LIKE many Land Rover fans, and readers of this magazine, I had a romantic dream of setting off around the world, in a trusty Defender, exploring the remote, wild and beautiful places on our planet.
In 2006, aged 44, I was diagnosed with lymphatic cancer. Not only that, but having returned to work after apparently successful treatment, I was pulled back in as the cancer returned. The second treatment was a very difficult, and thankfully successful, full stem cell replacement therapy, where doctors attempted to kill my cancer by replacing my entire immune system with stem cells from my bone marrow, which hospitalised me in an isolation bubble for six weeks. In my hospital bed, I promised myself that – if I survived – I was going to change that…
