Westminster

Yesterday was a brilliant day. I went to Westminster with Cancer Research UK and my fellow Campaigns Ambassadors to lobby our MP’s and hopefully persuade them to vote in favour of plain packaging should the Commons have a free vote on the subject.


Before I go in to the details of the day, I would like to mention my fabulous colleagues who are so supportive and enabled me to actually attend the event when it looked like I wouldn’t be able too. Francesca, Shelley, Lisa, Rute and of course the lovely Hayley all stepped in to make sure I was able to take some time off and I really really do appreciate it. I try to avoid letting my charity work interfere with my actual day job but on this occasion it did. Everyone was very accommodating and supportive and I’m really very grateful. Thank you to my lovely boyfriend Leo too, as he has to put up with me talking non stop about our campaigns and other related things. He is a fantastic support to me.


As you will all probably know by now, I have gotten very close to a lot of my fellow ambassadors. In fact, it’s now very difficult for me to go a day without texting the lovely Rochelle Bugg and I count her as one of my very very good friends. The weird thing is, up until yesterday I hadn’t met most of them. Just facebooked or tweeted them for over a year. It’s incredible to think that we have formed such close bonds without knowing each other face to face. These incredible people helped me through the loss of my cousin and we have done some incredible things together. I count them as friends.


It was absolutely amazing to finally get to meet so many of them yesterday. In fact it was the favourite part of my day. It was weird because it felt like I’d known them forever! I was bowled over by David Collins amazing rallying speech before we went over to meet the MP’s. The man needs to be a motivational speaker; he did a fantastic job of making everyone feel motivated and ready to face the MP’s. I think of David as our unofficial leader and is definitely my campaigning inspiration. It was fantastic to meet him and chat to him. He has such interesting things to say. It was also brilliant to finally be able to give the incredible Dawn Green a hug and chat to her in person. She looked incredible, especially when you consider this time six weeks ago she was in intensive care after having a major operation! I could go on and on all day about the individual ambassadors I adore but I’ll try and keep the post short and sweet! But it was also brilliant to chat to Clive, Elizabeth, Laura and so many other amazing people. Little message for the Ranasinghe family – I hope you enjoyed meeting David Cameron! What a massive honour for him to be in the presence of such an inspirational family!


I also have to mention the fabulous CRUK team. They are literally incredible! It was such an incredibly well organised event, which must have been so difficult when you think of the logistics of it! Sophie, Claire and Lizzy did an amazing job, as always! It was brilliant to see them as well as Iona, Tom, Karen, Alison and all the other brilliant members of the team. They are so welcoming and incredibly supportive. 


The lobby itself appeared to go very well. So many of us got to meet our MP’s or their researchers and discuss the campaign (The Answer is Plain) and most of us received positive support. Hopefully this will make us one step closer to seeing the introduction of plain packaging become a reality in the very near future. We’ve worked very hard on this campaign and it was fantastic to hear that so many MP’s are in favour of it. Please keep signing the petition as the consultation doesn’t end until July 10th so we still need support!


I would like to thank my MP for coming to meet me so soon after the tragic loss of his daughter. It meant a lot to me that he came to show his support. He is a very kind man and a very supportive MP. 


Also, thank you to everyone who said such lovely things about this blog. I was really touched by the things you had to say about it. It is my pride and joy and I'm so glad people enjoy reading it! Thank you :)


So all in all the day was incredible! Here’s hoping the campaign is a success because there are so many inspirational people working so hard in the fight against cancer and campaigns like this will save so many lives if they are successful. 

xxx