Live Not Live with Jules From The Alarm About Cancer Support Treat Retreat

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Hi, you love Lante Here sansu
w C why cray you whake up America.

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It's time for the adventure, So
so fight Man on W four C

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why dot com wes Pond Beach is
number one Internet radio station. Here's your

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host, the White Man. I'm
running a retreat in twenty twenty five in

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dizzitth North Wales. Please send your
email and nominate yourself or another person to

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Alarm calling at mac dot com.
For all you breast survivors out there,

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please come and join me for the
treat retreat in Wales, January twenty twenty

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five. This is the Pipe Man
here on the Adventures pipe Man W four

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CY Radio and this interview I'm very
excited out because first of all, it

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includes a passion of mine, which
is music and great music, but also

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motivation, positivity and hope as well
as a very very good cause in a

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great way. And so with no
further ado, I'd like to welcome to

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the show Jules Peters from the Alarm
and Love, Hope Strength. How are

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you, Jane. It's lovely to
be here, oh man, lovely to

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have you. And I just got
to say I think, first of all,

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it's great that you're here to do
what you're doing for other women and

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other people around the world, as
well as your husband. And you know,

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you guys are great musicians, but
I think this is even better.

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So tell me a little bit about
your guys organization, tell the listeners a

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little bit about it and kind of
your story. Yeah, Hi, thank

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you, Dean. I'm the keyboard
player of the Alarm, but I'm also

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married to the lead singer of the
Alarm, and we've been together since nineteen

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eighty six. Our life has been
dominated by rock and roll, and we've

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been really fortunate and privilege to tool
you know, most of our married life

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together. But when I was twenty
nine and Mike was thirty five, Mike

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discovered some lumps in his neck and
it was pretty It blew our world.

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I can only say. Mike was
diagnosed with leukemia in nineteen ninety five,

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and we went from having no responsibility
other than rock and roll and touring the

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world to suddenly dealing as two quite
young people having to deal with a very

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traumatic cancer diagnosis. Back then,
leukemia was a bit of a death sentence.

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And please to report that with all
the development of drugs that now people

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who get diagnosed with leukemia can hopefully
look forward to a much happier and longer

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future. But I think it definitely
characterized our lives, changed our lives in

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many ways. You know, both
Mike and I have been raised in a

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small town in North Wales, not
far away from Manchester and Liverpool. We

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were raised to be at beating positive
people. But I think, you know,

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I can diagnosis when you're young can
go either way. You can either

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feel very angry why me. Mike, however, is a very positive,

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upbeat guy and he's been very easy
to be married to. And I think

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we just decided that not why me. You know, We're just going to

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work with this. This is this
is part of who we are, not

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to panic to take each day at
time, and I'm very fortunate that Mike,

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he just celebrated his sixty fifth birthday
in America last week. Yeah,

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all thanks to you know, a
lot of his attitude I think has helped.

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But also undoubtedly he's received some fantastic
care here in the UK, all

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for free via the National Health Service. So I think, you know,

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Mike has grown up, has been
like the incredible lead singer of the Alarm

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in America, has been very,
very good to us. He's also known

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as the Man in the Camo Jacket, the man who wears Green. When

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he was diagnosed with leukemia, he
decided to come to America and continue as

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to all. I wanted him to
stay at home and staying near the hospital

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and concentrate on the treatment, but
Mike felt that if he gave up on

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his music, that would lose his
mojo. He needed to keep on being

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that person who he was, and
music is Mike's life, so I had

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to support him. We all have
to deal with these things in life in

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our own way. And we flew
to Boston. I remember it was a

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very cold day. As we got
off the plane, I was actually broken,

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you know. I thought this was
the beginning of the end. But

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Mike consulted a faith healer, which
was most unlike him, and she said

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to him that green was his protective
color. I think really from her point

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of view, there was a link
to star signs because he's a Pisces.

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But for whatever reason, I didn't
believe it. I thought it was a

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load of old blooney. But Mike
believed it, and that's all that we

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needed. And we landed in Boston. We went straight to an army outfitter's

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shop and he kicked himself out in
green camo from head to toe and he

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never took it off until he was
put into spontaneous remission. So, you

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know, I've always had Mike.
Mike is eight years older than me,

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and I've always sort of respected the
way that he's dealt with life. So

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then I get diagnosed with breast cancer
in twenty sixteen, and yeah, you

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could have knocked me down with a
feather in that kind of naive way.

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I thought that he'd taken the cancer
bullet for our family, which was a

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ridiculous attitude to have, really,
But I grew up around cancer with my

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you know, like I said,
I was a young woman. We didn't

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have children. When Mike was diagnosed. It impacted on everything, our fertility.

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Would we ever have children? But
yeah, I was absolutely devastated when

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I was diagnosed with breast cancer.
I never thought it would happen to me,

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and I had a few wymy moments, but of course I had to

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practice what I preached all those years
ago and try and stay positive. And

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I said to Mike, I said, I don't want you to be all

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softly softly with me, I need
a bit of tough love. For those

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of the listeners who maybe have some
experience with breast cancer, it can be

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a very brutal journey. I don't
want to say it always is. I

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don't want to scare people out there, but my story, my journey was

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pretty brutal. Chemotherapy, hair loss, radiotherapy, complete loss of femininity,

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you know, brutal breast surgery,
rebuilding yourself. And so a lot of

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what I do is to try and
mentor other women going through this process so

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that I can say, look,
you know, I'm here. I never

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thought i'd get through it. I
can help you get through it now.

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So yeah, and as I said
twenty sixteen, twenty seventeen, actually we

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came to America again, America.
We are both raised in North Wales,

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but America seems to be where we
come to in times of trouble. I've

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grown up since a very young nineteen
year old coming out to the United States.

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So when I got diagnosed, we'd
already planned a month in New York

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City. So we approached my consultant
and said, look, we want to

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go. We want to get our
heads in order, we want to decide

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how we're going to face up to
this, and it did me the world

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of good. I came away and
by the time I went back a month

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later to Wales to face the music, it was all rolled out for me

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that I was going to have to
have chemotherapy. You know, once I'd

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learned that hopefully the regime that I
was going to entertaate would save my life,

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you then start to worry about other
things. You know, not everybody,

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but for me and a lot of
women like me. I was very

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upset about losing my hair. Mike
and I both seem to be known for

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having our hair, and I was
devastated at the idea of losing my femininity

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and I tried everything to keep it. But I lost my hair and I

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created I managed to get a wig
called Tricksy Vixie, which was a bit

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of a marry and faithful wig that
I waltzed around and Mike was an incredible

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support to me. I thought,
this is the test. Now, after

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all these years of me going in
by his side into chemotherapy and holding his

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hand through it all, is he
going to support me in the same way

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marriage test right there? And I'm
happy to say that He's been incredible sports

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me so much so. I think
he did raise a few eyebrows in the

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hospital when he walked into my little
room where I was having my chemotherapy with

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a full entire recording studio. Yes, he recorded an entire album through my

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six months a chemotherapy. But that's
how we try and deal with things.

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You know, no one wants to
have to live through cancer treatment, but

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it's been so much much part of
our lives. And I'm careful the way

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I say it, because you know, not everybody gets through cancer. Always

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conscious of those who haven't made it
through. Mike and I've been incredibly lucky,

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and I think we probably feel like
our life has been enhanced going through

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our respect to cancer battles. It
makes us very very clear on what matters

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in life. We don't have much
time for fessing and fighting, and we

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just are extremely grateful for each day
that comes our way. Yeah, and

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you know what I mean. First
of all, I love the attitude,

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but I love the honestness because even
the most positive of people, when something

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like a cancer diagnosis happens, it
can definitely bring you down. You know,

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you could be the most positive person
in the world, and it could

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be as you put, devastating,
devastating. Yeah, I always say to

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people, you know, I feel
like my life went from technicolor carefree to

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well as carefully his life is with
all the responsibilities that we have. But

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it definitely went from technicolor to black
and white, and I had to battle

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hard. That's why I said to
Mike, you know, you need to

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be my tough love guy. If
you show me too much soft love.

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This isn't for everyone. It was
just my personality. I become quite self

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indulgent, I think, and had
felt very sorry for myself and found it

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very hard to get out of that
pit of self pity. So he went

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complete the other way, which was
hilarious because it was so out of character

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for him. And we had a
few moments where I remember one day he

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came in and he said, right, I need to go into the studio.

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He was going into the studio with
Billy Duffie of the Cult, who

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also has a side project with Mike
called Color Sands. And I love Billy,

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you know, he always makes me
feel really happy. He's great to

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hang out with. But Mike said, right, you're going to have to

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get your act together. I've organized
for our parents to have the children,

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and we're going off to Liverpool to
the studio. And I was like,

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I can't look at the state of
me. You know, I looked like

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a little boiled egg. I had
no eyebrows, no eyelashes, no hair.

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I did not feel like getting my
gear on at all. But he

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just gave me tough love and he
was like, fifteen minutes, get your

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wig on, get your cowboy hat
on, get your skinny jeans on.

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We're off. We're going. And
I was upset. I cried. I

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think I threw things at the door
as he walked out in my little office.

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But you know what, it was
the best thing for me because we

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walked into the studio. Billy was
there. Billy was so kind to me.

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Im McNab was there from the icechool
works, and they both like looped

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their arms into me and stooped me
up and took me to the pub.

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And then I looked back at Mike
and he just gave me the thumbs up,

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and yeah, I felt a very
different person. So I totally understand

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what it's like to be at the
actual brink, because I struggle harder than

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Mike does. Mike has a very
natural positivity. But I try and mentor

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people to say, just trying to
up over the over the doorway for me.

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You know, when I approached chemotherapy, I thought, I'm going to

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walk for five miles a day,
and even though I don't, I'm going

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to put my beanie on, I'm
going to put my wig on. I'm

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going to and I dragged myself out, and I say to people, please

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drag yourself out because by the time
you've walked I live in a little village.

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By the time you've walked around the
village and interactive to other human beings,

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all your troubles do start to evaporate
slowly you've shared them. Don't stay

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in, don't let it all build
up inside. And I carried up that

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on through my journey. You know, I did chemotherapy, like I keep

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saying, and I've it was very, very difficult and very scary at times.

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But by the time I got to
radiotherapy, which was relatively the sort

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of simpler part of the journey,
I actually found it more difficult. I

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walked in, you know, it's
a big empty room. All the radio

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therapy people are in a little room. You feel very lonely, very insecure.

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I had to take my wig off
either and I walked out. Mike

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was waiting for me. I said, I'm going to walk five miles to

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my radiotherapy. And when I walked
out, he thought we were going to

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going to catch the bursts of grab
a cab. But I upset. I

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was on the floor and I said, where are you going? I said,

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I'm walking home. He said,
you can't walk home, and that's

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ten miles. I said, I
have to otherwise I will just ups in

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a puddle. So that's what I
did. I turned radiotherapy into a journey.

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I thought, you know, people
in Africa probably can't even get radiotherapy

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change the mindset, thinking may hate. Radiotherapy is a gift. And I

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thought, I'm not going to drive
because it's always difficult to park. I'm

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going to walk. And so I
invited friends, family and they walked with

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me, and I walked ten miles
a day, five miles to the hospital,

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five miles back, and you know
what, it was a brief experience.

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Hilariously, I was quite disappointed to
finish my radio therapy because I just

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it's we only have it within our
friends and family. Can help, but

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you have to flip oh, no
doubt, no doubt about it, and

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you know everybody does have a different
journey. As you're saying, I have

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to say, what a great husband
that basically did what you needed instead of

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who he needed to be. And
I think that's a very important thing in

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any relationship. And I get it
too, like sometimes people need tough love

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to just like kick them in the
butt so that they trigger their own thinking.

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It's not like you're forcing them to
do something. It's just you're It's

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almost like kicking a car into gear. You know, It's like absolutely that's

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how it was for me. Yeah, And like I say, you know,

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I never want to come across as
oh, aren't we so good?

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Were said positive? You know that
can be really annoying. It's not that

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at all. It's just that is
the way it works for us. And

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when I see people getting upset and
said, I just try and talk them

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through it and say it's fine to
be upset. And so it's fine I

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to have those as I've had millions
of them, you know, I still

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get them now because there's checkups and
there's you know, I've gone on to

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have a very scary year with Mike. Just recently in twenty twenty two,

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and he relapsed when I least thought
he would. I thought he was out

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of the woods. I never thought
I was going to have to worry about

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him again. But I was very, very wrong. In twenty twenty two,

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we finished a massive UK tool and
he developed pneumonia, which is always

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something we warned, you know,
that he needs to avoid at all costs.

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I think it was kind of swerving
out of COVID and he was a

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very poorly boy for about six months. We eventually got him into hospital and

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he was rebuilt by our fantastic local
hospital. But it was difficult, you

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know, and I still he's he's
got a little bit of a cough.

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We've just been away for a week
together and he develops a cough. I

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have to learn very much, as
you know, I've been the patient and

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I've been the curer the same for
him, and I have to learn to

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switch off the worry button. And
I struggle with that and Mike tries to

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teach me to just switch it off. He's like, there really is no

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point in worrying, you know,
worry when there's something to worry about.

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But don't pre worry. It's a
waste few anything. But as a male

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female way I think of responding to
things. It was so funny that you

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mentioned about worrying, because in my
show last week, I was just talking

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about that because I have this thing
where, like so many people, worry

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about things that may or may not
ever happen. And then yeah, and

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if it doesn't happen, you think
about all that wasted energy that you did

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worrying about it. You know,
now I'm older, I try. I

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try my best, you know,
to be like that, like, hey,

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sty love me and you know,
jokingly, when I was younger with

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Mike and I touched on children,
you know, when Mike was diagnosed early,

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so it questioned fertility. And then, as it turned out, I

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developed the fertility problem which bore everybody
with But it was because I had an

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appendicitis operation when I was nineteen rendered
me in the time. I always thought

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it was going to be Mike,
you know, that was part of the

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problem. We then embarked on a
very tough yea, we must have been

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quite bad in previous lives because we
then embarked on a very tough IVF journey

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in Vitro journey. So you know, we've been as a couple. We

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have this incredibly privileged life because we
have all these amazing people, especially in

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America, who follow us and it
gives us the gift to go and travel.

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But we've also had some incredible roller
coasters of you know, family was

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everything to us, having children with
everything, and when we found out that

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it wasn't going to be simple,
it maybe wasn't ever going to happen.

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You know. Again, those kind
of relationships can either pull you apart or

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pull you together, and luckily for
us, it pulled as together. And

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we now have two gorgeous sons called
Dylan and their musicians themselves, and Dylan's

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coming on the road to this to
America when we embark on our We're coming

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out in may Ful, i think
on the last count's forty seven shows in

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the United States. Nice. Yeah, Dylan will be accompanying us and part

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of the road crew and running the
show. See that's so cool, And

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you know, I love that you
shared what you did because so many people

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they look at people that are in
bands or on TV or radio or what

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have you, and they see what
is shown to them or what their perception

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is yeah, but you know,
everybody's just normal people that go through good

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bad roller coaster. It's just a
different roller coaster. That's all absolutely say.

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We're all human, we all bleed
in the same way. And you

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know, I think I think Mike
and I both working class backgrounds in North

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Wales, and we've we've always if
we've always shared our journeys, I think

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we've maybe held back on going public
sometimes with our cancer journeys just because with

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me we didn't quite know where the
journey was going to go. With Mike

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the same and then so I can
honestly say to people it's it's personally,

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I find it's better if you share
it. Generally, human beings are incredibly

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kind and empathetic and want to help
you. When I actually came clean and

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told everybody what was going on.
You know, sometimes people are embarrassed or

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shamed about a cancer diagnosis or they
think that they've done or the life they've

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led, and I always try and
say that has nothing to do with it.

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You know, you just people just
get bad luck, and our bad

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luck has been cancer. But I
guess we've we've seen it as good luck

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in a way, you know,
like I keep saying, we run a

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charity called Love Strength. And it's
a line of a song that micro when

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he was a young man in his
twenties, the song Strength that was very

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popular in America. Give me Love, give me Hope, give me Strength.

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And little did might realize how significant
the song I would become during his

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adult life. And we've gone on
to, you know, do amazing things

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of love, hope, strength,
because our our just burning desire for some

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reason is to just try and help
others. He follow in our footsteps because

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you know, when I was that
young kid of twenty nine, when I

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was told my husband had leukemia,
my world, it just my world fell

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apart. But all I wanted to
do was google quickly you know someone who's

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survived leukemia and is having a happy
life. Well there you go. Yeah,

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I can really find many stories of
them modest and so I wanted to

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put our story out there to say, hopefully we can give you a little

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bit of hope that you can you
can go. And yes, our life

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can be incredibly glamorous and we have
a wonderful life because of rock and roll.

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But I just want to share.
And yeah, we've done a couple

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of documentaries for the BBC where we've
opened the doors into our home and they've

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seen me crying, you know,
they've seen me with my boobs out being

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checked over by my consultant, just
to say that we're all human. It's

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okay to be not okay. But
at the end of the day, I'm

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happy to report with our charity that
there's more and more good stories now,

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you know, there's I can mentor
a lot of women going through breast cancer

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and bring them through the other side. I see lots of people being diagnosed

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with leukemia and going on to live
long and happy lives. That's the I

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often think, yeah, that cancer
should be maybe rebranded with a different name,

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because I think sometimes mentally it still
flows people that world. Whereas you

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know, when I was diagnosed with
breast cancer and thinking how my children were

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only nine twelve, they were kind
of used to cancer, you know,

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their dad had cancer. Yeah,
But I was mentored by another woman who

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I didn't know that well, and
she just said to me, look,

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why don't you just not mention the
word cancer? And I was like,

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that's what I would do, Oh
yeah, yeah, And that's so that's

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what I did. And my kids
have come through relatively unscathed. I just

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said, mum's got a lump.
You know, Mum's going to the hospital

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to get rid of the lump.
She's going to take medicine to get rid

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of the lump. Might make a
hair fall out. And I think as

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long as you're they would see me
getting upset. They'd see me with my

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wig on, they'd see me pull
my wig off, they'd see me.

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Bould just tried to make it.
I said, look, you know,

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we're like cars. Sometimes the have
cups fall off, but it's the car

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stops. But don't panic. You
know, sometimes we do car restarted.

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And it is those words and you're
inner vocabulary to yourself because I mean,

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basically, that word cancer just has
no positive connotation to the word itself and

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the other words that they use,
like sick and disease. And it's like,

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yeah, I've had two heart attacks, okay, And I don't look

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at myself as sick. I don't
look at myself at like they like to

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say you have cardiac disease. And
I'm like, yeah, I'm not saying

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that, you know, and look
at you in a different way, wouldn't

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they if you use that word cardiac
disease, right, exactly yourself. Yeah,

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and even for myself saying to myself, it's like a different type of

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feeling. And I think with a
lot of people, like you said before,

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you said, like you never think
it's going to happen to you.

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You know. It's like one day
you're like really healthy or so you think,

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and you're living your life, and
the next day it just changes forever,

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and people don't realize that, Like, even what you've been going through

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lately is like every day you have
to wonder if if today's the day.

328
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You know. It's like, so
it's like to have that positive attitude.

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I think it's a necessity because if
you think you're sick, if you think

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you're diseased, if you think all
these words, you know you're going to

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live life in that way opposed to
going out and just living life to the

332
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fullest, you know, and and
enjoying what you have instead of worrying about

333
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what you may not have anymore.
Oh so much so, you know you

334
00:24:34.759 --> 00:24:37.640
were saying it as we first started
our interview. You and I are old

335
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and I were actually around about the
same age. And it's that advice,

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00:24:42.319 --> 00:24:47.799
isn't it that you could give to
your younger self that I still think now.

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00:24:47.839 --> 00:24:49.920
It's the fact that I'm a mother, you know, and how to

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00:24:49.960 --> 00:24:53.720
give advice to two people coming through. You can't because you've got to live

339
00:24:53.759 --> 00:24:57.319
the life, haven't you. So
as you're older, you definitely realize that,

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00:24:57.799 --> 00:25:00.880
you know, if there's people you
fall out with, you better walking

341
00:25:00.920 --> 00:25:06.160
away, have no toxicity in your
life. You can't have that attitude in

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00:25:06.279 --> 00:25:08.519
when you're young because you're making your
way and you have to put up with

343
00:25:08.640 --> 00:25:11.240
people that you don't like and to
make your way. It's just the way

344
00:25:11.319 --> 00:25:18.480
life goes. Yeah, you can
be a little bit more choosy. Yeah,

345
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And I was just having a conversation
with my son yesterday and I'm like,

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you know, at this point in
my life, I eat extremely healthy

347
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and I'm very active. I'm not
gonna jet and do all that stuff which

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I don't even really want to do. You know, Like people don't realize

349
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when you're sometimes when you're picky eating
at places. That's even annoying too,

350
00:25:41.839 --> 00:25:47.079
because people think, oh, you
know, like you want to do that,

351
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like like you want to be that
way. And I was like,

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I'm not going to take all that
work that I'm doing and ruin it by

353
00:25:55.119 --> 00:25:59.160
getting upset at somebody or gain an
argument. I'm just going to walk away.

354
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When I was younger, I would
walk towards them, you know.

355
00:26:04.480 --> 00:26:08.319
And it's like and life would have
been boring obviously without a few arguments.

356
00:26:08.640 --> 00:26:15.440
Right exactly you are, And sometimes
there's moments for confrontation and having a good

357
00:26:15.440 --> 00:26:19.279
old But yeah, I think as
you get older, I think there's certain

358
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people possibly that you care less about
so and that's not sounding un kind,

359
00:26:25.160 --> 00:26:29.079
that's just being that's positive. You're
just knowing who you are and the older

360
00:26:29.200 --> 00:26:30.960
you get, hopefully, it's the
way it works, isn't it. You

361
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you become less of the people pleaser. You want to please the people that

362
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you really love, but you care
less to please the people that maybe you

363
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don't really care about well, and
you always and you also realize when you

364
00:26:42.839 --> 00:26:48.400
go through stuff like this that there's
a lot less people on your side than

365
00:26:48.440 --> 00:26:55.039
you thought. You were always so
busy people pleasing that you never paid attention

366
00:26:55.200 --> 00:27:00.160
that they weren't reciprocating as far as
a synergistic relationship. And that's what I

367
00:27:00.400 --> 00:27:03.519
really enjoy. Being less of the
people pleaser is fair, I know,

368
00:27:03.640 --> 00:27:08.079
right. That's what's really cool about
your event that you just did, your

369
00:27:08.119 --> 00:27:15.559
retreat that we're doing again in twenty
twenty five. Yeah, yeah, because

370
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it just it gives you a chance
to bond with other people and everybody to

371
00:27:22.759 --> 00:27:27.799
bond together, where with people that
understand what you're going through number one,

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And I'm sure that having had a
heart attack, you know, with breast

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cancer. I've got amazing friends,
amazing family, but thank god, most

374
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of them haven't gone through breast cancer, so they can only understand so far.

375
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And then they sort of they nod
along, but they don't really understand,

376
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and that's not their fault at all, and they're still incredibly helpful.

377
00:27:48.480 --> 00:27:52.880
The retreat came about and you're sitting
in front of my lovely chapel in North

378
00:27:52.920 --> 00:27:57.599
Wales. That the chapel. Just
to give the listeners some sense of what

379
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the chapel is all about. Mike
and I purchased a chapel. It's in

380
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the village. It's all very authentic. It's in the village where Mike Peters

381
00:28:06.720 --> 00:28:12.160
was born. I'm from the next
town and it's a beautiful chapel that was

382
00:28:12.359 --> 00:28:18.200
a fully functioning, worshiping chapel up
until we bought it. People in our

383
00:28:18.279 --> 00:28:23.000
village heard that we were looking for
a space, and as the congregation dwindled,

384
00:28:23.680 --> 00:28:29.519
is happening so much across the United
Kingdom that there was a need to

385
00:28:29.640 --> 00:28:32.880
sell the chapels. So they knocked
on our door literally and said, we

386
00:28:32.920 --> 00:28:34.559
heard you were looking for a space, would please would you buy the chapel,

387
00:28:36.000 --> 00:28:38.240
So that they knew theys. You
know, we live in the village.

388
00:28:38.279 --> 00:28:41.640
We would never do anything awful with
it, and so we turned it

389
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into our studio and our recording space
and we've made films in there. It's

390
00:28:45.880 --> 00:28:51.920
been a very very creative hub.
But during lockdown obviously we couldn't tour.

391
00:28:52.039 --> 00:28:56.400
We'd always plan to eventually convert this
beautiful space, which is situated opposite as

392
00:28:56.440 --> 00:29:02.599
seventy foot waterfalls in a tiny little
pitch s Welsh village from where we live.

393
00:29:02.720 --> 00:29:04.200
Mike Can I live just up the
road with our kids and our Golden

394
00:29:04.240 --> 00:29:07.759
retrievers, Ziggy Stardust, and it's
all pretty idyllic, you know. It's

395
00:29:07.759 --> 00:29:11.079
where Mike and I from, so
we know everyone. We went to school

396
00:29:11.119 --> 00:29:15.720
with them from the age of two
or three. It's like friends reunited wherever

397
00:29:15.759 --> 00:29:19.160
you go and we love it,
and that's what always draws us back here.

398
00:29:19.480 --> 00:29:25.599
But we developed the chapel into these
five beautiful apartments and they're used for

399
00:29:25.680 --> 00:29:27.640
lots of things, you know,
people just booking to come on vacation.

400
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.119
But as time elapsed, we we
had I'm a massive follower of yoga.

401
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:37.119
We were talking about, you know, being present in the moment. I

402
00:29:37.119 --> 00:29:38.799
would love the whole If the whole
world did yoga, it would all be

403
00:29:38.839 --> 00:29:42.680
a very different, different world.
But that's a whole other interview. And

404
00:29:42.759 --> 00:29:47.279
I'm here in Costa Rica right now, and I'm doing yoga while i'm here

405
00:29:47.319 --> 00:29:49.880
because it's a yoga meca. So
you know, I'm a little bit jealous

406
00:29:49.920 --> 00:29:52.759
there. I'd love to come and
to yoga in Costa Rica. Oh yeah,

407
00:29:52.799 --> 00:30:00.000
you should. Definitely my little list
it is. But so yeah,

408
00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:03.319
we had a lot of yoga retreats, yoga teachers who came and stayed in

409
00:30:03.319 --> 00:30:07.359
the chapel and then we'd send them
up to the little community hall because we

410
00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:11.279
didn't have a studio in the chapel. And then this one particular yoga teacher

411
00:30:11.319 --> 00:30:14.359
said, I've seen this studio you
have in the back. Well, the

412
00:30:14.359 --> 00:30:18.519
studio actually belonged to Mike, and
because we developed the whole place into apartments,

413
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:22.799
he wasn't able to stick on his
guitar and make as much loud music

414
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:26.680
as he used to because we'd had
people stay in there. So long story

415
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:30.759
short, and Mike was very very
good about it. He realized he's very

416
00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:33.160
good at letting things go. Mike, and he realized that it was time

417
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.759
to move on, and so we
emptied his studio and his beautiful studio is

418
00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:42.839
now a yoga studio and a plate
studio, and it's an old it's also

419
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:48.519
the old Sunday School, so it's
a beautiful space with all the original beans

420
00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:52.400
in there, and we've gone on. I opened a yoga studio four months

421
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:57.240
ago and we now host regular weekly
yoga lessons. I'm trying to turn on

422
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:02.799
my whole village. We have men
on the mats on Tuesday night because they

423
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:04.640
just want to come in, all
guys and not have as women in there.

424
00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:10.039
That's fine, all learning to be
more flexible. And from that I

425
00:31:10.160 --> 00:31:14.000
just thought, right, you know, I can use the space to a

426
00:31:14.039 --> 00:31:17.480
good cause. So once a year, and this is where I hope you're

427
00:31:17.480 --> 00:31:22.279
going to help me, Dean to
find some people out there in this particular

428
00:31:22.359 --> 00:31:27.759
tree is about breast cancer. So
anyone out there who's been through breast cancer,

429
00:31:29.599 --> 00:31:32.000
if you would like to say,
you can nominate yourself or you can

430
00:31:32.000 --> 00:31:36.880
get somebody else to nominate you.
And basically you just come and stay with

431
00:31:36.920 --> 00:31:41.480
me for three days in the chapel. It's all for free. You get

432
00:31:41.519 --> 00:31:45.440
fed, you get wined and dined. We go to our sister. I

433
00:31:45.480 --> 00:31:49.599
bought the village pub by the way
about eighteen months ago. It's very yeah,

434
00:31:49.599 --> 00:31:52.720
I've got the chapel and next door
I've got the pub. Everybody thought

435
00:31:52.759 --> 00:31:56.160
I was bonkers, but it's all
worked out well. When Mike is home,

436
00:31:56.200 --> 00:32:00.240
he comes in DJs. It's turned
out that my Peters is an incredible

437
00:32:00.319 --> 00:32:05.759
DJ. He knew Wow. We
have all the village pouring out their doors

438
00:32:05.799 --> 00:32:08.240
on Friday Night and it's called Friday
Night the Red. So we bring in

439
00:32:08.279 --> 00:32:13.119
all these breast cancer survivors. They
come and stay in the chapel and then

440
00:32:13.359 --> 00:32:16.720
we go next door. We rock
at the Red and we just spoilt them

441
00:32:16.799 --> 00:32:21.480
silly, because they deserve to be
spoiled. You know, they've all gone

442
00:32:21.559 --> 00:32:25.200
collectively through a very harrowin journey.
Some of them were still going through chimney

443
00:32:25.240 --> 00:32:30.880
therapy. Some had gone with survivors
for five years. We were all at

444
00:32:30.920 --> 00:32:35.319
different stages of our journeys, and
we laughed, we cried together. We

445
00:32:35.400 --> 00:32:39.000
had the most amazing time. It
was very therapeutic. They didn't want to

446
00:32:39.079 --> 00:32:44.599
leave, if I'm honest, they
just want listen. I'm thinking right now

447
00:32:44.640 --> 00:32:50.000
I should be moving the whales because
maybe I have to do cardiac disease retreats.

448
00:32:50.160 --> 00:32:53.599
You know what's funny about that is
I've been talking about something like that

449
00:32:53.640 --> 00:32:59.400
because both my heart attacks happened after
surfing. Oh did they? Yeah?

450
00:32:59.480 --> 00:33:04.319
So basically to the end of twenty
seventeen, I brought my son family to

451
00:33:04.400 --> 00:33:07.759
Hawaii. I was going surfing an
hour later, had a heart attack.

452
00:33:08.599 --> 00:33:15.200
And what they did in Hawaii,
their medical system is like the worst in

453
00:33:15.240 --> 00:33:22.799
the US, and that's saying a
lot. And they basically they caused a

454
00:33:22.839 --> 00:33:28.720
second heart attack. And so I
went through a year of recovery and I

455
00:33:28.880 --> 00:33:34.759
was not feeling it over the year, and like seriously, like you were

456
00:33:34.799 --> 00:33:38.720
talking about before, during that year, I felt things I never felt in

457
00:33:38.759 --> 00:33:44.200
my life, because it's like one
day you're invincible and then you're not.

458
00:33:44.759 --> 00:33:50.880
You know, and that's exactly what
it felt like. And then a year

459
00:33:51.000 --> 00:33:54.799
later, the choreologists in Florida released
me. You know, you're good,

460
00:33:54.920 --> 00:33:59.240
you're bad, you can go back
to normal activity. I decided to celebrate

461
00:33:59.640 --> 00:34:07.599
and go to Costa Rica and surf. And what happened. I had a

462
00:34:07.799 --> 00:34:12.840
massive heart attack surfing. Oh my
god. But it wasn't from the surfing.

463
00:34:12.880 --> 00:34:16.920
It was from what the basically they
put stent in they misplaced. It

464
00:34:16.960 --> 00:34:22.079
floated out of my main artery and
healed over during that year time. So

465
00:34:22.280 --> 00:34:29.559
then I, you know, went
through another year recovery. I came and

466
00:34:29.719 --> 00:34:34.159
got cleared, I came back to
that's a whole nother story. We only

467
00:34:34.159 --> 00:34:38.559
have time. Costa Rica took such
great care of me, the best doctors,

468
00:34:38.679 --> 00:34:44.519
the best people. These people here
were the most helpful, gracious people

469
00:34:44.599 --> 00:34:47.639
I ever experienced in my life.
They treated me one hundred percent for free

470
00:34:47.679 --> 00:34:52.960
here because my insurance company would not
give them approval to do a life or

471
00:34:52.960 --> 00:34:58.119
death procedure because it takes forty eight
to seventy two hours to get an approval

472
00:34:58.159 --> 00:35:02.760
on insurance claim. So but I
went through that year recovery, came back.

473
00:35:05.199 --> 00:35:08.960
I decided to come back to Costa
Rica and I went surfing, didn't

474
00:35:09.000 --> 00:35:14.280
get a heart attack, didn't die, and then and then I went back

475
00:35:14.320 --> 00:35:19.679
to Florida and three days later we
were locked down for COVID. Really wow,

476
00:35:20.039 --> 00:35:25.519
gosh. Yeah. So so you
together together with you know, people

477
00:35:25.559 --> 00:35:30.519
maybe your age group who have been
through it, to give them the confidence

478
00:35:30.559 --> 00:35:34.599
to go back to that active life. Have to go into it exactly.

479
00:35:34.960 --> 00:35:37.920
That's the whole point, because they
also read something. This is what gave

480
00:35:37.960 --> 00:35:45.000
me the idea. In France,
they do not treat heart attacks with medication.

481
00:35:45.360 --> 00:35:50.440
And I'm somebody I'm not big about
big forma at all, So any

482
00:35:50.519 --> 00:35:52.960
medication I don't have to take,
I'm fine with. They treat it with

483
00:35:53.199 --> 00:36:01.079
surfing. They actually they get they
diagnosed, they give a prescription to them

484
00:36:01.400 --> 00:36:07.519
to go surfing something. It What
a phenomenal idea that would be to like

485
00:36:07.679 --> 00:36:15.679
arrange surf trips for people that have
had heart attacks as their way of getting

486
00:36:15.760 --> 00:36:22.039
healthier, but also like you,
bonding with other people that understand what they're

487
00:36:22.079 --> 00:36:25.639
going through every day, because,
like you said, breast cancer, unless

488
00:36:25.719 --> 00:36:30.519
you have had it, yeah,
I don't care if you how much you've

489
00:36:30.559 --> 00:36:36.360
even been exposed to it. You
can't understand what that person's going through unless

490
00:36:36.400 --> 00:36:42.000
you've been there. And that's what's
beautiful about your retreat is like people can

491
00:36:42.039 --> 00:36:45.400
see that there's other people because when
you go through these things, sometimes during

492
00:36:45.400 --> 00:36:52.400
that beginning phase especially, you think
nobody else knows what you're going through,

493
00:36:52.639 --> 00:36:55.320
but there are people out there that
do. Yeah, I'm glad to be

494
00:36:55.360 --> 00:37:00.480
uneste that I could bring people face
to face. You know, a lot

495
00:37:00.719 --> 00:37:05.320
by text and by email, but
I'm not a major fan of a lot

496
00:37:05.320 --> 00:37:07.639
of the groups that exist out there
because and everyone's doing their best, but

497
00:37:07.679 --> 00:37:10.840
I think naturally we can all talk
each other down into a bit of a

498
00:37:10.880 --> 00:37:15.199
panic. Whereas the beauty of the
treat retreat as we called it, it's

499
00:37:15.199 --> 00:37:20.920
a retreat, which is a treat, was that we were there was like,

500
00:37:20.960 --> 00:37:22.719
you know, put the screens away, let's just we did yoga,

501
00:37:22.880 --> 00:37:28.719
pilates, hiking, dancing, music, and then I think the icing on

502
00:37:28.760 --> 00:37:32.840
the cake was we surprised them.
Mike was kind enough to come in into

503
00:37:34.199 --> 00:37:37.599
we all congregated in the penthouse space, which is very rock and roll.

504
00:37:37.639 --> 00:37:40.039
It's a beautiful space. And then
next minute, like SlowMo, Mike walk

505
00:37:40.079 --> 00:37:45.159
down the corridor. Oh, I'm
getting chills right now. Yeah. Yeah,

506
00:37:45.360 --> 00:37:47.800
they loved it. There was lots
of tears, and because I think

507
00:37:47.840 --> 00:37:52.320
for them as women, because obviously
men can get breastcuns too, but it

508
00:37:52.360 --> 00:37:57.760
was just women on this retreat.
They really related to Mike being the care

509
00:37:57.840 --> 00:38:00.840
a role and he sat there and
he formed a song called Heroin, which

510
00:38:00.880 --> 00:38:05.079
is what he wrote while he was
in the hospital with me when I was

511
00:38:05.079 --> 00:38:07.000
getting my keeen therapy, and he
dedicated it all to them. Not a

512
00:38:07.079 --> 00:38:16.119
dry dry eye in the in the
penthouse barrel was either side of one of

513
00:38:15.119 --> 00:38:30.639
these. Yeah, it's great you'll
been able to come here today and sharing

514
00:38:30.679 --> 00:38:35.440
your experiences that you've all been through
together. You know, really admire you

515
00:38:35.519 --> 00:38:38.519
for what you've been through. And
as a care of for Jewels, I

516
00:38:38.639 --> 00:38:44.880
can relate to some of the challenges
you have to go through because it's it's

517
00:38:45.039 --> 00:38:47.599
quite a brutal challenge that you've all
had to face. And to see all

518
00:38:47.599 --> 00:38:52.760
here today on the road to recoveries, very aggressive and very proud of you

519
00:38:52.840 --> 00:38:57.840
all for making it through. And
I'll sing you a song for this is

520
00:38:57.880 --> 00:39:02.719
a song I wrote for Jewels.
She was going to surgery, the radiation

521
00:39:02.840 --> 00:39:07.440
and the chemo therapy and it is
a very challenging times. Juels in hospital,

522
00:39:08.159 --> 00:39:13.199
a nurse surgery. The last hours
and hours and hours just passed the

523
00:39:13.239 --> 00:39:19.280
corridors and just started writing these words
into my phone. And ever since,

524
00:39:19.519 --> 00:39:22.679
I've always Jewels have been my heroine, just like you'll be hearing still the

525
00:39:22.719 --> 00:39:27.719
people in your lives who've you've seen
what you've been through and understand and appreciate

526
00:39:28.239 --> 00:39:38.559
the steps you've made to stay alive. It's called heroine. My loves to

527
00:39:38.760 --> 00:39:52.760
me, then God gives me work
face that's not my love is. She

528
00:39:53.039 --> 00:40:06.880
flews through my face. Lab heart
beat in b could drive my lother's near

529
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:15.239
to me. My love, my
love, my love, my love,

530
00:40:15.519 --> 00:40:27.960
my love mother. My love is
a lot. She comes when I am

531
00:40:28.079 --> 00:40:37.039
so far away, but that's nothing
left to say. My love speaks to

532
00:40:37.159 --> 00:40:50.960
me, she aches why all of
my bones they bring went Cheer Street down

533
00:40:51.039 --> 00:41:00.719
on my face. My love is
love for me, my love, my

534
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:07.320
love, my love, my love, my love, my love. My

535
00:41:07.559 --> 00:41:22.880
love is a live. My love
is closer to me than God. My

536
00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:30.000
love gets me, my my faith
does not. My love is alive.

537
00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:42.639
My love is a lie. My
love is a lie. My love is

538
00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:54.920
live and she's my herold with Herold
my Herold and Heroin. My love is

539
00:41:55.920 --> 00:42:09.760
of. I was watching the video
when I was having a hard time getting

540
00:42:10.079 --> 00:42:15.760
the video, Okay, I mean, it's just amazing what you're doing.

541
00:42:16.079 --> 00:42:20.719
And really, I think everyone you
know, look at you. You know,

542
00:42:21.079 --> 00:42:22.719
we all do our best, don't
we. You're not doing it for

543
00:42:22.880 --> 00:42:25.840
praise or you're just doing it from
the heart. And you know, I'm

544
00:42:25.920 --> 00:42:30.880
lucky to have this beautiful space.
And sometimes it's not busy, sometimes it

545
00:42:30.920 --> 00:42:34.760
is. I'd rather open it up
to people as and when we can,

546
00:42:34.840 --> 00:42:36.880
you know, And that's what we
want to do for next January. And

547
00:42:36.920 --> 00:42:40.920
we had a girl from New Jersey
who actually flew over especially for the retreat.

548
00:42:43.679 --> 00:42:47.280
Yeah, she's called Lee and and
she because I'm very open and honest

549
00:42:47.320 --> 00:42:52.719
about my experiences on social media,
so she found that she was an Alarm

550
00:42:52.800 --> 00:42:57.280
fan and she found herself diagnosed with
breast cancer a few years ago, and

551
00:42:57.559 --> 00:43:01.199
she suddenly remembered my blogs and my
opening up about what I was going through,

552
00:43:01.280 --> 00:43:06.880
and so she sort of re read
them as a now someone that was

553
00:43:06.920 --> 00:43:10.000
living through it herself and reached out
to me, and so we connected that

554
00:43:10.039 --> 00:43:15.599
way and just communicated via email,
and then she came to a gig and

555
00:43:15.599 --> 00:43:19.280
then it all rolled out and I
said, I think, you know,

556
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:22.199
you need to nominate yourself for this. So that's what we say. Nominate

557
00:43:22.239 --> 00:43:25.480
yourself, ask someone else to nominate
you, or if there's people out there

558
00:43:25.519 --> 00:43:30.880
that know of somebody who thinks they
should deserve, you know, to come

559
00:43:30.920 --> 00:43:36.400
over. We more than welcome Americans
into our little village. We love welcoming

560
00:43:36.400 --> 00:43:38.719
Americans into a little village. I
love it. And I'm a Jersey boy.

561
00:43:38.800 --> 00:43:43.239
I'm originally from Jersey, New Jersey. Oh yeah, we love New

562
00:43:43.320 --> 00:43:47.159
Jersey. Yeah see, And you
know what's funny is I just met somebody

563
00:43:47.280 --> 00:43:53.519
recently. Say that again, you
haven't got the accent. Oh yeah,

564
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:57.840
well, like I kind of killed
it when I was younger, try and

565
00:43:57.920 --> 00:44:01.800
not saut, not sound like I'm
from anywhere type of thing. If I

566
00:44:01.800 --> 00:44:07.599
go around Jersey people, it comes
out in certain words like water and dog

567
00:44:07.840 --> 00:44:14.119
and coffee, and you know those
are like automatic type of thing. But

568
00:44:14.360 --> 00:44:16.599
yeah, I just met somebody recently. I was hanging out with who's from

569
00:44:16.719 --> 00:44:24.159
Jersey in the UK, and so
yeah, so it was kind of cool

570
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:29.639
we were talking about that, you
know, because you would. You wouldn't

571
00:44:29.639 --> 00:44:35.599
believe how many people in actual New
Jersey don't realize why it's called New Jersey.

572
00:44:36.159 --> 00:44:38.000
No, I'm sure, well,
because we all just accept where we

573
00:44:38.039 --> 00:44:43.199
are, don't we have? Yeah, if you started reading into everything,

574
00:44:43.440 --> 00:44:47.239
it would probably send you d lally, wouldn't it. Oh Yeah, So

575
00:44:47.599 --> 00:44:52.719
let's tell everybody first. Let's tell
everybody about the foundation and how they can

576
00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:58.400
connect and help with the foundation,
because the Foundation covers a lot of different

577
00:44:58.480 --> 00:45:00.559
things and a lot of different ways
to help people. Yeah, Love,

578
00:45:00.559 --> 00:45:04.400
hope, strength, like I said, was from a line in the song

579
00:45:04.440 --> 00:45:07.159
that Mike wrote as a young man, Strength, and the line is give

580
00:45:07.159 --> 00:45:09.519
me love, give me hope,
give me strength. And when Mike was

581
00:45:09.559 --> 00:45:15.119
diagnosed, Mike wanted to come,
actually to When Mike finally got to the

582
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:16.840
point where he had to have chem
therapy, he managed to avoid having a

583
00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:22.159
stem cell transplant, but when he
was diagnosed halfway through keeen therapy, he

584
00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:27.519
frustrating for me as his wife and
Cara, he announced that he wants to

585
00:45:27.519 --> 00:45:30.679
come to Austin, Texas to perform
at south By Southwest. And this was

586
00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:34.480
like, you know, in the
very early days when south By Southwest was

587
00:45:34.519 --> 00:45:39.360
just a sort of very emerging festival. I felt frustrated. I wanted to

588
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:43.960
stay at home and just get him
well. But Mike turned to me and

589
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:46.000
said, you know, I won't
get well if I can't keep playing my

590
00:45:46.119 --> 00:45:52.360
music. So so I reached out
to a radio DJ that I knew,

591
00:45:52.239 --> 00:45:55.519
not a DJ, sorry, someone
linked to radio A guy called Richard Reese

592
00:45:55.920 --> 00:46:00.239
and he was in Austin, Texas, and he said, right, I

593
00:46:00.280 --> 00:46:01.400
said, I need to know where
the hospitals are so that I've got a

594
00:46:01.440 --> 00:46:06.000
plan. This is me always second
guessing. And he said, I can

595
00:46:06.000 --> 00:46:07.360
do better than that. I can
put you in touch with someone that's just

596
00:46:07.400 --> 00:46:13.280
come through a stem cell transplant easily
keemia survivor. His name is James Chippendale.

597
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:16.719
And that's what he did. And
James kindly from he was from Austin,

598
00:46:17.079 --> 00:46:20.280
and he picked us up from the
airport. Didn't know us, a

599
00:46:20.360 --> 00:46:23.440
bit of an alarm fun and oh
my goodness, he took us under our

600
00:46:23.480 --> 00:46:28.400
wings. He took us to Dallas
Hospital for a second opinion. He took

601
00:46:28.480 --> 00:46:32.159
us to see Lance Armstrong's doctors,
and he just strengthened me. He just

602
00:46:32.239 --> 00:46:36.519
made me feel like I could be
ready for the fight. He was this

603
00:46:36.599 --> 00:46:42.000
gorgeous, handsome guy. It gave
me confidence that we could maybe get through

604
00:46:42.000 --> 00:46:46.559
this. And because he was a
lukemia survivor, he'd already started a charity

605
00:46:46.639 --> 00:46:52.880
himself, a foundation. I just
met up with him actually in Dallas two

606
00:46:52.920 --> 00:46:55.599
weeks ago, and it was incredible. He's like our brother, and we

607
00:46:55.719 --> 00:47:00.039
founded the charity together. It was
mainly founded by Ike and him because they

608
00:47:00.079 --> 00:47:04.960
were both leukemias. Well, Mike
was going through the chemo therapy at the

609
00:47:04.960 --> 00:47:08.599
time, but they're both leukemia survivors, and so he was the American side

610
00:47:08.679 --> 00:47:12.880
and me and Mike with the British
side. So we said, well,

611
00:47:12.920 --> 00:47:16.760
we'd like to climb a mountain in
Wales to raise funds for our hospital that's

612
00:47:16.800 --> 00:47:22.079
taking such good care of Mike and
then subsequently such good care of me.

613
00:47:22.880 --> 00:47:25.840
And then James, in that classic
Texan style, said well, you know,

614
00:47:25.920 --> 00:47:30.880
I think I think we should go
even higher. And we were like,

615
00:47:30.920 --> 00:47:31.679
what do you mean, and he's
like, I think we should do

616
00:47:31.760 --> 00:47:39.480
base Camp Everest. So we were
a perfect much the confidence of James and

617
00:47:39.639 --> 00:47:44.360
everything they brought with him from growing
up in Dallas, and then our maybe

618
00:47:44.360 --> 00:47:50.280
slightly more reserved manner coming being raised
in the UK and in Wales, and

619
00:47:50.320 --> 00:47:53.000
we established Love Hope Strength together.
James came over and stayed in the chapel

620
00:47:53.039 --> 00:47:57.800
funny enough, and this is before
we developed it into apartments. And we

621
00:47:57.840 --> 00:48:01.719
stood at the altar and James just
saw a T shirt that was lying around

622
00:48:01.800 --> 00:48:05.840
with Love, Hope Strength on the
T shirt and he said, that's what

623
00:48:05.920 --> 00:48:08.840
we need to name the charity.
And while the charity was born, and

624
00:48:08.880 --> 00:48:12.960
we did climb Snowden, which is
our highest mountain, and we've gone to

625
00:48:13.000 --> 00:48:16.400
climb it every year and we've raised
When I say we, it's not we'

626
00:48:17.000 --> 00:48:21.800
it is we, but with a
massive team of volunteers who join us and

627
00:48:22.199 --> 00:48:24.119
hike and you know what, we
turn it into fun. We try and

628
00:48:24.320 --> 00:48:28.800
joke that our charities like sexy charity. You know, we don't want it

629
00:48:28.840 --> 00:48:31.440
all to be too serious. Come
along, hike with us, have a

630
00:48:31.440 --> 00:48:35.840
beer with us, you know,
live life with us, however, the

631
00:48:35.920 --> 00:48:37.280
way you want to live your life. Raise a bit of money with us,

632
00:48:37.559 --> 00:48:42.719
but have an experience of a lifetime. So that's really how we've we've

633
00:48:42.719 --> 00:48:46.440
modeled of hip strand we just go
off on treks and people register onto the

634
00:48:46.480 --> 00:48:50.840
tracks. If you go to live
hip Strength dot co dot uk or live

635
00:48:50.880 --> 00:48:55.119
hip strength dot org. You can
see this year we're we come straight back

636
00:48:55.119 --> 00:48:59.880
from America and then we had straight
off to Spain to trek the Elchem.

637
00:49:00.079 --> 00:49:05.079
In a way. Last year we
went to the Alps, Rock the Alps.

638
00:49:05.119 --> 00:49:08.239
The year before when Paul Mike was
in hospital, I left him behind

639
00:49:08.719 --> 00:49:14.239
and I took fifty people with me
to the Sahara. We have loads of

640
00:49:14.239 --> 00:49:16.239
people from a lot of people from
across America who join us. We've done

641
00:49:16.280 --> 00:49:21.639
Bass Camp, Everest, Kilimanjaro,
Matchi Pichu. But you know what I

642
00:49:21.639 --> 00:49:24.719
love about it. It brings people
together and it's a real level of you

643
00:49:24.760 --> 00:49:28.880
know, you step away from the
comforts whatever comforts it is that you have

644
00:49:28.960 --> 00:49:31.760
in your home, and you're you're
there more with a sleeping bag. You

645
00:49:31.840 --> 00:49:36.360
might be in a dormitory and a
tent. It strip it all back,

646
00:49:36.440 --> 00:49:38.000
and I think it does all the
world's a good. It's like a recent

647
00:49:38.239 --> 00:49:43.960
every year. So I try and
nag and cajole everyone I meet to come

648
00:49:44.000 --> 00:49:46.039
and join us, and they generally
do because it's like, you know,

649
00:49:46.079 --> 00:49:52.800
it's sitting around the campfire, guitar
guitars out it's incredible. It's life changing,

650
00:49:52.880 --> 00:49:54.840
and we all we have a brilliant, brilliant time, but we raise

651
00:49:54.880 --> 00:49:59.960
a bit of money together and we
help change the lives of people less fortunate

652
00:50:00.039 --> 00:50:02.840
than ourselves. I love it.
I love it. It's given me chills

653
00:50:02.880 --> 00:50:07.719
because that's why I dig about your
organization and you're a retreat. It's like

654
00:50:07.800 --> 00:50:14.960
something different, it's not Yeah,
it's creating something and experience that people will

655
00:50:15.079 --> 00:50:17.719
never forget and that that's It's a
short life, isn't it, Dean,

656
00:50:17.800 --> 00:50:21.800
And I want people to live it
big, live it loud if that's the

657
00:50:21.880 --> 00:50:23.159
kind of thing that they want to
do. And if you like music,

658
00:50:23.199 --> 00:50:27.039
if you're affected, you don't even
have to be affected by CANCI. You

659
00:50:27.079 --> 00:50:29.239
know, you can do it for
someone else that you know. It's not

660
00:50:29.440 --> 00:50:32.360
it's not just cancer survivors, but
we're also you know, a big part

661
00:50:32.400 --> 00:50:37.960
of what we do is encouraging people
to register to the bone marrow donor registry

662
00:50:37.480 --> 00:50:40.840
because Mike, you know, all
through his life has been faced with potentially

663
00:50:42.199 --> 00:50:45.639
needing a stem cell transplant, and
fortunately for us, so far, touch

664
00:50:45.679 --> 00:50:50.119
and Wood, he hasn't had to
have that. He's had lots and lots

665
00:50:50.199 --> 00:50:54.000
of relapses, but the new drugs
that have come through have been able to

666
00:50:54.239 --> 00:50:59.639
rebuild him. But whereas James Chippendale, our partner in the charity, he

667
00:50:59.719 --> 00:51:02.639
had to have a full, full
transplant. So we try and encourage people

668
00:51:02.679 --> 00:51:06.639
get on that. We have run
a program called get on the List.

669
00:51:06.840 --> 00:51:10.400
So when people come to our gigs
or our other friends who are musicians.

670
00:51:10.440 --> 00:51:15.079
I mentioned Billy Duffy earlier, you
know, we get everyone to Billy's come

671
00:51:15.079 --> 00:51:19.320
on a lot of our treks.
He went on to be diagnosed with prostates

672
00:51:19.360 --> 00:51:22.519
cancer himself a few years ago,
so he's now part of our little group

673
00:51:22.559 --> 00:51:29.440
of survivors and we just encourage people. It's a swab test and you can

674
00:51:30.000 --> 00:51:32.920
you can potentially save somebody's life.
You know. James, our co founder,

675
00:51:34.119 --> 00:51:38.360
was his life was saved unbelievably by
a German guy literally because this German

676
00:51:38.400 --> 00:51:45.360
guy happened to register to the bow
Marrow Registry and James was dying effectively and

677
00:51:45.400 --> 00:51:47.480
if they hadn't found him a donor, he was a young fit man,

678
00:51:47.719 --> 00:51:53.679
knocked down in his prime with leukemia. But because this wonderful German man registered

679
00:51:53.800 --> 00:52:00.000
many years previously, they suddenly boom
found a match and his name is claud

680
00:52:00.679 --> 00:52:05.679
and Klaus save James's life, and
James was from America to visit him in

681
00:52:05.719 --> 00:52:08.599
Germany and to give thanks to him. Without Klaus, there would be no

682
00:52:08.719 --> 00:52:15.800
James Chippendale and the world would not
be as an exciting place. But we're

683
00:52:15.840 --> 00:52:17.760
heading back to Everest as well,
Deane, I'd like to point out,

684
00:52:17.840 --> 00:52:24.559
so we first went to Everest in
two thousand and eight. I think I'm

685
00:52:24.639 --> 00:52:29.960
not being good on my figures.
I was able to go because thankfully I'd

686
00:52:30.079 --> 00:52:34.719
just given birth to our second child. I mentioned our fertility battle. We

687
00:52:34.760 --> 00:52:37.920
had a huge battle to bring children
into the world. And Mike disappeared with

688
00:52:37.960 --> 00:52:43.960
all his musical fans, Slim musical
pals, slim Gin Phantom from the Stray

689
00:52:44.039 --> 00:52:49.559
Cats, Glenn Tilbrook from Squeeze.
It was a phenomenal chap to base Camp

690
00:52:49.599 --> 00:52:53.840
Everest and they disappeared for three weeks. So we've decided it's the twentieth year

691
00:52:53.880 --> 00:53:00.119
anniversary in four years time, so
we're getting everybody to other and taking a

692
00:53:00.119 --> 00:53:07.719
big group the road back to Everest. So we're excited of it. And

693
00:53:07.800 --> 00:53:13.599
so let's tell everybody too how they
can nominate themselves or somebody else to the

694
00:53:13.639 --> 00:53:19.679
twenty twenty five retreat because it's probably
going to be bigger and better than this

695
00:53:19.800 --> 00:53:22.400
year. I'm sure, yeah,
I think so. I think we'll probably

696
00:53:22.400 --> 00:53:24.039
have to turn it into a week's
stay at some point. You know,

697
00:53:24.440 --> 00:53:29.440
it's a funny your thing we live. It's the year twenty twenty four,

698
00:53:29.480 --> 00:53:31.280
but in many ways where we let
you know, half the time, we're

699
00:53:31.679 --> 00:53:35.840
jet setting all around the world in
all these glamorous places. And don't get

700
00:53:35.880 --> 00:53:38.760
me wrong, my village is very
glamorous because it has a waterfall, great

701
00:53:38.760 --> 00:53:43.039
people in it. But it's you
know, my eighty year old mother,

702
00:53:43.199 --> 00:53:45.800
my eighty three year old father,
my seventeen year old son. It's a

703
00:53:45.840 --> 00:53:49.719
bit like the best family wedding you're
ever going to go to. So it

704
00:53:49.760 --> 00:53:52.440
is quite a unique situation. I
think if you look, there aren't many

705
00:53:52.639 --> 00:53:59.800
musicians of rock bands who own a
pub and the chapel in the place where

706
00:53:59.800 --> 00:54:02.519
they were born. So you know, all that lends itself to quite a

707
00:54:02.639 --> 00:54:07.039
unique situation. So every Friday night, you'll imagine us, This Friday night,

708
00:54:07.079 --> 00:54:12.760
we'll be heading down to the to
the red and socializing with everyone people

709
00:54:12.760 --> 00:54:15.880
that you know, I was born
with that Mike was born with. It's

710
00:54:15.960 --> 00:54:20.360
pretty special. We feel very fortunate
to come from such a place where there's

711
00:54:20.400 --> 00:54:23.679
strong community. We have strong roots. You know, we couldn't move even

712
00:54:23.719 --> 00:54:27.760
if we wanted to, and we
don't want to, but we have a

713
00:54:27.880 --> 00:54:31.599
very very strong There's a word in
Welsh called here i and it means a

714
00:54:31.719 --> 00:54:37.880
desire, a desire, a return, elonging for where you come from,

715
00:54:37.159 --> 00:54:42.760
and Mike and I look to have
to have that. So I think when

716
00:54:42.800 --> 00:54:45.559
people come on these retreats, they
tend to fall in love with the locals,

717
00:54:45.880 --> 00:54:51.239
and the locals fall in love with
the retreaters. So that's why nobody

718
00:54:51.280 --> 00:54:53.159
wants to leave. It's a bit
like Fantasy Island, you know, it's

719
00:54:53.159 --> 00:54:59.519
a little village. No one wants
to go home. So my passion is,

720
00:54:59.559 --> 00:55:04.360
you know, I've I'd like to
do it for I'm definitely committing to

721
00:55:04.360 --> 00:55:07.119
doing it every year, probably the
end of January, because I know that

722
00:55:07.159 --> 00:55:12.599
I'll be home around that time.
So if you want to nominate yourself,

723
00:55:12.639 --> 00:55:17.119
please do. All you have to
do is email Alarm Calling at mac dot

724
00:55:17.119 --> 00:55:22.119
com, Alarm Calling at mac dot
com and just or go to the alarm

725
00:55:22.159 --> 00:55:27.960
dot com and you'll see the email
address there and just write a little description

726
00:55:28.119 --> 00:55:30.960
about what you've been through and why
you'd like to come, and then we

727
00:55:31.119 --> 00:55:37.320
just literally study. I have an
amazing woman called Kirsty who helps me run

728
00:55:37.440 --> 00:55:43.000
the charity, and she's phenomenal,
a survivor of her own. She's had

729
00:55:43.239 --> 00:55:45.880
a benign tumor in her brain,
but is living life to the full.

730
00:55:46.280 --> 00:55:51.719
So between us, you know,
we try and fit everyone in and this

731
00:55:51.800 --> 00:55:55.039
time, you know, they're literally
apart from two or three people, we

732
00:55:55.119 --> 00:55:59.440
had twenty two people staying and I
only knew two or three of them,

733
00:55:59.519 --> 00:56:05.920
and we all just the emails have
had in since of how it's helped them

734
00:56:05.960 --> 00:56:07.639
get through. Personally, I would
live them to all, just to be

735
00:56:07.639 --> 00:56:10.599
able to keep coming back each year. You know, who knows, I'd

736
00:56:10.639 --> 00:56:15.599
quite like to do it for leukemia
survivors as well, So I'll just see

737
00:56:15.639 --> 00:56:19.000
how that how that goes. We're
extremely busy, you know, even though

738
00:56:19.000 --> 00:56:22.559
we're older rockers now we seem to
be more demand than ever and we just

739
00:56:22.679 --> 00:56:28.960
like living our life traveling. You
know. Mike, Mike's just been commissioned

740
00:56:29.039 --> 00:56:32.880
to write his own book, and
I've actually also been commissioned to write my

741
00:56:32.960 --> 00:56:37.840
own side of the story. So
we're both in nineteen eighty six right now.

742
00:56:37.880 --> 00:56:44.280
It's quite funny. It is true
the older rockers they seem to work

743
00:56:44.320 --> 00:56:49.400
a lot more than the younger rockers
ethic. Yeah, we know how to

744
00:56:49.480 --> 00:56:52.679
work hard, that's right. We
come from a generation at the Alarm.

745
00:56:52.880 --> 00:56:55.840
They just there was lots of knocking
on doors, There was lots of rejection,

746
00:56:57.000 --> 00:57:00.320
there was lots of rebuilding. John
Thendy in nineteen eighty it was like

747
00:57:00.840 --> 00:57:06.760
return from London back to North Wales, rethink, rebuild, right back out

748
00:57:06.760 --> 00:57:08.800
on the road. Yeah, got
a gig with the stray Cats. You've

749
00:57:08.800 --> 00:57:13.360
got to work, You've got to
build that following. And that's how all

750
00:57:13.400 --> 00:57:16.239
those kind of bands simple mind you
to the Alarm. And again, you

751
00:57:16.280 --> 00:57:21.880
know, the ones that were fortunate
enough to be appreciated in America as the

752
00:57:21.920 --> 00:57:24.519
Alarm have been very, very fortunate. But you know it's all those years

753
00:57:24.559 --> 00:57:29.159
have come into radio stations. Mike
and I always we never saw it as

754
00:57:29.159 --> 00:57:36.559
a grind like I know some members
of bands do. We we loved coming

755
00:57:36.679 --> 00:57:42.559
too into radio stations. And you
know, we've so many of the jocks

756
00:57:42.559 --> 00:57:49.239
from nineteen eighty three onwards we met
with a very famous DJ called George Gimmark

757
00:57:49.320 --> 00:57:54.320
from Dallas. He was the first
guy to play the Alarm and Bono was

758
00:57:54.440 --> 00:58:00.199
late. So Bono is an iconic
interview with Mike and Bono. And we

759
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:04.800
met him in Dallas two weeks ago. How nice is that? Nice?

760
00:58:05.079 --> 00:58:07.400
Yeah, in a record store with
our kids, and our kids were going

761
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:09.599
off to find the alarm. You
know, you know, you do that

762
00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:13.639
trick, You find the record and
you put it to the front of the

763
00:58:15.639 --> 00:58:21.639
All the Alarm fans do it as
well. Absolutely, yeah. And George,

764
00:58:21.880 --> 00:58:23.960
my gosh, that was nineteen eighty
three, I think was the interview.

765
00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:29.400
And here we are nearly forty years
later, No, over forty years

766
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:31.960
later. What am I talking about? It's the fortieth Alarm anniversary. Wow.

767
00:58:32.360 --> 00:58:36.960
Yeah, forty years later meeting up
in a record store in Dallas talking

768
00:58:37.000 --> 00:58:40.440
about music because that's what it's all
about. That is what it's all about.

769
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:45.719
And man, I love your music, but like I said in the

770
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:49.840
very beginning, and I'm going to
say here at the end, I love

771
00:58:49.920 --> 00:58:53.039
this stuff even better because what you're
doing for people and the mindset you're giving

772
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:58.880
people, and the help and the
hope and the love and the strength and

773
00:58:59.239 --> 00:59:07.400
everything is just absolutely amazing, and
definitely anybody out there if you want to

774
00:59:07.400 --> 00:59:13.320
nominate somebody, if you want to
nominate yourself, you owe it to yourself

775
00:59:13.639 --> 00:59:19.199
for this experience of a lifetime.
And man, I don't even know what

776
00:59:19.239 --> 00:59:22.000
to say to you, Like I'm
going to be in tears, thanking you

777
00:59:22.119 --> 00:59:27.840
for doing this for other people that
need it so much and especially need to

778
00:59:27.840 --> 00:59:30.039
share the message, you know,
and anybody out there who is struggling.

779
00:59:30.159 --> 00:59:34.000
You know, like I said,
we've been talking about positivity, but trust

780
00:59:34.079 --> 00:59:36.840
me, I know what it's like
to feel a little bit down in the

781
00:59:36.920 --> 00:59:38.960
dump. So if I can ever
help, you only have to have only

782
00:59:38.960 --> 00:59:44.079
an email away alarm calling at mac
dot com, regardless of the nomination.

783
00:59:44.320 --> 00:59:46.480
Just if you want a little pick
me up or someone said make you feel

784
00:59:46.519 --> 00:59:50.440
like you know there is a future, you know where to find me.

785
00:59:50.480 --> 00:59:54.599
I'm always here to help. Well, yes you are, and I hope

786
00:59:54.599 --> 00:59:58.559
that we see a lot more of
you and you help so many more people,

787
00:59:58.599 --> 01:00:01.320
and people are going to love this. Thank you for everything you do.

788
01:00:01.559 --> 01:00:05.039
Thank you for the great music,
and thank you for being on the

789
01:00:05.079 --> 01:00:07.920
Adventures of Pipeman. Thank you Deane, thank you for having me hope to

790
01:00:07.920 --> 01:00:13.679
see you in Florida of Costa Rica
sometime soon. Yeah already UK, I'll

791
01:00:13.679 --> 01:00:20.719
be there in August for festival,
so okay drop me a line. Absolutely.

792
01:00:20.960 --> 01:00:28.320
Thank you for listening to the adventures
of Pipemin. I'm w for CUI

793
01:00:28.679 --> 01:00:38.760
Radio. Hey, this is Jules
Peters and you're listening to the Pipemin at

794
01:00:38.920 --> 01:00:45.360
W four CY. I'm running a
retreat in twenty twenty five in Dizzerth,

795
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:50.880
North Wales. Please send your email
and nominate yourself or another person to Alarm

796
01:00:51.000 --> 01:00:54.480
calling at mac dot com. For
all you breast survivors out there, please

797
01:00:54.519 --> 01:01:00.320
come and join me for the treat
retreat in Wales, January twenty twenty five