Live, Not Live

WEBVTT

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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
fight man on W four cy dot

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com. Lis Pond Beach is number
one internet radio station. Here's your host,

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the Pipe Man. I'm running a
retreat in twenty twenty five in dizzitth

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

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

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

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This is the pipe Man here on
the Adventures pipe Man W four cy

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Radio and this airview. I'm very
excited out because, first of all,

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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know, 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

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

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

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

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nineteen eighty six. Our life has
been dominated by rock and roll, and

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we've been really fortunate and privilege to
tool you know, most of our married

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

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Mike 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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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either 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

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

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to work with this. This is
this is part of who we are,

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not to panic, to take each
day at time, and I'm very fortunate

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

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Yeah, all thanks to you know, a lot of his attitude I think

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has helped. But also undoubtedly he's
received some fantastic care here in the UK,

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

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

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

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known as the Man in the Camo
Jacket, the Man who wears Green.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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broken, you know. I thought
this was the beginning of the end.

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

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

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point 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

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

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

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

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

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you 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.

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

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you 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

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

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my you know, like I said, I was a young woman. We

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didn't have children. When Mike was
diagnosed. It impacted on everything, our

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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brutal breast surgery, rebuilding yourself and
so a lot of what I do

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is to try and mentor other women
going through this process so that I can

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say, look, you know,
I'm here. I never thought i'd get

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through it. I can help you
get through it now. So yeah,

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as I said twenty sixteen, twenty
seventeen, actually we came to America again,

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America. We are both raised in
North Wales, but America seems to

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be where we come to in times
of trouble. I've grown up since a

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very young nineteen year old coming out
to the United States. So when I

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got diagnosed, we'd already planned a
month in New York City. So we

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approached my consultant and said, look, we want to go. We want

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to get our heads in order,
we want to decide how we're going to

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face up to this, and it
did me the world of good. I

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came away and by the time I
went back a month later to Wales to

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face the music, it was all
rolled out for me that I was going

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to have to have chemotherapy. You
know, once I'd learned that hopefully the

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regime that I was going to entertaate
would save my life, you then start

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to worry about other things. You
know, not everybody, but for me

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and a lot of women like me, I was very upset about losing my

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hair. Mike and I both seem
to be known for having our hair,

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and I was devastated at the idea
of losing my femininity and I tried everything

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to keep it. But I lost
my hair and I created I managed to

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get a wig called Tricksy Vixie,
which was a bit of a marry and

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faithful wig that I waltzed around.
And Mike was an incredible support to me.

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I thought, this is the test. Now, after all these years

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of me going in by his side
into chemotherapy and holding his hand through it

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all, is he going to support
me in the same way marriage test right

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there? And I'm happy to say
that he's been incredible sports me so much,

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so I think he did raise a
few eyebrows in the hospital when he

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walked into my little room where I
was having my chemotherapy with a full entire

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

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chemotherapy. But that's how we try
and deal with things. You know,

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no one wants to have to live
through cancer treatment, but it's been so

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much much part of our lives.
And I'm careful the way I say it,

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because you know, not everybody gets
through can I'm always conscious of those

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

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think we probably feel like our life
has been enhanced going through our respect to

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cancer bustles. It makes us very
very clear on what matters in life.

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We don't have much time for fessing
and fighting, and we just are extremely

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grateful for each day that comes our
way. Yeah, and you know what

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I mean. First of all,
I love the attitude, but I love

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the honestness because even the most positive
of people, when something like a cancer

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diagnosis happens, it can definitely bring
you down. You know, you could

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be the most positive person in the
world and it could be as you put

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devastating devastating. Yeah, I always
say to people, you know, I

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feel like my life went from technicolor
carefree to well as carefully his life is

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with all the responsibilities that we have. But it definitely went from technicolor to

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black and white, and I had
to battle hard. That's why I said

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to Mike, you know, you
need to be my tough love guy.

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If you show me too much soft
love. This isn't for everyone. It

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was just my personality. I become
quite self indulgent, I think, and

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had felt very sorry for myself and
found it very hard to get out of

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that pit of self pity. So
he went complete the other way, which

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was hilarious because it was so out
of character for him. And we had

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a few moments where I remember one
day he came in and he said,

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right, I need to go into
the studio. He was going into the

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studio with Billy Duffley of the Cult, who also has a side project with

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Mike called Color Sands. And I
love Billy, you know, he always

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makes me feel really happy. He's
great to hang out with. But Mike

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said, right, you're going to
have to get your act together. I've

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organized for our parents to have the
children, and we're going off to Liverpool

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to the studio. And I was
like, I can't look at the state

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of me. You know, I
looked like a little boiled egg. I

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had no eyebrows, no eyelashes,
no hair. I did not feel like

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getting my gear on at all.
But he just gave me tough love and

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he was like, fifteen minutes,
get your wig on, get your cowboy

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hat on, get your skinny jeans
on. We're off, We're going.

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And I was upset. I cried. I think I threw things at the

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door as he walked out in my
little office. But you know what,

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it was the best thing for me
because we walked into the studio, Billy

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was there. Billy was so kind
to me. Im McNab was there from

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the Ice School Works, and they
both like looped their arms into me and

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stooped me up and took me to
the pub. And then I looked back

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at Mike and he just gave me
the thumbs up. And yeah, I

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felt a very different person. So
I totally understand what it's like to be

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at the actual brink because I struggle
harder than Mike does. Mike has a

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very natural positivity. But I try
and mentor people to say, just trying

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to up over the over the doorway
for me. You know, when I

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approached chemotherapy, I thought, I'm
going to walk for five miles a day,

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and even though I don't, I'm
going to put my beanie on,

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I'm going to put my wig on. I'm going to and I dragged myself

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out, and I say to people, please drag yourself out because by the

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time you've walked I live in a
little village. By the time you've walked

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around the village and interactive to the
other human beings, all your troubles do

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start to evaporate slowly you've shared them. Don't stay in, don't let it

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all build up inside. And I
carried up that on through my journey.

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You know, I did chemotherapy,
like I keep saying, and I've it

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was very, very difficult and very
scary at times. But by the time

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I got to radiotherapy, which was
relatively the sort of simpler part of the

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journey, I actually found it more
difficult. I walked in, you know,

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it's a big empty room. All
the radio therapy people are in a

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little room. You feel very lonely, very insecure. I had to take

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my wig off either and I walked
out. Mike was waiting for me.

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I said, I'm going to walk
five miles to my radiotherapy. And when

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I walked out, he thought we
were going to going to catch the bursts

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of grab a cab. But I
upset. I was on the floor and

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I said said, where are you
going? I said, I'm walking home.

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He said you can't walk home and
that's ten miles. I said,

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I have to otherwise I will just
ups in a puddle. So that's what

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I did. I turned radiotherapy into
a journey. I thought, you know,

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people in Africa probably can't even get
radiotherapy, change the mindset, thinking

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may hate. Radiotherapy is a gift. And I thought, I'm not going

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to drive because it's always difficult to
park. I'm going to walk. And

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so I invited friends, family and
they walked with me, and I walked

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ten miles a day, five miles
to the hospital, five miles back.

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And you know what, it was
a brief experience. Hilariously, I was

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quite disappointed to finish my radio therapy
because I just it's we only have it

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within our friends and family can help. But you have to flip oh,

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no doubt, no doubt about it, and you know everybody does have a

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different journey. As you're saying,
I have to say, what a great

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husband that basically did what you needed
instead of who he needed to be.

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And I think that's a very important
thing in any relationship. And I get

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it too, like sometimes people need
tough love to just like kick them in

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the butt so that they trigger their
own thinking. It's not like you're forcing

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them to do something. It's just
you're it's almost like kicking a car into

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gear. You know, It's like
absolutely that's how it was for me.

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Yeah, And like I say,
you know, I never want to come

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across as, oh, aren't we
so good? We said positive? You

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know, that can be really annoying. It's not that at all. It's

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just that is the way it works
for us. And when I see people

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getting upset and said, I just
try and talk them through it and say

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it's fine to be upset. And
so it's fine I to have those as

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I've had millions of them, you
know, I still get them now because

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there's checkups and there's you know,
I've gone on to have a very scary

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year with Mike just recently in twenty
twenty two, and he relapsed when I

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least thought he would. I thought
he was out of the woods. I

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never thought I was going to have
to worry about him again. But I

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was very, very wrong. In
twenty twenty two, we finished a massive

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UK tool and he developed pneumonia,
which is always something warned, you know,

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that he needs to avoid at all
costs. I think it was kind

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of swerving out of COVID and he
was a very poorly boy for about six

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months. We eventually got him into
hospital and he was rebuilt by our fantastic

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local hospital. But it was difficult, you know, and I still he's

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got a little bit of a cough. We've just been away for a week

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together and he develops a cough.
I have to learn very much, as

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you know, I've been the patient
and I've been the curer the same for

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him, and I have to learn
to switch off the worry button. And

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I struggle with that and Mike tries
to teach me to just switch it off.

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He's like, there really is no
point in worrying. You know,

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worry when there's something to worry about, but don't pre worry. It's a

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waste few anything, but as a
male female way I think of responding to

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things. It was so funny that
you mentioned about worrying because in my show

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last week, I was just talking
about that because I have this thing where,

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like so many people worry about things
that may or may not ever happen.

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And then yeah, and then if
it doesn't happen, you think about

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all that wasted energy that you did
worrying about it. You know, now

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I'm older, I try, I
try my best, you know, to

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be like that, like, hey, say love me, and you know,

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jokingly, when I was younger with
Mike and I touched on children,

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you know, when Mike was diagnosed
early, so it questioned fertility. And

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then, as it turned out,
I developed the fertility problem which bore everybody

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with But it was because I had
an appendicitis operation when I was nineteen rendered

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me in the time. I always
thought it was going to be Mike,

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you know, that was part of
the problem. We then embarked on a

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very tough Yeah, we must have
been quite bad in previous lives because we

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then embarked on a very tough IVF
journey in vitro journey, So you know,

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we've been as a couple. We
have this incredibly privileged life because we

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have all these amazing people, especially
in America, who follow us and it

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gives us the gift to go and
travel. But we've also had some incredible

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roller coasters of you know, family
was everything to us, having children with

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everything, and when we found out
that it wasn't going to be simple,

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it maybe wasn't ever going to happen. You know. Again, those kind

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of relationships can either pull you apart
or pull you together, and luckily for

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us, it pulled as together.
And we now have two gorgeous sons called

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Dylan and their musicians themselves, and
Dylan's coming on the road to this to

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America when we embark on our we're
coming out in may Ful, I think

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on the last count's forty seven shows
in the United States. Nice. Yeah,

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Dylan will be accompanying us and part
of the road crew and running the

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show. See that's so cool,
And you know, I love that you

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shared what you did because so many
people they look at people that are in

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bands or on TV or radio or
what have you, and they see what

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is shown to them or what their
perception is. Yeah, but you know,

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everybody's just normal people that go through
good bad roller coaster. It's just

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a different roller coaster. That's all
absolutely say. We're all human, we

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all bleed in the same way.
And you know, I think I think

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Mike and I both of working class
backgrounds in North Wales, and we've we've

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always if we've always shared our journeys. I think we've maybe held back on

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going public sometimes with our cancer journeys
just because with me we didn't quite know

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where the journey was going to go. With Mike the same And then so

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I can honestly say to people it's
it's personally, I find it's better if

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you share it. Generally, human
beings are incredibly kind and empathetic and want

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to help you. When I actually
came clean and told everybody what was going

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on. You know, sometimes people
are embarrassed or shamed about a cancer diagnosis

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or they think that they've done or
the life they've led, and I always

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try and say that has nothing to
do with it. You know, you

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just people just get bad luck,
and our bad luck has been cancer.

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But I guess we've we've seen it
as good luck in a way, you

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know, Like I keep saying,
we run a charity called Love Strength,

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and it's a line of a song
that micro when he was a young man

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in his twenties, the song Strength
that was very popular in America. Give

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me Love, give me Hope,
give me Strength. And little did might

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realize how significant the song I would
become during his adult life. And we've

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gone on to, you know,
do amazing things of love, hope,

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strength, because our our just burning
desire for some reason is to just try

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and help others. He follow in
our footsteps because you know, when I

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was that young kid of twenty nine, when I was told my husband had

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leukemia, my world just my world
fell apart. But all I wanted to

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do was google quickly you know someone
who's survived leukemia and is having a happy

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life. Well there you go.
Yeah, I can really find many stories

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of them modest and so I wanted
to put our story out there to say,

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hopefully we can give you a little
bit of hope that you can go

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And yes, our life can be
incredibly glamorous and we have a wonderful life

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because of rock and roll. But
I just want to share and and yeah,

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we've done a couple of documentaries for
the BBC where we've opened the doors

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into our home and they've seen me
crying, you know, they've seen me

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with my boobs out being checked over
by my consultant. Just to say that

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we're all human. It's okay to
be not okay. But at the end

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of the day, I'm happy to
report with our charity that there's more and

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more good stories now, you know, there's I can mentor a lot of

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women going through breast cancer and bring
them through the other side. I see

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lots of people being diagnosed with leukemia
and going on to live long and happy

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lives. That's the the I often
think, yeah, that cancer should be

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maybe rebranded with a different name,
because I think sometimes mentally it still flows

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people that world. Whereas you know, when I was diagnosed with breast cancer

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and thinking how my children were only
nine twelve, they were kind of used

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to cancer. You know, their
dad had cancer. Yeah, But I

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was mentored by another woman who I
didn't know that well, and she just

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said to me, look, why
don't you just not mention the word cancer?

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And I was like, that's what
I would do. Oh yeah,

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yeah, And that's so that's what
I did. And my kids have come

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through relatively unscathed. I just said, mum's got a lump. You know,

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Mum's going to the hospital to get
rid of the lump. She's going

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to take medicine to get rid of
the lump. Might make a hair fall

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out. And I think as long
as you're they would see me getting upset.

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They'd see me with my wig on, they'd see me pull my wig

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off, they'd see me. Bould
just tried to make it. I said,

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look, you know, we're like
cars. Sometimes the have cups fall

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off, but it's the car stops. But don't panic. You know,

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sometimes we do car restarted. And
it is those words and you're inner vocabulary

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to yourself because I mean, basically, that word cancer just has no positive

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connotation to the word itself and the
other words that they use, like sick

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and disease, and it's like,
yeah, I've had two heart attacks,

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okay, And I don't look at
myself as sick. I don't look at

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myself at like they like to say, you have cardiac disease, and I'm

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like, yeah, I'm not saying
that, you know, and look at

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you in a different way, wouldn't
they if you use that word cardiac disease

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right exactly yourself. Yeah, and
even for myself saying to myself, it's

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like a different type of feeling.
And I think with a lot of people,

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like you said before, you said, like you never think it's going

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to happen to you. You know. It's like one day you're like really

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healthy or so you think, and
you're living your life, and the next

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day it just changes forever, and
people don't realize that. Like, even

326
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what you've been going through lately is
like every day you have to wonder if

327
00:24:00.079 --> 00:24:06.680
if today's the day. You know. It's like, so it's like to

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00:24:06.839 --> 00:24:11.519
have that positive attitude. I think
it's a necessity because if you think you're

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sick, if you think you're diseased, if you think all these words,

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you know you're going to live life
in that way opposed to going out and

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just living life to the fullest,
you know, and and enjoying what you

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have instead of worrying about what you
may not have anymore. Oh so much

333
00:24:34.240 --> 00:24:37.640
so, you know, you were
saying it as we first started our interview.

334
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You and I are old and I
were actually around about the same age.

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And it's that advice, isn't it
that you could give to your younger

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self that I still think now it's
the fact that I'm a mother, you

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know, and how to give advice
to two people coming through. You can't

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because you've got to live the life, haven't you. So as you're older,

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you definitely realize that, you know, if there's people you fall out

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with, you better walking away,
have no toxicity in your life. You

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can't have that attitude in when you're
young because you're making your way and you

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00:25:07.319 --> 00:25:11.640
have to put up with people that
you don't like and to make your way,

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it's just the way life goes.
Yeah, you can be a little

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bit more choosy. Yeah, And
I was just having a conversation with my

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son yesterday and I'm like, you
know, at this point in my life,

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I eat extremely healthy and I'm very
active. I'm not gonna jet and

347
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do all that stuff which I don't
even really want to do. You know,

348
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Like people don't realize when you're sometimes
when you're picky eating at places.

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That's even annoying too, because people
think, oh, you know, like

350
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you want to do that, like
like you want to be that way.

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And I was like, I'm not
going to take all that work that I'm

352
00:25:52.759 --> 00:25:57.240
doing and ruin it by getting upset
at somebody or gain an argument, I'm

353
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just going to walk away. When
I was younger, I would walk towards

354
00:26:03.480 --> 00:26:07.240
them, you know. And it's
like and life would have been boring obviously

355
00:26:07.240 --> 00:26:12.480
without a few arguments, right,
exactly you are and sometimes there's moments for

356
00:26:12.599 --> 00:26:18.440
confrontation and having a good old But
yeah, I think as you get older,

357
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I think there's certain people possibly that
you care less about so and that's

358
00:26:22.839 --> 00:26:26.599
not sounding unkind, that's just being
that's positive. You're just knowing who you

359
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are and the older you get,
Hopefully, it's the way it works,

360
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isn't it. You you become less
of the people pleaser. You want to

361
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please the people that you really love, but you care less to please the

362
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people that maybe you don't really care
about well, and you always and you

363
00:26:41.440 --> 00:26:48.440
also realize when you go through stuff
like this that there's a lot less people

364
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on your side than you thought.
You were always so busy people pleasing that

365
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you never paid attention that they weren't
reciprocating as far as a synergistic relationship.

366
00:27:00.440 --> 00:27:03.920
And that's what I really enjoy.
Being less of the people pleaser is fair,

367
00:27:03.200 --> 00:27:07.319
I know, right, That's what's
really cool about your event that you

368
00:27:07.480 --> 00:27:14.400
just did, your retreat that we're
doing again in twenty twenty five. Yeah,

369
00:27:14.799 --> 00:27:19.400
yeah, because it just it gives
you a chance to bond with other

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people and everybody to bond together,
where with people that understand what you're going

371
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through number one. And I'm sure
that having had a heart attack, you

372
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know, with breast cancer. I've
got amazing friends, amazing family, but

373
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thank god, most of them haven't
gone through breast cancer, so they can

374
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only understand so far and then they
sort of they nod along, but they

375
00:27:42.839 --> 00:27:47.079
don't really understand, and that's not
their fault at all, and they're still

376
00:27:47.119 --> 00:27:52.160
incredibly helpful. The retreat came about
and you're sitting in front of my lovely

377
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chapel in North Wales. That the
chapel. Just to give the listeners some

378
00:27:56.279 --> 00:28:00.960
sense of what the chapel is all
about. Mike and I purchased a chapel.

379
00:28:02.119 --> 00:28:04.720
It's in the village. It's all
very authentic. It's in the village

380
00:28:04.720 --> 00:28:10.599
where Mike Peters was born. I'm
from the next town and it's a beautiful

381
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chapel that was a fully functioning worshiping
chapel up until we bought it. People

382
00:28:18.000 --> 00:28:22.599
in our village heard that we were
looking for a space, and as the

383
00:28:22.640 --> 00:28:29.000
congregation dwindled, is happening so much
across the United Kingdom that there was a

384
00:28:29.119 --> 00:28:32.759
need to sell the chapels. So
they knocked on our door literally and said,

385
00:28:32.759 --> 00:28:34.039
we heard you were looking for a
space, would please would you buy

386
00:28:34.079 --> 00:28:37.839
the chapel, so that they knew
they you know, we live in the

387
00:28:37.920 --> 00:28:41.559
village. We would never do anything
awful with it, and so we turned

388
00:28:41.559 --> 00:28:45.599
it into our studio and our recording
space and we've made films in there.

389
00:28:45.640 --> 00:28:51.720
It's been a very, very creative
hub. But during lockdown obviously we couldn't

390
00:28:51.720 --> 00:28:56.839
tour. We'd always plan to eventually
convert this beautiful space, which is situated

391
00:28:56.880 --> 00:29:02.240
opposite as seventy foot Waterfalls in a
tiny little pitch s Welsh village from where

392
00:29:02.240 --> 00:29:03.839
we live Mike Can I live just
up the road with our kids and our

393
00:29:03.880 --> 00:29:07.599
Golden Retrievers, Ziggy Stardust, and
it's all pretty idyllic, you know.

394
00:29:07.599 --> 00:29:11.759
It's where Mike and I from,
so we know everyone. We went to

395
00:29:11.759 --> 00:29:15.319
school with them from the age of
two or three. It's like friends reunited

396
00:29:15.359 --> 00:29:18.920
wherever you go, and we love
it and that's what always draws us back

397
00:29:18.960 --> 00:29:25.519
here. But we developed the chapel
into these five beautiful apartments and they're used

398
00:29:25.519 --> 00:29:27.640
for lots of things, you know, people just booking to come on vacation.

399
00:29:29.559 --> 00:29:33.119
But as time elapsed, we we
had I'm a massive follower of yoga.

400
00:29:33.599 --> 00:29:36.880
We were talking about, you know, being present in the moment.

401
00:29:37.039 --> 00:29:38.720
I would love the whole If the
whole world did yoga, it would all

402
00:29:38.720 --> 00:29:41.680
be a very different, different world. But that's a whole other interview.

403
00:29:42.599 --> 00:29:47.119
And I'm here in Costa Rica right
now, and I'm doing yoga while i'm

404
00:29:47.119 --> 00:29:49.480
here because it's a yoga meca.
So you know, I'm a little bit

405
00:29:49.559 --> 00:29:52.480
jealous there. I'd love to come
and to yoga in Costa Rica. Oh

406
00:29:52.559 --> 00:30:00.000
yeah, you should. Definitely my
little list it is. But so yeah,

407
00:30:00.119 --> 00:30:03.200
we had a lot of yoga retreats, yoga teachers who came and stayed

408
00:30:03.240 --> 00:30:07.279
in the chapel and then we'd send
them up to the little community hall because

409
00:30:07.319 --> 00:30:11.000
we didn't have a studio in the
chapel. And then this one particular yoga

410
00:30:11.039 --> 00:30:14.279
teacher said, I've seen this studio
you have in the back. Well,

411
00:30:14.279 --> 00:30:18.519
the studio actually belonged to Mike and
because we developed the whole place into apartments.

412
00:30:18.599 --> 00:30:22.799
He wasn't able to stick on his
guitar and make as much loud music

413
00:30:22.799 --> 00:30:26.680
as he used to because we'd had
people stay in there. So long story

414
00:30:26.720 --> 00:30:30.759
short, and Mike was very very
good about it. He realized he's very

415
00:30:30.759 --> 00:30:33.160
good at letting things go, Mike, and he realized that it was time

416
00:30:33.200 --> 00:30:37.759
to move on, and so we
emptied his studio and his beautiful studio is

417
00:30:37.799 --> 00:30:42.839
now a yoga studio and a pilate
studio, and it's an old it's also

418
00:30:42.880 --> 00:30:48.519
the old Sunday School, so it's
a beautiful space with all the original beans

419
00:30:48.519 --> 00:30:52.400
in there. And we've gone on. I opened a yoga studio four months

420
00:30:52.440 --> 00:30:57.240
ago and we now host regular weekly
yoga lessons. I'm trying to turn on

421
00:30:57.279 --> 00:31:02.799
my whole village. We have men
on the mats on Tuesday night because they

422
00:31:02.960 --> 00:31:04.640
just want to come in, all
guys and not have as women in there.

423
00:31:04.680 --> 00:31:08.759
That's fine, all learning to be
more flexible. And from that,

424
00:31:08.960 --> 00:31:12.440
I just thought, right, you
know, I can use the space to

425
00:31:12.880 --> 00:31:17.319
a good cause. So once a
year, and this is where I hope

426
00:31:17.319 --> 00:31:22.240
you're going to help me, Dean, to find some people out there in

427
00:31:22.279 --> 00:31:27.000
this particular tree is about breast cancer. So anyone out there who's been through

428
00:31:27.039 --> 00:31:30.799
breast cancer, if you would like
to say, you can nominate yourself or

429
00:31:30.799 --> 00:31:36.359
you can get somebody else to nominate
you. And basically you just come and

430
00:31:36.359 --> 00:31:40.799
stay with me for three days in
the chapel. It's all for free.

431
00:31:41.079 --> 00:31:45.920
You get fed, you get wined
and dined. We go to our sister.

432
00:31:45.359 --> 00:31:48.400
I bought the village pub by the
way about eighteen months ago. It's

433
00:31:48.480 --> 00:31:52.960
very yeah, I've got the chapel
and next door I've got the pub.

434
00:31:52.079 --> 00:31:56.680
Everybody thought I was bonkers, but
it's all worked out well. When Mike

435
00:31:56.839 --> 00:32:00.559
is home, he comes in DJs. It's turned out that my Peters is

436
00:32:00.599 --> 00:32:04.960
an incredible DJ. He knew.
Wow. We have all the village pouring

437
00:32:05.000 --> 00:32:07.759
out their doors on Friday night and
it's called Friday Night the Red. So

438
00:32:07.799 --> 00:32:12.160
we bring in all these breast cancer
survivors. They come and stay in the

439
00:32:12.240 --> 00:32:15.720
chapel and then we go next door. We rock at the Red and we

440
00:32:15.920 --> 00:32:20.079
just spoilt them silly, because they
deserve to be spoiled. You know,

441
00:32:20.160 --> 00:32:24.480
they've all gone collectively through a very
harrowin journey. Some of them were still

442
00:32:24.480 --> 00:32:30.319
going through chimney therapy. Some had
gone with survivors for five years. We

443
00:32:30.319 --> 00:32:34.599
were all at different stages of our
journeys, and we laughed, we cried

444
00:32:34.680 --> 00:32:38.319
together. We had the most amazing
time. It was very therapeutic. They

445
00:32:38.359 --> 00:32:43.519
didn't want to leave, if I'm
honest, they just want listen. I'm

446
00:32:43.759 --> 00:32:46.680
thinking right now I should be moving
the wells because maybe I have to do

447
00:32:46.799 --> 00:32:52.440
cardiac disease retreats. You know what's
funny about that is I've been talking about

448
00:32:52.440 --> 00:32:58.839
something like that because both my heart
attacks happened after surfing. Oh did they?

449
00:32:59.160 --> 00:33:02.559
Yeah? So basically to the end
of twenty seventeen, I brought my

450
00:33:02.559 --> 00:33:07.000
son family to Hawaii. I was
going surfing. An hour later, had

451
00:33:07.039 --> 00:33:14.359
a heart attack. And what they
did in Hawaii, their medical system is

452
00:33:14.440 --> 00:33:20.240
like the worst in the US,
and that's saying a lot. And they

453
00:33:20.400 --> 00:33:27.359
basically they caused a second heart attack. And so I went through a year

454
00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:32.200
of recovery and I was not feeling
it over the year, and like seriously,

455
00:33:34.359 --> 00:33:37.519
like you were talking about before,
during that year, I felt things

456
00:33:37.839 --> 00:33:43.599
I never felt in my life,
because it's like one day you're invincible and

457
00:33:43.640 --> 00:33:45.920
then you're not, you know,
And that's exactly what it felt like.

458
00:33:46.680 --> 00:33:54.200
And then a year later, the
choreologists in Florida released me. You know

459
00:33:54.279 --> 00:33:58.000
you're good, you're bad, you
can go back to normal activity. I

460
00:33:58.119 --> 00:34:05.799
decided to celebrate and go to Costa
Rica and surf. And what happened.

461
00:34:07.079 --> 00:34:10.639
I had a massive heart attack surfing. Oh my god. But it wasn't

462
00:34:10.880 --> 00:34:15.639
from the surfing, it was from
what the basically, they put a stent

463
00:34:15.800 --> 00:34:20.239
in, they misplaced, it floated
out of my main artery and healed over

464
00:34:21.119 --> 00:34:25.880
during that year time. So then
I, you know, went through another

465
00:34:27.000 --> 00:34:31.840
year recovery. I came and got
cleared, I came back to That's a

466
00:34:31.880 --> 00:34:37.199
whole nother story. We only have
time. Costa Rica took such great care

467
00:34:37.239 --> 00:34:42.440
of me, the best doctors,
the best people. These people here were

468
00:34:42.480 --> 00:34:46.079
the most helpful, gracious people I
ever experienced in my life. They treated

469
00:34:46.119 --> 00:34:51.559
me one hundred percent for free here
because my insurance company would not give them

470
00:34:51.599 --> 00:34:55.159
approval to do a life or death
procedure because it takes forty eight to seventy

471
00:34:55.199 --> 00:35:01.119
two hours to get an approval on
insurance claim. So but I went through

472
00:35:01.119 --> 00:35:07.119
that year recovery, came back.
I decided to come back to Costa Rica

473
00:35:07.719 --> 00:35:12.679
and I went surfing, didn't get
a heart attack, didn't die, and

474
00:35:12.719 --> 00:35:15.679
then and then I went back to
Florida and three days later we were locked

475
00:35:15.679 --> 00:35:23.639
down for COVID. Really wow,
gosh. Yeah. So so you together

476
00:35:23.800 --> 00:35:30.039
together with you know, people maybe
your age group who have been through it,

477
00:35:30.280 --> 00:35:32.360
to give them the confidence to go
back to that active life. Have

478
00:35:32.480 --> 00:35:37.880
to go into it exactly. That's
the whole point, because they also read

479
00:35:37.880 --> 00:35:42.760
something. This is what gave me
the idea. In France, they do

480
00:35:42.880 --> 00:35:47.280
not treat heart attacks with medication.
And I'm somebody I'm not big about big

481
00:35:47.320 --> 00:35:52.719
forma at all, So any medication
I don't have to take, I'm fine

482
00:35:52.760 --> 00:35:58.840
with. They treat it with surfing. They actually they get they diagnosed,

483
00:35:59.440 --> 00:36:06.440
they give a prescription to them to
go surfing something. It What a phenomenal

484
00:36:06.480 --> 00:36:13.360
idea that would be to like arrange
surf trips for people that have had heart

485
00:36:13.360 --> 00:36:19.360
attacks as their way of getting healthier, but also like you, bonding with

486
00:36:19.559 --> 00:36:22.760
other people that understand what they're going
through every day, because, like you

487
00:36:22.800 --> 00:36:29.159
said, breast cancer, unless you
have had it, yeah, I don't

488
00:36:29.199 --> 00:36:34.280
care if you how much you've even
been exposed to it, you can't understand

489
00:36:34.360 --> 00:36:38.719
what that person's going through unless you've
been there. And that's what's beautiful about

490
00:36:38.800 --> 00:36:44.400
your retreat is like people can see
that there's other people because when you go

491
00:36:44.480 --> 00:36:50.360
through these things, sometimes during that
beginning phase especially, you think nobody else

492
00:36:50.800 --> 00:36:53.360
knows what you're going through. But
there are people out there that do.

493
00:36:54.000 --> 00:36:58.199
Yeah, I'm glad to be unestin
that I could bring people face to face.

494
00:36:58.239 --> 00:37:02.880
You know, a lot by text
and by email, but I'm not

495
00:37:02.960 --> 00:37:07.400
a major fan of a lot of
the groups that exist out there because and

496
00:37:07.440 --> 00:37:09.800
everyone's doing their best, but I
think naturally we can all talk each other

497
00:37:09.880 --> 00:37:15.280
down into a bit of a panic. Whereas the beauty of the treat retreat

498
00:37:15.320 --> 00:37:17.840
as we called it, it's a
retreat, which is a treat, was

499
00:37:17.840 --> 00:37:22.280
that we were there was like,
you know, put the screens away,

500
00:37:22.440 --> 00:37:27.519
let's just we did yoga, pilates, hiking, dancing, music, and

501
00:37:27.559 --> 00:37:30.760
then I think the icing on the
cake was we surprised them. Mike was

502
00:37:31.039 --> 00:37:36.800
kind enough to come in into we
all congregated in the penthouse space, which

503
00:37:36.800 --> 00:37:38.559
is very rock and roll. It's
a beautiful space. And then next minute,

504
00:37:38.719 --> 00:37:44.039
like SlowMo, Mike walk down the
corridor. Oh, I'm getting chills

505
00:37:44.199 --> 00:37:46.440
right now. Yeah, Yeah,
they loved it. There was lots of

506
00:37:46.480 --> 00:37:51.159
tears, and because I think for
them as women, because obviously men can

507
00:37:51.199 --> 00:37:54.239
get breastcuns to two, but it
was just women on this retreat. They

508
00:37:54.639 --> 00:37:59.440
really related to Mike being the care
a role and he sat there and he

509
00:38:00.119 --> 00:38:02.800
formed a song called Heroin, which
is what he wrote while he was in

510
00:38:02.840 --> 00:38:07.199
the hospital with me when I was
getting my keeen therapy, and he dedicated

511
00:38:07.239 --> 00:38:09.960
it all to them. Not a
dry dry eye in the in the penthouse

512
00:38:14.199 --> 00:38:29.039
barrel was either side of one of
his Yeah, it's great you'll been able

513
00:38:29.079 --> 00:38:32.840
to come here today and sharing your
experiences that you've all been through together.

514
00:38:32.960 --> 00:38:37.519
You know, really admire you for
what you've been through. And as a

515
00:38:37.559 --> 00:38:42.360
care of for Jewels, I can
relate to some of the challenges you have

516
00:38:42.400 --> 00:38:46.000
to go through because it's it's quite
a brutal challenge that you've all had to

517
00:38:46.079 --> 00:38:52.000
face. And to see all here
today on the road to recoveries, very

518
00:38:52.000 --> 00:38:55.480
aggressive and very proud of you all
for making it through. And I'll sing

519
00:38:55.519 --> 00:39:00.440
you a song for this is a
song I wrote for Jewels. She was

520
00:39:00.559 --> 00:39:06.159
going to surgery, the radiation of
the chemotherapy and it is a very challenging

521
00:39:06.239 --> 00:39:12.159
time. Jules is in hospital a
nurse surgery that last hours and hours and

522
00:39:12.199 --> 00:39:17.960
hours the corridors, and just started
writing these words into my phone. Ever

523
00:39:19.000 --> 00:39:22.320
since, I've always jewels have been
my heroine, just like you'll be hearing

524
00:39:22.400 --> 00:39:27.039
still the people in your life who've
you've seen what you've been through and understand

525
00:39:27.079 --> 00:39:35.960
and appreciate the steps you've made to
stay alive. It's called heroine. My

526
00:39:36.199 --> 00:39:47.519
love to me, then God gives
me work face that's no My love.

527
00:39:52.679 --> 00:40:07.159
She flews through my face like heart
beat in my cold dry my lother's need

528
00:40:07.239 --> 00:40:15.599
to be My love, my love, my love, my love, my

529
00:40:15.840 --> 00:40:28.159
love mine. My love is a
lot of She comes when I am so

530
00:40:28.480 --> 00:40:37.239
far away, but that's nothing left
to say. My love speaks to me.

531
00:40:42.360 --> 00:40:50.960
She aches well hold of my bones. They bray went cheers street down

532
00:40:51.039 --> 00:41:00.719
on my faces. My love is
love for me, my love, my

533
00:41:00.960 --> 00:41:07.320
love, my love, my love, my love, my love. My

534
00:41:07.559 --> 00:41:22.880
love is a viz. My love
is closer to me than God. My

535
00:41:22.159 --> 00:41:30.000
love gets me, my my faith
does not. My love is alive.

536
00:41:32.440 --> 00:41:42.639
My love is a lie. My
love is a live, My love is

537
00:41:43.039 --> 00:41:54.199
live, and she's my Harold with
herold, My herold with Heroin, My

538
00:41:54.280 --> 00:42:09.000
love is of Alarm. I was
watching the video when I was having a

539
00:42:09.000 --> 00:42:15.119
hard time getting the video, Okay, I mean, it's just amazing what

540
00:42:15.159 --> 00:42:20.519
you're doing. And really, I
think everyone you know, look at you.

541
00:42:20.519 --> 00:42:22.199
You know, we all do our
best, don't we. You're not

542
00:42:22.239 --> 00:42:25.360
doing it for praise or you're just
doing it from the heart. And you

543
00:42:25.360 --> 00:42:30.320
know, I'm lucky to have this
beautiful space. And sometimes it's not busy,

544
00:42:30.400 --> 00:42:34.400
sometimes it is. I'd rather open
it up to people as and when

545
00:42:34.400 --> 00:42:36.199
we can, you know, And
that's what we want to do for next

546
00:42:36.320 --> 00:42:40.280
January. And we had a girl
from New Jersey who actually flew over especially

547
00:42:40.280 --> 00:42:46.440
for the retreat. Yeah, she's
called Lee and and she because I'm very

548
00:42:46.480 --> 00:42:52.119
open and honest about my experiences on
social media, so she found that she

549
00:42:52.159 --> 00:42:55.400
was an Alarm fan and she found
herself diagnosed with breast cancer a few years

550
00:42:55.440 --> 00:43:00.480
ago, and she suddenly remembered my
blogs and my opening up about what I

551
00:43:00.519 --> 00:43:06.559
was going through, and so she
sort of reread them as a now someone

552
00:43:06.599 --> 00:43:08.960
that was living through it herself and
reached out to me. And so we

553
00:43:09.320 --> 00:43:15.400
connected that way and just communicated via
email and then she came to a gig

554
00:43:15.480 --> 00:43:19.280
and then it all rolled out and
I said, I think, you know,

555
00:43:19.320 --> 00:43:22.719
you need to nominate yourself for this. So that's what we say.

556
00:43:22.800 --> 00:43:25.239
Nominate yourself, ask someone else to
nominate you, or if there's people out

557
00:43:25.280 --> 00:43:30.639
there that know of somebody who thinks
they should deserve, you know, to

558
00:43:30.679 --> 00:43:35.880
come over. We more than welcome
Americans into our little village. We love

559
00:43:35.960 --> 00:43:38.559
welcoming Americans into a little village.
I love it. And I'm a Jersey

560
00:43:38.559 --> 00:43:43.000
boy. I'm originally from Jersey,
New Jersey. Oh yeah, we love

561
00:43:43.079 --> 00:43:46.760
New Jersey. Yeah see, And
you know what's funny is I just met

562
00:43:46.800 --> 00:43:53.519
somebody recently. Say that again,
you haven't got the accent. Oh yeah,

563
00:43:53.519 --> 00:43:57.760
well, like I kind of killed
it when I was younger, try

564
00:43:57.800 --> 00:44:01.440
and not s out sound like I'm
from anywhere type of thing. Well,

565
00:44:01.519 --> 00:44:07.599
if I go around Jersey people,
it comes out in certain words like water

566
00:44:07.880 --> 00:44:13.039
and dog and coffee, and you
know those are like automatic type of thing.

567
00:44:14.039 --> 00:44:16.360
But yeah, I just met somebody
recently I was hanging out with who's

568
00:44:16.360 --> 00:44:24.159
from Jersey in the UK and so
yeah, so it was kind of cool

569
00:44:24.239 --> 00:44:29.960
we were talking about that, you
know, because you would you wouldn't believe

570
00:44:30.000 --> 00:44:35.599
how many people in actual New Jersey
don't realize why it's called New Jersey.

571
00:44:36.159 --> 00:44:38.199
No, I'm sure, well,
because we all just accept where we are,

572
00:44:38.239 --> 00:44:43.519
don't we have? Yeah, if
you started reading into everything, it

573
00:44:43.559 --> 00:44:47.239
would probably send you d lally,
you wouldn't it. Oh Yeah, So

574
00:44:47.599 --> 00:44:52.719
let's tell everybody first. Let's tell
everybody about the foundation and how they can

575
00:44:52.719 --> 00:44:58.400
connect and help with the foundation,
because the Foundation covers a lot of different

576
00:44:58.480 --> 00:45:00.559
things and a lot of different ways
to help people. Yeah, Love,

577
00:45:00.599 --> 00:45:04.360
hope, strength, like I said, was from a line in the song

578
00:45:04.440 --> 00:45:07.159
that Mike wrote as a young man, Strength, and the line is give

579
00:45:07.159 --> 00:45:09.519
me love, give me hope,
give me strength. And when Mike was

580
00:45:09.559 --> 00:45:15.119
diagnosed, Mike wanted to come,
actually to when Mike finally got to the

581
00:45:15.159 --> 00:45:16.840
point where he had to have chem
therapy, he managed to avoid having a

582
00:45:16.840 --> 00:45:22.159
stem cell transplant, but when he
was diagnosed halfway through keeen therapy, he

583
00:45:22.639 --> 00:45:27.519
frustrating for me as his wife and
Cara, he announced that he wants to

584
00:45:27.519 --> 00:45:30.679
come to Austin, Texas to perform
at south By Southwest. And this was

585
00:45:30.719 --> 00:45:34.480
like, you know, in the
very early days when south By Southwest was

586
00:45:34.519 --> 00:45:39.360
just a sort of very emerging festival. I felt frustrated. I wanted to

587
00:45:39.440 --> 00:45:43.960
stay at home and just get him
well, but Mike turned to me and

588
00:45:43.960 --> 00:45:46.440
said, you know I won't get
well if I can't keep playing my music.

589
00:45:46.599 --> 00:45:52.320
So so I reached out to a
radio DJ that I knew, not

590
00:45:52.360 --> 00:45:57.159
a DJ, sorry, someone linked
to radio A guy called Richard Reese and

591
00:45:57.320 --> 00:46:00.480
he was in Austin, Texas,
and he said, right, I said,

592
00:46:00.519 --> 00:46:01.719
I need to know where the hospitals
are so that I've got a plan.

593
00:46:02.320 --> 00:46:06.079
This is me always second guessing.
And he said, I can do

594
00:46:06.159 --> 00:46:07.599
better than that. I can put
you in touch with someone that's just come

595
00:46:07.639 --> 00:46:13.280
through a stem cell transplant easily kemia
survivor. His name is James Chippendale.

596
00:46:13.559 --> 00:46:16.719
And that's what he did. And
James kindly from he was from Austin,

597
00:46:17.079 --> 00:46:20.519
and he picked us up from the
airport. Didn't know us, a bit

598
00:46:20.519 --> 00:46:23.840
of an alarm fun and oh my
goodness, he took us under our wings.

599
00:46:23.880 --> 00:46:28.559
He took us to Dallas Hospital for
a second opinion. He took us

600
00:46:28.599 --> 00:46:32.440
to see Lance Armstrong's doctors, and
he just strengthened me. He just made

601
00:46:32.440 --> 00:46:37.119
me feel like I could be ready
for the fight. He was this gorgeous,

602
00:46:37.119 --> 00:46:42.159
handsome guy. It gave me confidence
that we could maybe get through this.

603
00:46:42.719 --> 00:46:47.000
And because he was a lukemia survivor, he'd already started a charity himself,

604
00:46:47.000 --> 00:46:52.159
a foundation. I just met up
with him actually in Dallas two weeks

605
00:46:52.159 --> 00:46:57.159
ago, and it was incredible.
He's like our brother, and we founded

606
00:46:57.159 --> 00:47:00.159
the charity together. It was mainly
founded by Ike and him because they were

607
00:47:00.199 --> 00:47:05.239
both leukemias. Well, Mike was
going through the chemo therapy at the time,

608
00:47:05.519 --> 00:47:09.400
but they're both leukemia survivors and so
he was the American side and me

609
00:47:09.440 --> 00:47:13.320
and Mike with the British side.
So we said, well, we'd like

610
00:47:13.400 --> 00:47:17.920
to climb a mountain in Wales to
raise funds for our hospital that's taking such

611
00:47:19.000 --> 00:47:22.320
good care of Mike and then subsequently
such good care of me. And then

612
00:47:22.760 --> 00:47:25.960
James, in that classic Texan style, said well, you know, I

613
00:47:27.039 --> 00:47:30.000
think I think we should go even
higher. And we were like, what

614
00:47:30.039 --> 00:47:32.000
do you mean, and he was
like, I think we should do base

615
00:47:32.079 --> 00:47:40.000
camp Everest. So we were a
perfect much the confidence of James and everything

616
00:47:40.039 --> 00:47:44.679
they brought with him from growing up
in Dallas, and then our maybe slightly

617
00:47:44.719 --> 00:47:50.960
more reserved manner coming being raised in
the UK and in Wales and we established

618
00:47:50.960 --> 00:47:53.679
Love Hope Strength together. James came
over and stayed in the chapel funny enough,

619
00:47:54.000 --> 00:47:58.559
and this is before we developed it
into apartments and we stood at the

620
00:47:58.599 --> 00:48:02.599
altar and James just saw a T
shirt that was lying around with Love Hope

621
00:48:02.719 --> 00:48:06.480
Strength on the T shirt and he
said, that's what we need to name

622
00:48:06.519 --> 00:48:10.119
the charity. And while the charity
was born, and we did climb Snowden,

623
00:48:10.199 --> 00:48:13.960
which is our highest mountain, and
we've gone to climb it every year

624
00:48:14.000 --> 00:48:17.480
and we've raised When I say we, it's not we's it's his we.

625
00:48:17.679 --> 00:48:22.320
But with a massive team of volunteers
who join us and hike and you know

626
00:48:22.360 --> 00:48:25.800
what, we turn it into fun. We try and joke that our charities

627
00:48:25.840 --> 00:48:30.119
like sexy charity. You know,
we don't want it all to be too

628
00:48:30.199 --> 00:48:32.199
serious. Come along, hike with
us, have a beer with us,

629
00:48:32.280 --> 00:48:36.400
you know, live life with us, however, the way you want to

630
00:48:36.440 --> 00:48:38.079
live your life. Raise a bit
of money with us, but have an

631
00:48:38.119 --> 00:48:43.719
experience of a lifetime. So that's
really how we've we've modeled of hip strand

632
00:48:43.840 --> 00:48:47.199
we just go off on tracks and
people register onto the tracks. If you

633
00:48:47.239 --> 00:48:52.119
go to live Hip Strength dot co
dot uk or live hip Strength dot org.

634
00:48:52.559 --> 00:48:57.239
You can see this year we're we
come straight back from America and then

635
00:48:57.280 --> 00:49:00.760
we had straight off to Spain to
trek the Elchem in a way. Last

636
00:49:00.880 --> 00:49:06.239
year we went to the Alps,
Rock the Alps. The year before when

637
00:49:06.639 --> 00:49:10.199
Paul Mike was in hospital, I
left him behind and I took fifty people

638
00:49:10.239 --> 00:49:15.119
with me to the Sahara. We
have loads of people from a lot of

639
00:49:15.159 --> 00:49:17.159
people from across America who join us. We've done bass Camp, Everest,

640
00:49:17.239 --> 00:49:22.039
Kilimanjaro, Matchi, Pichu. But
you know what I love about it.

641
00:49:22.039 --> 00:49:25.280
It brings people together and it's a
real level of you know, you step

642
00:49:25.320 --> 00:49:29.920
away from the comforts whatever comforts it
is that you have in your home,

643
00:49:30.280 --> 00:49:32.280
and you're you're there more with a
sleeping bag. You might be in a

644
00:49:32.320 --> 00:49:36.920
dormitory and a tent. It strip
it all back, and I think it

645
00:49:36.920 --> 00:49:39.360
does all the world's a good.
It's like a recent every year. So

646
00:49:39.719 --> 00:49:44.840
I try and nag and conjole everyone
I meet to come and join us,

647
00:49:44.840 --> 00:49:47.320
and they generally do because it's like
you know, it's sitting around the campfire,

648
00:49:47.519 --> 00:49:52.480
guitar guitars out, it's incredible.
It's life changing, and we all

649
00:49:52.719 --> 00:49:55.440
we have a brilliant, brilliant time, but we raise a bit of money

650
00:49:55.480 --> 00:50:00.719
together and we help change the lives
of people less fortunate than ourselves. I

651
00:50:00.800 --> 00:50:05.159
love it. I love it.
It's given me chills because that's why I

652
00:50:05.159 --> 00:50:08.079
dig about your organization and you're a
retreat. It's like something different, it's

653
00:50:08.119 --> 00:50:15.639
not Yeah, it's creating something and
experience that people will never forget and that

654
00:50:15.639 --> 00:50:17.960
that's yeah. It's a short life, isn't it, Dean, And I

655
00:50:19.000 --> 00:50:22.079
want people to live it big,
live it loud if that's the kind of

656
00:50:22.119 --> 00:50:23.519
thing that they want to do.
And if you like music, if you're

657
00:50:23.519 --> 00:50:27.159
affected, you don't even have to
be affected by CANCI. You know,

658
00:50:27.199 --> 00:50:29.760
you can do it for someone else
that you know. It's not it's not

659
00:50:29.800 --> 00:50:32.559
just cancer survivors, but we're also
you know, a big part of what

660
00:50:32.599 --> 00:50:38.039
we do is encouraging people to register
to the bone marrow donor registry because Mike,

661
00:50:38.159 --> 00:50:42.760
you know, all through his life
has been faced with potentially needing a

662
00:50:42.800 --> 00:50:46.079
stem cell transplant, and fortunately for
us, so far, touch and Wood,

663
00:50:46.760 --> 00:50:51.960
he hasn't had to have that.
He's had lots and lots of relapses,

664
00:50:52.400 --> 00:50:55.519
but the new drugs that have come
through have been able to rebuild him.

665
00:50:55.760 --> 00:50:59.960
But whereas James Chippendale, our partner
in the charity, he had to

666
00:51:00.039 --> 00:51:04.000
have a full, full transplant.
So we try and encourage people get on

667
00:51:04.039 --> 00:51:07.239
that. We have run a program
called get on the List. So when

668
00:51:07.559 --> 00:51:10.840
people come to our gigs or our
other friends who are musicians. I mentioned

669
00:51:10.880 --> 00:51:15.280
Billy Duffy earlier, you know,
we get everyone to Billy's come on a

670
00:51:15.280 --> 00:51:20.119
lot of our treks. He went
on to be diagnosed with prostates cancer himself

671
00:51:20.159 --> 00:51:23.320
a few years ago, so he's
now part of our little group of survivors

672
00:51:24.320 --> 00:51:30.239
and we just encourage people. It's
a swab test and you can you can

673
00:51:30.280 --> 00:51:34.199
potentially save somebody's life. You know. James, our co founder, was

674
00:51:34.519 --> 00:51:39.119
his life was saved unbelievably by a
German guy literally because this German guy happened

675
00:51:39.119 --> 00:51:45.599
to register to the bow Marrow Registry
and James was dying effectively and if they

676
00:51:45.639 --> 00:51:49.440
hadn't found him a donor, he
was a young fit man, knocked down

677
00:51:49.480 --> 00:51:54.400
in his prime with leukemia. But
because this wonderful German man registered many years

678
00:51:54.480 --> 00:52:00.280
previously, they suddenly boom found a
match and his name is claud and Klaus

679
00:52:00.280 --> 00:52:07.360
save James's life, and James was
from America to visit him in Germany and

680
00:52:07.440 --> 00:52:09.599
to give thanks to him. Without
Klaus, there would be no James Chippendale

681
00:52:09.840 --> 00:52:15.360
and the world would not be as
an exciting place. But we're heading back

682
00:52:15.400 --> 00:52:19.079
to Everest as well, Deane,
I'd like to point out, so we

683
00:52:19.199 --> 00:52:24.840
first went to Everest in two thousand
and eight. I think I'm not being

684
00:52:24.880 --> 00:52:30.400
good on my figures. I was
able to go because thankfully I'd just given

685
00:52:30.480 --> 00:52:34.920
birth to our second child. I
mentioned our fertility battle. We had a

686
00:52:35.000 --> 00:52:38.280
huge battle to bring children into the
world. And Mike disappeared with all his

687
00:52:38.920 --> 00:52:45.599
musical fans, Slim Musical pals,
slim gym Phantom from the Straycats, Glenn

688
00:52:45.760 --> 00:52:51.119
Tilbrook from Squeeze. It was a
phenomenal chap to base Camp Everest and they

689
00:52:51.320 --> 00:52:55.920
disappeared for three weeks. So we've
decided it's the twentieth year anniversary in four

690
00:52:57.000 --> 00:53:01.440
years time, so we're getting everybody
to other and taking a big group the

691
00:53:01.519 --> 00:53:07.519
road back to Everest. So we're
excited of it. And so let's tell

692
00:53:07.559 --> 00:53:14.960
everybody too how they can nominate themselves
or somebody else to the twenty twenty five

693
00:53:15.079 --> 00:53:20.159
retreat because it's probably going to be
bigger and better than this year. I'm

694
00:53:20.199 --> 00:53:22.719
sure, yeah, I think so. I think we'll probably have to turn

695
00:53:22.760 --> 00:53:25.519
it into a week stay at some
point. You know, it's a funny

696
00:53:25.519 --> 00:53:30.239
your thing we live. It's the
year twenty twenty four, but in many

697
00:53:30.239 --> 00:53:32.400
ways where we let you know,
half the time, we're jet setting all

698
00:53:32.440 --> 00:53:36.119
around the world in all these glamorous
places. And don't get me wrong,

699
00:53:36.159 --> 00:53:39.320
my village is very glamorous because it
has a waterfall, great people in it.

700
00:53:39.400 --> 00:53:43.800
But it's you know, my eighty
year old mother, my eighty three

701
00:53:43.880 --> 00:53:46.280
year old father, my seventeen year
old son. It's a bit like the

702
00:53:46.280 --> 00:53:50.239
best family wedding you're ever going to
go to. So it is quite a

703
00:53:50.320 --> 00:53:55.159
unique situation. I think if you
look, there aren't many musicians of rock

704
00:53:55.239 --> 00:54:00.480
bands who own a pub and the
chapel in the place where they were born.

705
00:54:00.920 --> 00:54:04.679
So you know, all that lends
itself to quite a unique situation.

706
00:54:04.800 --> 00:54:07.360
So every Friday night, you'll imagine
us, This Friday night, we'll be

707
00:54:07.400 --> 00:54:13.079
heading down to the to the red
and socializing with everyone people that you know,

708
00:54:13.239 --> 00:54:15.760
I was born with that Mike was
born with. It's pretty special.

709
00:54:15.800 --> 00:54:21.360
We feel very fortunate to come from
such a place where there's strong community.

710
00:54:21.480 --> 00:54:24.320
We have strong roots. You know, we couldn't move even if we wanted

711
00:54:24.360 --> 00:54:28.800
to, and we don't want to, but we have a very very strong

712
00:54:28.960 --> 00:54:32.639
There's a word in Welsh called here
i and it means a desire, a

713
00:54:32.639 --> 00:54:37.639
desire, a return, elonging for
where you come from, and Mike and

714
00:54:37.639 --> 00:54:43.400
I look to have to have that. So I think when people come on

715
00:54:43.440 --> 00:54:46.119
these retreats, they tend to fall
in love with the locals, and the

716
00:54:46.159 --> 00:54:51.920
locals fall in love with the retreaters. So that's why nobody wants to leave.

717
00:54:52.119 --> 00:54:53.920
It's a bit like Fantasy Island,
you know, it's a little village.

718
00:54:54.000 --> 00:54:59.719
No one wants to go home.
So my passion is, you know,

719
00:54:59.760 --> 00:55:04.880
I've I'd like to do it for
I'm definitely committing to doing it every

720
00:55:04.960 --> 00:55:07.760
year, probably the end of January, because I know that I'll be home

721
00:55:07.840 --> 00:55:13.119
around that time. So if you
want to nominate yourself, please do.

722
00:55:13.800 --> 00:55:17.960
All you have to do is email
Alarm Calling at mac dot com, Alarm

723
00:55:19.079 --> 00:55:23.079
Calling at mac dot com and just
or go to the alarm dot com and

724
00:55:23.119 --> 00:55:28.840
you'll see the email address there and
just write a little description about what you've

725
00:55:28.880 --> 00:55:32.199
been through and why you'd like to
come, and then we just literally study.

726
00:55:35.039 --> 00:55:38.039
I have an amazing woman called Kirsty
who helps me run the charity,

727
00:55:38.639 --> 00:55:45.000
and she's phenomenal, a survivor of
her own. She's had a benign tumor

728
00:55:45.039 --> 00:55:47.119
in her brain, but is living
life to the full. So between us,

729
00:55:47.199 --> 00:55:52.119
you know, we try and for
everyone in and this time, you

730
00:55:52.119 --> 00:55:55.840
know, they're literally apart from two
or three people, we had twenty two

731
00:55:55.880 --> 00:55:59.960
people staying and I only knew two
or three of them, and we all

732
00:56:00.960 --> 00:56:06.480
just the emails have had in since
of how it's helped them get through.

733
00:56:06.960 --> 00:56:08.079
Personally, I would live them to
all, just to be able to keep

734
00:56:08.079 --> 00:56:12.119
coming back each year. You know, who knows, I'd quite like to

735
00:56:12.119 --> 00:56:15.320
do it for leukemia survivors as well, So I'll just see how that how

736
00:56:15.360 --> 00:56:20.039
that goes. We're extremely busy,
you know, even though we're older rockers

737
00:56:20.079 --> 00:56:23.239
now we seem to be more demand
than ever and we just like living our

738
00:56:23.280 --> 00:56:29.599
life traveling. You know. Mike, Mike's just been commissioned to write his

739
00:56:29.679 --> 00:56:34.880
own book, and I've actually also
been commissioned to write my own side of

740
00:56:34.920 --> 00:56:38.239
the story. So we're both in
nineteen eighty six right now. It's quite

741
00:56:38.280 --> 00:56:45.119
funny. It is true the older
rockers they seem to work a lot more

742
00:56:45.280 --> 00:56:50.039
than the younger rockers ethic. Yeah, we know how to work hard,

743
00:56:50.920 --> 00:56:53.559
that's right. We come from a
generation at the Alarm. They just there

744
00:56:53.599 --> 00:56:57.320
was lots of knocking on doors,
There was lots of rejection, there was

745
00:56:57.639 --> 00:57:01.440
lots of rebuilding. John. Then
in nineteen eighty it was like return from

746
00:57:01.480 --> 00:57:07.000
London back to North Wales, rethink, rebuild, right back out on the

747
00:57:07.079 --> 00:57:09.039
road. Yeah, got a gig
with the stray Cats. You've got to

748
00:57:09.079 --> 00:57:13.840
work, You've got to build that
following. And that's how all those kind

749
00:57:13.880 --> 00:57:16.360
of bands simple mind you to the
Alarm. And again, you know,

750
00:57:16.400 --> 00:57:22.480
the ones that were fortunate enough to
be appreciated in America as the Alarm have

751
00:57:22.559 --> 00:57:24.840
been very, very fortunate. But
you know it's all those years have come

752
00:57:24.880 --> 00:57:29.639
into radio stations. Mike and I
always we never saw it as a grind,

753
00:57:29.800 --> 00:57:36.800
like I know some members of bands
do. We We loved coming too

754
00:57:37.039 --> 00:57:42.559
into radio stations. And you know, we've so many of the jocks.

755
00:57:42.559 --> 00:57:47.760
From nineteen eighty three onwards, we
met with a very famous DJ called George

756
00:57:47.800 --> 00:57:53.599
Gimmark from Dallas. He was the
first guy to play the Alarm and Bono

757
00:57:54.280 --> 00:58:00.199
was late. So Bono is an
iconic interview with Mike and Bono and we

758
00:58:00.239 --> 00:58:04.800
met him in Dallas two weeks ago. How nice is that? Nice?

759
00:58:05.079 --> 00:58:07.400
Yeah, in a record store with
our kids, and our kids were going

760
00:58:07.440 --> 00:58:09.599
off to find the Alarm. You
know, you know, you do that

761
00:58:09.679 --> 00:58:13.639
trick, you find the record and
you put it to the front of the

762
00:58:15.639 --> 00:58:21.639
All the Alarm fans do it as
well. Absolutely, yeah. And George,

763
00:58:21.880 --> 00:58:23.960
my gosh, that was nineteen eighty
three, I think was the interview.

764
00:58:24.000 --> 00:58:29.400
And here we are nearly forty years
later, No, over forty years

765
00:58:29.480 --> 00:58:32.039
later. What am I talking about? It's the fortieth Alarm anniversary. Wow.

766
00:58:32.360 --> 00:58:36.960
Yeah, forty years later meeting up
in a record store in Dallas talking

767
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.

768
00:58:40.760 --> 00:58:45.719
And man, I love your music. But like I said in the

769
00:58:45.800 --> 00:58:49.800
very beginning, and I'm going to
say here at the end, I love

770
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

771
00:58:53.079 --> 00:58:58.880
people, and the help and the
hope and the love and the strength and

772
00:58:59.239 --> 00:59:07.880
everything is just absolutely amazing and definitely
anybody out there if you want to nominate

773
00:59:07.960 --> 00:59:13.719
somebody, if you want to nominate
yourself, you owe it to yourself for

774
00:59:13.800 --> 00:59:19.320
this experience of a lifetime. And
man, I don't even know what to

775
00:59:19.360 --> 00:59:22.519
say to you, Like I'm going
to be in tears, thanking you for

776
00:59:22.679 --> 00:59:28.079
doing this for other people that need
it so much and especially need to share

777
00:59:28.119 --> 00:59:30.239
the message, you know, and
anybody out there who is struggling. You

778
00:59:30.239 --> 00:59:34.159
know, like I said, we've
been talking about positivity, but trust me,

779
00:59:34.199 --> 00:59:37.199
I know what it's like to feel
a little bit down in the dump.

780
00:59:37.280 --> 00:59:39.079
So if I can ever help,
you only have to have only an

781
00:59:39.079 --> 00:59:44.400
email away alarm calling at mac dot
com, regardless of the nomination. Just

782
00:59:44.400 --> 00:59:46.599
if you want a little pick me
up or someone said make you feel like

783
00:59:46.719 --> 00:59:50.639
you know there is a future,
you know where to find me. I'm

784
00:59:50.639 --> 00:59:54.719
always here to help. Well,
yes you are, and I hope that

785
00:59:54.760 --> 00:59:58.559
we see a lot more of you
and you help so many more people,

786
00:59:58.599 --> 01:00:01.320
and people are going to love this. Thank you for everything you do.

787
01:00:01.559 --> 01:00:05.599
Thank you for the great music,
and thank you for being on the Adventures

788
01:00:05.599 --> 01:00:08.159
of Pipemin Thank you Deane, Thank
you for having me hope to see you

789
01:00:08.239 --> 01:00:13.679
in Florida, a Costa Rica sometime
soon. Yeah already, UK, I'll

790
01:00:13.679 --> 01:00:17.719
be there in August for festival,
so okay, drop me a line.

791
01:00:20.039 --> 01:00:27.199
Absolutely. Thank you for listening to
the adventures of Pipemin. I'm w for

792
01:00:27.559 --> 01:00:38.519
CUI Radio. Hey, this is
Jules Peters and you're listening to the Pipemin

793
01:00:38.599 --> 01:00:45.360
at W four CY. I'm running
a retreat in twenty twenty five in Dizzerth,

794
01:00:45.519 --> 01:00:49.920
North Wales. Please send your email
and nominate yourself or another person to

795
01:00:50.440 --> 01:00:54.000
Alarm calling at mac dot com.
For all you breast survivors out there,

796
01:00:54.159 --> 01:01:00.039
please come and join me for the
treat retreat in Wales, January twenty twenty five