This is Me

For those of you old enough to remember the 1970s, the talented voice mimic Mike Yarwood used to finish his tv programmes with a song sung in his own voice, introducing it with the words “And this is me.” Don’t worry. I’m not going to sing you any songs. Well not in the foreseeable future. But otherwise, this is (part) of me.

As long as I can remember, music has inspired and comforted me, as well as being able to make me cry, laugh and generally just give thanks for being alive. In August 2018, I discovered I had advanced bowel cancer with liver metastases and that I would require plenty of surgery, chemo and radiotherapy, as well as enormous amounts of patience and bravery to survive. Since then I’ve been keeping a diary about how I’ve felt and what treatments I have had. Frankly, it’s been an enormously difficult time, and I don’t want to burden anyone with my stories – well, again, not yet. There are plenty of great blogs out there that can supply you with all the gory details and more. What I really want to do (finally, she gets to the point) is share some of the songs I have loved over the years, that have kept me going through the rough times and what they mean to me. I’m also going to include songs that are new to me, because, let’s face it, there’s a lot of superb music being written the whole time – and I can still have goosebumps on the back of my neck when I hear a great tune.

So…here’s the plan:

• I am going to write a short blog on a different song each week.
• That’s it.

I’m going to keep it short so you don’t waste valuable music time reading waffle.

Will this blog appeal to you?:

• Do you sit in the car after getting to your destination waiting until a favourite song has finished on the radio?
• Do you wait to switch off the radio at home until a song has ended?
• Do you sing along to songs, even when you don’t know all the lyrics?
• Do you sometimes have tears in your eyes or do the hairs on your arms stand up when you’re listening to music?
• Do song lyrics often have a personal meaning to you?
• Have you listened to the same song over and over again just being totally lost in it?

If you can answer yes to any or all of the questions above, congratulations you are a brilliant person. You have a soul and you make your life better by listening to music. You’re one of my kind. (See what I did there?)