LIVE FOR TODAY
I ALWAYS thought of myself as an ordinary bloke – married, three kids, two cats, job, house, mortgage etc.
But prostate cancer has changed some things and, while being the centre of attention and even writing this column does not come easy to me, what I have struggled with most is being labelled “inspirational”.
That said, I now realise I have helped some people to take on challenges, or in some way positively change their lives for themselves or for others.
But I can’t do it all on my own. My beautiful wife Sarah and the fab NHS team at the Royal Marsden inspire me – as do many others I have been privileged to meet.
One such guy is Jeff Smith, one of the most giving people you’ll ever come across. I met him in the Sahara where we were taking part in the Marathon Des Sables ultra marathon in 2016.
He talked about his plan to do things for people less fortunate than most.
In memory of a pal who died, he set up bigmoose – a non-profit organisation that inspires people to live better, healthier and kinder lives.
Jeff and his bubbly daughter Chloe have been trying to improve the lives of the homeless, initially in Cardiff. Their latest admirable venture is the bigmoose coffee shop – a fab place which pledges its profits to homeless projects while also offering work to homeless people to give them a chance to kickstart a better future.
So if you find yourself thirsty or hungry in Cardiff you could do far worse than pop in and reboot here – while helping others at the same time just by having a coffee!
You can find them at 4-5 Frederick Street, Cardiff, CF10 2DB. And if you want to discover something truly inspirational have a peep at their website, bigmoose.co/bigmoose-coffee-co/
I met truly inspiring chap while running in Sahara, he really is a champ for homeless