Today I spent six hours volunteering at The Show, Scotland, a big fundraiser for Breast Cancer Care . It was physically demanding and I was on my feet for almost the whole time. From helping to set out  the tables via selling goody bags to hosting three tables, it was varied and fun.

After the fashion show itself one of the models shared her story... Symptomatically diagnosed at 47 and recalling standing on a street in Glasgow where I had stood minutes after my own diagnosis, her story had a resonance was surprisingly strong. But equally strong was the dissonance: like me, she large tumour - actually hers was larger than mine - but the sting in the tale was that, unlike me, her cancer had already metastasized. 

I have always known that I was lucky, that weeks or maybe months later, and my story would have been very different,  it was in the dissonance I felt that very acutely.

In  both the similarities and in the differences I find connections, am reminded how fragile and precious life is, and give thanks.

Tonight, as I travel first class, feast on delicious food and consume as much tea as I desire, I am humbled and uplifted in pretty much equal measure.

PS typing on a snazzy phone even with intelligent predictive text my propensity to typos is not so easily dealt with have