I could have done a number of activities such as driving a performance car, flight simulator or any number of arts and crafts, but I decided on the Chinese cookery experience. I spent a great day in central London, learning some new skills and creating five different tasty dishes.  

I had shared my experience of my last climbing trip with a friend at work called Dave. He quite enjoyed the story – for all the wrong reasons. I can laugh now but it’s still not a good memory. He told me about when he used to go snowboarding with some friends even though he really didn’t like it as his passion is skiing. Now to the untrained eye the difference seems to be one is singular and the other is plural. Apparently, us non-skiing peasants have insultingly oversimplified it. The two pursuits employ two totally different techniques. Now be off with you before I set my hounds on you.

One day he said ‘sod it’ and decided he was not following anyone and had nothing to prove. He turned his riding crop towards me and questioned why I felt the need to go back to the climbing wall – why wouldn’t I just let it go? I really had nothing to prove.

I gave it some serious thought. What did I have to prove? A couple of weeks later I found myself at the reception of said climbing establishment. The irony is, if I had realised they were going to strong arm me so much for the silly session I wouldn’t be standing there. Reluctantly, I paid the ransom and got strapped up.

There were about 10 kids there who all looked to be under 7-years-old and two other adults trying to control them. I marched straight over to the circle of death and waited my turn while the two kids in front of me took multiple turns of climbing and jumping off after climbing the first three poles. Just so you don’t think it’s a kiddie task, let me reiterate what was in front of me. Think of a clock face with twelve circles on it. Each circle is now a pole sticking out the ground, which is about 10 inches in diameter. Each pole is taller than its predecessor, until the tallest is about 25 feet high. To add the icing on the cake, the last three column heads rotate and the second to last one is about 10 inches shorter than the two beside it.

There was a little girl in front of me in the queue, let’s call her Molly. Molly wasn’t the slightest bit annoying as she would climb 4 of the poles, jump off and push in front of me to do it again. I continued to smile and just relax and take it all in my stride. Then it was finally my turn. I confidently marched up the first six, slowed a bit on the next three and delicately took the final three. The circle of death is the showpiece climb in the climbing establishment and therefore is directly in front of the bay of windows. Of course it is.

I stepped off, crashed into the pole directly opposite and fell on my arse. Now this crash was nothing like the disaster the year before and I just dusted myself off and went again. Molly was in front of me again and was shouting at her friend Olivia to watch her. She was not budging until Olivia came over. Two minutes later Olivia finally comes over and pushes in front of me and they have a couple of goes. Being surrounded by a bunch of 7-year-olds was a bad enough optic, let along telling one of them off to hurry up so, I was on my best behaviour.

Eventually they got bored and went on to something else. I climbed up again and once at the top I stopped. What a brilliant place to hear Dave from work in my head. Why the heck was I up here? I stood up there for about 5 solid minutes contemplating life’s choices. At one stage I even thought about climbing back down. Climbing back down was even harder than climbing up. This level of stubbornness was perfect for a life changing cancer diagnosis but more like a chocolate teapot for my current predicament.

Then I remembered the C grade I got in O level Physics. Black mass A swings into immovable object B while tether C rapidly drops mass A from height D.

Yeah that will do it!

Shut up! Step off and crash into pole feet first, then compose.

I did exactly that and landed on my feet. Not a landing Spider-Man would be proud of but landed on my feet. Job done, took off harness and went to walk out.

At the door the guy that strapped me in informed me that I still had half an hour left on my session. I told him that I fell badly on the circle of death last time and I was here to put that right.

“Wow that’s good that you came back to face your fears head on,” he cheerfully informed.

My wrist and bum were sore from the initial fall and I didn’t have time for this. I never said anything about flipping fears. I looked him up and down, smiled and went about my business.

Last but not least for the month: It was a few years ago that I did a talk in north London with a couple of other health presenters. At the end of the talk one of the other presenters came over to me and said my presentation was the best he had seen. He then asked what I was doing with it and how I was taking it forward. I said to him that I just enjoy talking to men and that’s what I do. He said I should be doing something with it. I gave it a little thought but never did anything.

The seed never left and eventually I thought I really did have something different. That was coupled with the ambition to create a video podcast based on my blog and other prostate cancer related topics. It’s been eight years in the making, but here it is:

www.iamtheoneinthree.org

And I am sharing it with you guys before the official launch later in the month.

This is very personal and it’s been a tremendous amount of work in a short space of time, but I am very proud of it. I will still volunteer with Prostate Cancer UK and I have been incredibly fortunate with the people I have met, the places I have been and the credibility I have established. My CIC means I am now more proactive in setting up awareness talks and making opportunities to connect with people in a more immediate and human way, through my own story, my voice, and in places that large organisations don’t always reach. The CIC gives me the freedom to act quickly, work locally, and tailor my message so it resonates with the audiences I meet, whether that’s in workplaces, libraries, or community settings. It’s not about duplicating what already exists, but about complementing it. A line that I always use in my awareness talks has become my tag line:

“Get ahead of it, before it gets ahead of you.”

Exciting times ahead.