Monday 5 January 2015

GOODBYE TO THE ULTIMATE FIGHTER
 
 
The death of much loved ESPN anchor Stuart Scott, yesterday has led to an outpouring of love, fond memories and best of all the circulation of one of the most poignant and inspiring videos I have ever had the privilege to see, from this ultimate fighter who battled his cancer for 7 years.

I watched it through a flood of tears and it turned my thoughts to my Gramps who lost his fight 15 years ago and my Mum who has now fought cancer twice and although she's currently in remission, she continues to fight daily to regain the health she once enjoyed.

For those of us encircled by the deadly ring of cancer, recent comments downplaying cancer, most notably from Dr Richard Smith, a former long-serving editor of the British Medical Journal, now chairman of a health technology company, who on an online blog declared that 'Cancer is ‘the best way to die’, and that the country should therefore ‘stop wasting billions’ trying to find a cure for the disease; might as well be a punch in the face.

When someone says to me they hate something or someone, I always now temper it with just how much I hate cancer. This body invader strips away the body and soul of it's sufferers, diminishes their daily lives, vibrancy, strength and bodies.

Nothing can ever prepare you for the sight of a loved one literally shutting down and physically disappearing in front of you. I truly wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy and it's for that reason that I quote and ask you all to remember the words of Stuart Scott.

"When you die, it does not mean that you lose to cancer. You beat cancer by how you live, while you live and the manner in which you live,"

RIP Stuart Scott and all those other ultimate fighters who you've joined and to those that are still with us, fighting to live their lives their way, your courage and strength are an example to us all.







Saturday 2 August 2014

Tulisa : The Price of Fame

There was a definite poor me/victim slate, along with a dash of paranoia and shades of Geri Halliwell who did a truly awful documentary charting her life after her spilt from the Spice Girls :0)

Call me cynical but the fact that Tulisa took the time to enlist a film crew to chart her 'agony' and try to spin a bad situation, to help with her media and in turn sponsor...ship rehabilitation; was pretty hard-nosed and businesslike, contrasting sharply with the actions of the victim she was trying to portray to us.

Her acting audition which was apparently ruined by someone following her to her casting agents, seems to have continued at home with her tearful monologue to camera. Just a flag, who cries into a camera and then keeps ranting 'they made it happen!' ?

We've always known about leaks to the press, but when the film confirm that her right-hand man Gareth had leaked a false court location to the press, it made me wonder what else have #TeamTulisa leaked to the press during the course of the year.

So who's to blame for Tulisa's situation - she is. There's no smoke without fire, particularly when your last meltdown was over your sex tape being released on the internet.

The buck stops with her behaviour and she should take ownership of that. She put herself in a very dodgy situation driven by greed and to a degree stupidity. She believed her own hype and it's the one thing, that has destroyed many a bigger and better 'star' than she is and ever will be.

If Tulisa thought this documentary was going to put her point of view across, unfortunately she failed. Of course Twitter flamed with tweets about the show, some from #TeamTulisa, saying how strong she had been during her 'ordeal' . The rest focused on her massively changed physical appearance, particularly her lips since her N'Dubz days.

Only time will tell whether Tulisa : The Price of Fame has proved to be an own goal for its star.