Beating Bowel Cancer Charity Fundraising Photographic Book

In April 2012 the dreaded cancer word came into our family. One minute I was sitting with my mother expecting a normal discharge from hospital, and then in the blink of an eye our world was turned upside down when we were told that mum had bowel cancer. She had been having trouble going to the toilet and was sent to Wexham Park Hospital for an endoscopy, and it was at that point we learned she had bowel cancer. Her treatment involved radiotherapy and chemotherapy to shrink the tumour, before a successful operation to remove it was performed in September. She is making an excellent recovery, although she still faces an operation to remove a cancerous nodule from her lung in January.

The care and attention mum received both at Mount Vernon and Wexham Park was first class, and it was while mum was undergoing treatment that I decided I wanted to do something to raise funds for a cancer charity and give something back. Unfortunately running a business on my own imposes restrictions as to what I could do, but the idea of writing a book seemed the perfect solution. I have been a keen amateur photographer for about a year and the idea I had was to write a book featuring photos on various subjects, ideas and technical approaches. “Beating Bowel Cancer” therefore is a charity book featuring a collection of photographs and the stories behind them to raise funds for the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. All proceeds will be donated to the charity.

The ebook version on Amazon is only £1.65 of which the £0.97 I earn will be donated to the charity. It is for the Kindle, but there are freely available Kindle reader apps for Ipads, Iphones and computers. From outside the UK please use Amazon.com

The physical book version is available for £7.21 (or maybe £6.49 if Amazon keep a reduction in place) on Amazon and can also be bought from Create Space for $11.49. All physical copies will raise £1.01 for the charity.

There is a justgiving page for anyone wishing to make a donation to the charity.

The plan is to try and sell 1000 copies, and as at the end of January 2013 I have sold 138 copies so I have a long way to go! Absolutely every penny I earn is going to be donated to the Beating Bowel Cancer charity. To have any chance of doing this not only am I asking people to buy a copy, but to help spread the word to as many people as you can through as many channels open to you as possible. The marketing seems to be a much bigger challenge than writing the book itself. If anyone wants to know more they can email me here.

The first media article has appeared in the Reading Post, which will hopefully increase book sales and awareness about the disease.

With continuing media interest, and hopefully two more newspaper articles this week in the Reading Chronicle and Maidenhead Advertiser it looks like I will be making my newspaper photographer debut as I have taken a new photo of me, mum and the book to be used by media organisations.

The Reading Chronicle article...

 

The Maidenhead Advertiser article...