The latest big adventure!

On Wednesday I had a big adventure!  I told very few people about it in advance because I wasn’t 100% sure I wouldn’t chicken out and I didn’t want to look like a wimp (although I am quite aware that I am a bit of a wimp at the moment… I’m working on it!)  It’s another on of those ‘in my old life I wouldn’t have thought twice about doing it, pull yourself together Mand!’ moments.

I went to London, on the train, on my own!

A while ago I was having a look at the Macmillan website, as you do, and came across the ‘Cancer Voices’ section.  Cancer Voices are people from across the UK who have all been affected by cancer in some way. They share their experiences to help shape cancer services and improve cancer care.  As a volunteer, you get to see lots of different opportunities from completing surveys to reviewing booklets/information documents and attending focus groups.  I signed up and the first few opportunities were in other parts of the country or not for people with my experience (wrong type of cancer 😉 ).  Anyway, one came up for a focus group on some preliminary concept ideas for rebranding of the Macmillan Information and Support centres.  When I saw it on the list I was really excited so I checked out the location, it was close to Liverpool St Station (which is where the trains from Norwich arrive in London), big tick.  Then I looked at the timing of the session; 14:00 to 16:00 avoiding the rush hours of travel, another big tick so I decided to register an interest.  You’re not guaranteed to be accepted so I had nothing to lose by registering 😉

Then I couple of weeks later I got a response, ‘we’d like you to participate!’ Cue the spooky music!!!!

I have always been interested in how focus groups can work and as a FastWorks coach at GE it was something I had learned and heard quite a lot about but I had never been directly involved in one from any perspective – how exciting – however I still had doubts about my ability to get there and do it…

I accepted the invitation, it took me a couple of weeks to actually book the train but once I did I knew I was committed and had to make it work somehow 🙂

And I did!  I caught the 11:45 train from Diss.  I agreed with Phil that even though it was only 5 minutes from the station, I would take a cab to the venue so I didn’t look like a tourist!  Fortunately, the taxi driver was very honest and told me exactly how to get there walking, it was literally 5 minutes with only two turns, both at T-Junctions! So I set off walking.

He said ‘look for the TEA sign’  I did get a bit worried when I thought I should be able to see the sign and couldn’t see it amongst all the other signs then I looked up a bit!!

The focus group didn’t disappoint – especially as I made a new friend Anita who I’ll tell you more about another time… I have rambled too much today already

Anita walked me back to the station and I got home safely, of course 😉

Dad and Chris will arrive any minute for the weekend which will be delicious (they’re picking up a curry on the way)!

Talk to you soon

Lots of love Mand xxx