Tell people you love them before it's too late

Tell people you love them before it's too late

Being CEO of my charity CoppaFeel! and “the girl with cancer” simultaneously is hard.

Often, it’s hard to know how much time I should be spending on each.

My life has been nothing short of a whirlwind for the past three years and I ask myself how much longer I can sustain this must-do-everything-I-can existence.

I have an annoying tendency to equate my worth as a human being by how much I am doing.

I can’t help myself. I’m addicted to my work for the ­charity because I care THAT much.

But recently I’ve been wondering if I use it as an escape from the reality that I’m still that girl with cancer, whether I like it or not.

I had a routine CT scan two weeks ago and was waiting for my results.

I hadn’t heard anything so decided to drop my oncologist a little, “I guess no news is good news?” email.

Two minutes later I got a reply asking: “What’s your number?”

Naturally I thought: “Uh oh, what can of worms have I opened now?”

I’d been fine just plodding on with my work, then I had to go and ask him if I was OK and remind myself that I was still battling this disease.

So I sat for approximately one minute in complete stillness. Then I simply carried on doing my work.

I mean, if that’s not a very clear sign that work has become my life, then I don’t know what is. It’s my escape, it is my everything.

After a few emails I did reply to him with my number.

Thankfully, he told me everything was stable, but it got me thinking about how I want to be ­remembered â€" as the CEO of CoppaFeel! or “that girl with cancer”?

Another reason I am pondering this is because I went to my friend Ellie Jeffreys’ memorial service on Sunday.

It was a beautiful day and even the sun decided to come out for the girl who brought happiness to many people’s lives. I was there with my friend Fran, having met up for a much-needed GT beforeh and.

We blubbed our way through the service, ­probably thinking very similar thoughts that, one day, our friends would be in a room like this, talking about us in the same way.

And before you think I’m having a ­freak-out, we’re well within our rights to think about these things.

Ellie’s friends and family had some of the ­funniest, most heart-warming tales about her and so I thought, “What would I most like to be remembered for?”

My first resounding thought was NOT the girl who set up CoppaFeel! and NOT the girl with cancer.

But then what will I be remembered for when these things are pretty much who I am?

A second thought I had was that I hoped, with all my heart, Ellie had known how much she was loved by everyone at the service.

Would they have had the courage to say all those lovely things to her face? Or did they leave it too late? Probably. As a nation, we are hopeless at saying how we feel, aren’t we?

I ha ven’t figured out yet exactly how I want to be ­remembered, but one thing I do know is that we should tell the people we love how we feel before it’s too late.

Regrets suck, so, if you’re reading this thinking, “I should just tell Joe Bloggs he makes me smile whenever he’s in the room” â€" then just do it!