So much has happened over the past month, I'm exhausted just thinking about it.
After Christmas I began planning for the holiday I've waited over 4 years for. 4 years ago having booked and paid for everything, I couldn't wait to take my girls to Disney but then disaster struck when I was diagnosed with inflammatory breast cancer just one week before we were due to fly.
Constantly telling myself that we'd go and rebook once I was better and treatment was over, that day never came. So after having the car accident in March 2014 I realised that life is so precious and can be taken from you at any time.
That life was for living and it was happening now and on treatment and with no one to insure me, I was going. My husband booked the holiday for February 2015 but I was suffering from depression and convinced I was going to die before Christmas I urged him to bring the date forward to November. He was having none of it and knew I'd still be here so in February we went and it was everything and more I had dreamed of.
The kids never complained once when we cancelled it the first time round so it was the most magical experience watching their excitement grow and continued to last throughout our trip.
I came home in a Disney bubble not wanting it to burst but there was more to prepare for. The 4th Rainbow Ball was happening a week later and with all the Christmas and holiday excitement it had barely entered my mind.
So I jumped from the Disney whirlwind to the Rainbow Ball whirlwind and had the most amazing time there too. A room filled with 370 people who all came that evening to show their support was overwhelming to say the least. On the day it hit me just what I had been through in the past 12 months and succumbed to tears hence writing a speech which was to be later read out during the evening as I was overwhelmed with emotion. A few wines sorted that out and as I danced the night away we went on to raise thousands for charity. I will be forever grateful to my best friend Nicola Leadbetter for organising such an extravaganza.
The following day was my birthday and only days later I was off to Switzerland to talk in front of over 100 staff from a pharmaceutical company. Now public speaking is not my strong point but all I had to talk about was my journey over the last 4 years. Easy to write about but not to talk about.
How do you squash 4 years of turbulation into 15 minutes?
The lady who had asked me to go had been reading my blogs and following my story and that's why I was asked and went on to discover that women in the audience were following my story online too. I fretted, lost sleep and couldn't eat my breakfast before the talk and although I knew I could do it, I was still overwhelmed with fear.
Anyway I finished 25 minutes worth of talking to a standing ovation and my confidence and determination to beat this disease went through the roof.
I took another view. Instead of coming to terms with having incurable cancer for 4 years, which my injured brain has had to process over the past year since the accident, I started to believe that anything is possible. Who'd have thought a year ago that I'd go to Switzerland and talk in front of 100+ people when I could barely even speak after the crash or even go to Disney or the Rainbow Ball.
The strength of the human spirit is found at the most unlikely of times and events but I've reaslised that anything is achieveable and to expect the unexpected as you just never know what's round the corner. I'm living proof of just that.
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