setting up stands at markets and shopping centres, handing out leaflets, meeting with people. Engaging and recruiting volunteers via word of mouth and emails.

Drop off and collection venues are required, transport, fillers to add the extra items the donors may have forgotten to pop in the box. Every box is checked, fixed, scanned and packed. Laser Logistics collect and store and deliver to either Stor_age, the facilities or to our houses, ready for the celebration day. Virtual boxes are packed via online donations with PicknPay. 85% of the costs are sponsored by PEP.

And then?????

We volunteer at the facilities, we raise funds for educational supplies, food, blankets for the winter, we build schools, we train teachers, we raise awareness of disability, poverty. There are so many other organisations that we get involved with during the rest of the year and over the coming weeks I'll be introducing you to the volunteers and the facilities that I and many others have supported over the years and will continue to do so for years to come.

Take a sneak peak at these these marvellous NPO's that help the communities of South Africa.

The Viva Foundation of South Africa
Dignity Dreams
Kungwini Welfare Organisation

I also have a Go Fund me account if you'd like to sponsor me to provide additional supplies to the facilities I visit or for food and drinks for the celebration days.

Week 42 - Project 365

My week started in Dubai, where summer is coming to an end and finished in South Africa where summer is starting. There was little difference in the temperature, although I am hopeful for some rain. A few extra photos this week of a flood that occurred 5 hours before I left for the airport and I got my dates mixed up with my flight.

We left South Africa in December 2014 after 4 wonderful years and it's so wonderful to be back to see my friends and to work with a couple of charities.

Sunday started at Starbucks very early for a coffee and to write and schedule this weeks blog posts. I've been buying and packing gifts to take to South Africa with me and my case also includes some gifts from my trip to Canada in June and the UK last month. There's not a lot of room in my case for my clothes and toiletries, but I can pick up what I need there. I start work when I get back from South Africa, you can read more about it in this week's My Sunday Photo and you can see how hard we're battling the temperatures in Dubai to keep cool, I needed plenty of rests attempting the cleaning today.

Day 284 #onedailypositive #Gisfor #fmsphotoaday #HotDrink #snaphappybritmums #project365 So not fitting the photo prompts here, but it is Gin in the glass and the only hot thing about is was the tonic that was at room temperature, around 30c, as I'd forgotten to put it in the fridge.

Monday I went for a coffee with an expat group, this will be my last one for a long time, I'll only be able to join in now during the school holidays. I spent the evening at a friends house for a pamper Party. Today's blog was all about why I'm returning to South Africa.

Day 285 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎Hisfor‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎WhereImStanding‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ H is for home, where I'm standing with the sun glaring in my eyes outside our villa in Dubai

Tuesday went past in a blur, I think there was coffee, there's usually coffee in my day. I summed up my holiday to the UK with Time Traveller and although I'm hopping on yet another plane this week, why I need a holiday. I received an emial inviting me to check in online, I thought it was a bit early till I realised I fly Wednesday night and not Thursday night. So our plans to spend the day out together on Thursday which is a public holiday in Dubai have gone out the window.

Day 286 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎Iisfor‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎flower‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ I is for ideas for flowers that will grow in the desert

Wednesday morning was spent rather stressfully at the bank, making two trips with documents in an attempt to open off shore banking. Hubby went off for lunch at the Burj Al Arab so I did the cleaning, packing, repacking and more repacking. On hubbies return he informed me the invitation and included me, but no one told him till he got there....grrrrrrr. I walked Bob and then I was off to the beach to find this

By 7.30pm the plumbers had been (it's the eve of a public holiday), hubby arrived home half way through and helped me move the rest of the boxes into the garage.

The boxes contained christmas decorations, camping gear, paperwork relating to the UK and the kids keep sake boxes with their christening cards and paintings. Sadly a lot of it is beyond salvaging, although hubby said he'll try to separate papers and dry them out for me while I'm away.

After tea, beans on toast as it was now late, I had a long bath and packed my hand luggage. I was at the airport at 10pm ready for my flight to Johannesburg via Doha. Todays Animal Tales post was about the cheeky squirrels I met in Stockport last month.

Day 287 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎Jisfor‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎sport‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ J is for Journey as I set off for South Africa for 5 weeks volunteering with vulnerable children. Sport???? Packed this case 3 times and I feel like I've just done 10 rounds in a boxing ring 😅

Thursday was spent at Doha airport for 5 and a half hours waiting for my connecting flight to Johannesburg. I then spent the rest of the day on the plane, arriving mid afternoon and taken to Pretoria where I'm spending the next 5 weeks, I had chance to unpack, shower, drink tea and head off to my first Santa Shoebox committee meeting for the year.  For HDYGG? I did a round up of some of the gardens I've seen this year in Canada and the UK.

Day 288 ‪#‎onedailypositive‬ ‪#‎treat‬ ‪#‎fmsphotoaday‬ ‪#‎kind‬‪#‎snaphappybritmums‬ ‪#‎project365‬ within a couple of hours of landing in South Africa I was at a committee meeting with my dear friends where we are in our 5th year collecting and distributing Christmas gifts to disadvantaged children.

Friday was a long and tiring day, it was spent at store_age sorting out the donations that in my absence have just been dumped. I was collected by friends to spend the weekend at their house I was wined and dined with Pizza and Gin and fell into bed after a long soak in the bath. My blog post today was on whether I prefer Dubai or South Africa. At this moment in time, despite a heatwave in South Africa, I'm rather enjoying the cooler weather here.

Day 289 #onedailypositive #Lisfor #fmsphotoaday #MailBox #snaphappybritmums #project365 I love writing and receiving letters through the post. I travelled to Canada earlier this year to meet my pen friend Catherine Burden​ I'm currently in South Africa and very much hoping this card will reach her, sometime this century as the postal system in SA is a little bit broken.

Saturday is all about me. I 'm off to get my hair and nails done and a spot of shopping and coffee out and see another friend. Tomorrow sees the start of me working on the Santa Shoebox project.

Day 290 #onedailypositive #Misfor #fmsphotoaday#spiderweb #snaphappybritmums #project365 M is for Mirror. Yes I'm wearing this shirt today as the rugby is on. However I am in South Africa. It's been nice knowing you all.