This is my best friend Amanda. This beautiful photograph is of Amanda on her wedding day in 2005.
A few weeks after the wedding Amanda rang me. I knew she had found a lump in her breast. I knew she was going for a mammogram and a biopsy. I didn't imagine for one moment that it would be anything serious. I was waiting for her call. In the tiniest voice I've ever heard she told me 'I've got cancer'.
I'm afraid I was incapable of keeping a stiff upper lip. I wailed and cried with her. I shouted 'it's not fair'.
Amanda was just 36. Her children were only 11 and 7 years old.
Amanda had a mastectomy, chemotherapy and radiotherapy. She was very sick. She lost her hair.
She never stopped battling and she beat it. I'm so proud of her.
A couple of weeks after her major reconstruction surgery, in October 2006, we went to the Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show. Here we are about to get into the limo:
Amanda is second left, with her newly grown hair. I'm third from the right.
We had an amazing night at the Grosvenor House Hotel. It was great fun celeb-spotting. We saw Cherie Blair, Natasha Kaplinsky, Duncan From Blue and Geri Halliwell among others. There were goody bags and Swarovski crystals in the carpet.
The fashion show was one of the most moving things I've ever seen. All the models (male and female) have had breast cancer. My hands were bruised from clapping.
There was a charity auction. As Amanda recalls, she nipped to the loo and when she got back I was bidding. I outbid Kenny Goss (George Michael's partner) and won the Romantic Lot.
Yes, I had been drinking! I was also celebrating getting engaged to Andy a few days before.
I won't say what my winning bid was, but I had to raise my credit card limit to make the payment.
The Romantic Lot was a weekend in a luxury hotel (only 20 miles from home), a hire car (forgot to claim this bit of the lot) and the chance to spend the weekend at the Jon Dibben Jewellery workshop, with a £2000 voucher to spend at Jon's shop.
We had the most amazing time. Jon and his team made us so welcome. They even said they were happy we had won instead of Kenny Goss! Andy and I made, from scratch, a silver ring each, mounted with a tiny blue diamond. We also chose my engagement ring and our wedding rings. We spent time with the goldsmiths who made them. This makes our rings even more special.
We haven't been to the fashion show since 2006 for one reason (having Presley in 2007) or another (having Cash in 2008), but we are going this year.
I'm delighted to say that Amanda has been chosen to be a model at the 2009 Breast Cancer Care Fashion Show. I can't wait to see her on the catwalk. I will be taking my camera and a whole box of tissues. I'll report back next week and let you know how we get on.
This year however I won't drink quite so much champagne and I'll be leaving my credit card at home!
