A while back at the start of the year, I was sent an email by the press officer at the CF Trust asking if I’d be willing to talk to Radio 4 about my diet and having to take on an inordinate number of calories everyday. Being the self-confessed media tart (MT) that I am, I nearly bit her hand off.
Having spoken to one of the team on Radio 4’s Saturday Live show, I was told the following day that they’d decided not to go with that story, but that they’d keep my details on file for the future.
I didn’t realise that meant a matter of weeks – just last Thursday, JP from the show called me back to see if I was free to come to the studio in London to do a segment on the same subject with presenter Fi Glover and stick around for the whole show.
Excited doesn’t quite cover it from my side of things – I love the media: TV and radio have always intrigued and excited me and to think that I was stepping up for 2 minute 2-ways on local BBC 3 Counties to a show that people had actually heard of was unbelievable.
So I roused myself at 5.30am on Saturday morning and stumbled around to do my morning dose of IV’s before I left for the studio in my Dad-powered taxi at 6.45am.
I did manage to dose on the way down a little bit, but arrived at Broadcasting House – yes, THE Broadcasting House!!! – at 8.15am feeling every so slightly very nervous. I’ve got so used to doing local radio and press that it didn’t occur to me how nervous I was going to get going on a big national radio station.
As it was, the whole thing was fab. I was on the show with Fi, the presenter, the regular poet they have on every week, who was a really good giggle and an Asian music producer who was fascinating to talk to and is doing some really interesting work in fusing musical sounds and styles from all over the world.
My section of the show – which I think ran about 10 minutes, although I totally lost track of time – went really well, although I was annoyed with myself for tripping over my tongue at the beginning. I covered all the bases they wanted covered for the piece and even managed to get in a plug for Live Life Then Give Life and organ donation in general.
The show is up on the website on listen again all week, so check it out – I’m on from about 5 minutes in. Click here.
Further to the on-air discussions. though, I also got chatting to Fi after the show about Laughter for Life and she has promised to help out with publicity if she can – passing our details to a FiveLive producer and to the London Radio listings people, which should carry a bit more weight than just randomly attacking them with a press release.
As exciting as it was, it has also made the start of IV’s even tougher going, since my body disagrees mightily with Meropenem anyway (the drug I’m on) and adding into it early mornings and irregular sleep patterns doesn’t help.
I know I’m going to have to take a few days to recover, but annoyingly, it’s hard to tell how much of this is IV-related and how much is down to over-work/exhaustion. If I knew that, I’d be able to look after myself a bit better and space my workload, but as it is I have to assume the worst and take it as easy as I can for the time being till things pick up again.
Still, I was on Radio 4!