So, you’ve read the background to where I was going on Thursday (if you haven’t then you missed the last blog entry and you might be a bit lost!) so this is how the day went…
We left home at 2.00pm to leave plenty of extra time for getting to the studios in East London for the programme in the evening. I had arranged to meet Andy (someone I met through a message board who needs a kidney transplant) at the studios at about 5.15pm. The producer had arranged that we could all wait in the warm in a holding room where there would be drinks…sounded rather nice!
Now, Brad has always maintained that he doesn’t need a Sat Nav and that such things are very wimpish because real men can read a map. And anyway, he’s got me in the car to navigate hasn’t he? Haha! He had printed out the AA routefinder instructions and decided that through the centre of London would be better than going miles out of the way round the M25. So at about 3.30pm we start getting into London and I put on my “Personalised Sat Nav” hat and started reading out instructions.
Now I think that if you asked Brad today whether you should ever attempt to get across London anytime near the rush hour, he would laugh at you very loudly (perhaps a little hysterically actually), given what we had to deal with over the next 3 hours (yes, that’s 3 hours to go 8 miles). Let’s just say it was an exceptionally stressful journey. So much for the Congestion Charge making things wonderfully quiet on the roads in London!! We literally crawled the whole 8 miles, watching the clock get nearer and nearer 5.15pm, then nearer and nearer 6pm, then nearer and nearer 6.30pm (when the doors to the studio would shut) and and there was nothing we could do about it.
It didn’t help that the AA Routefinder is obviously written for people who already know where they are going in central London (yeah that’s logical isn’t it?!) as now and again they would forget to point out a turning or waffle something very ambiguous like “continue straight forward past the statue of Eros and then turn right” when there are two right turns to choose from. As a result we ended up getting lost whilst I desperately wrestled with the A-Z of London to try and find where we were (and somehow wherever we were it was always just on the edge of page 12 which then meant hurridly finding page 35 to continue the route aarrgh!!!!) with a very stressed out Brad saying “Quick! Just tell me where to go!!!” It was a real nightmare and Brad got very stroppy at one point (not like him at all and we had a right laugh about it afterwards!) and told me that if I was going to navigate could I at least do it properly? This then reduced me into fits of giggles which was not really the most helpful contribution as he fought his way blindly round Picadilly Circus!
Afterwards Brad said he was going to make a very large pie when he got home….a humble one and that he would eat it whilst reciting the words “I really do need a Sat Nav, they are such great inventions” ......
I was busy texting with Andy at the studio who was telling us not to worry, that the show wasn’t starting until 7pm and we would make it in time just fine. And finally at 6.35pm we arrived at the studios!! They weren’t what I was expecting at all. The studios were set in something that looked like a vast industrial park with security gates at the entrance (had a battle to get let in and had to sign a million forms first). The buildings all looked like vast warehouses, very unimpressive really! When we got out the car a girl with a clipboard and a walkie talkie came over and was obviously waiting for us. Poor Daisy had been in the car since leaving home so we quickly let her out for a wee and felt very bad for having to put her back in the car and rush off!
The girl with the clipboard quickly took us into one of the “warehouses” and it was just that….a big old empty warehouse! It was pretty cold and gloomy in there with a few old plastic chairs in a far corner. I suddenly realised that this was the “holding area” (I had naively imagine it would be like a “Green Room” haha!) and Andy and Sue’s friend were there waiting for us. We hurridly said hello and the girl with the clipboard was clearly in a panic to get us in the studio (judging by the conversations on her walkie talkie) but I was desperate to use the toilet after nearly 5 hours driving so I had to make her sweat a moment or two longer whilst we went). The toilets were through an old door in the corner of the warehouse, which brought us out in another vast, dark and empty warehouse with a tiny temporary toilet portakabin in it (like they have for outdoor events). I was just rushing in the ladies part when a man stopped me and said “Are there any paper towels left in there?” It was Duncan Bannatyne!!!! All suited up and ready to go on stage!!! I was in such a rush I just glanced inside, told him there weren’t and rushed into a toilet. How bizarre a meeting with one of the UK’s richest men and a TV celebrity hehe!
We rushed back to clipboard girl who was telling the walkie talkie man that yes, she was honestly JUST coming!!! We then all headed off across a dark car park to yet another warehouse. This was the one being used as the studio and there was a temporary stage with a small walkway in the middle, five leather seats at one end of it, and a few tiers of plastic chairs to one side. There were cameras and wires trailing around everywhere and most of the plastic chairs were occupied, but four had been set aside for us. Andy and I sat on the two in the front row and Brad and Sue’s friend sat a few rows behind. It was all much more basic and cramped than I had imagined and the chairs could win the award for the most uncomfortable chairs in history! The floor was concrete and the walls were just bare brickwork. Across the wall behind where the leather seats were positioned (for the millionaire panel) there was a cardboard scene of London, lit up at night. It’s amazing that when this programme is shown on the TV it will look like an impressive studio with a packed audience (there were actually only about 50 people there), overlooking the night time skyline of London!
By now my temperature was starting to go up (I’d had my flu jab the day before and was feeling pretty rough) and I was desperate for a drink, but within minutes of sitting down they were beginning and I was busy taking in what was happening. The 5 millionaires filed in - Duncan Bannatyne (from “Dragon’s Den), Jeffrey Archer, Kanya King (founder of the Mobo awards), Jacquline Gold (founder of the Anne Summers chain) and Simon Jordan (chairman of Crystal Palace Football Club) and stood waiting for their entrances onto the stage. Crikey, I’d hate to be that famous…you’d have to look so perfect all the time! The women looked positively plastic, with their hair, makeup and clothes so perfect and stylish! Then they were filmed taking their seats as the music and commentary rolled and a voice said “Please welcome your host tonight – Richard Madely”!!! Right beside me Richard Madely came and walked onto the makeshift stage! “Right” I thought, “I’m cornering him later!” He has been a great supporter of our Live Life Then Give Life Campaign and is a friend of Emily’s too so I decided I definitely had a chance to get to speak to him at some point!
The filming went on for 3 hours!!! One by one each person or group entered to great applause, gave their pitch and were interrogated by the panel. Some of them were clearly never going to get any money. One guy came in dressed as a Viking and said his career was giving talks about being a Viking but that he needed money for a bigger boat?!! He only lasted 5 minutes and the panel told him he was “sinking fast” and to get going! Another time a woman wearing very odd clothing came in with a cushion and a red sparkly high heeled shoe. She proceeded to put the cushion on the stage and pretended to go to sleep. Everyone was looking around thinking “Errrm….” when she started making the noise of a phone ringing, “woke up” and answered the shoe as if it was a phone receiver! She started pretending to have a conversation with someone on the phone who wanted her to ask the millionaires for some money. Then she put the shoe (sorry the phone) down and said that her “friend” had given up work to be an actress and wanted to take theatre into pubs but had no money. All totally bizarre! Her “friend” was obviously her, which caused even more confusion and she was one of those really annoying “panto-esque actresses” by which I mean that she constantly talked in the most over-exagerated and staged manner and was basically totally irritating. Thankfully the panel clearly agreed with me and sent her packing, but not before I had concluded that Emily would love the pair of shoes (sorry the telephone) if only I could locate the other one!
There were some good pitches too. One woman came on and talked about how her friend had died and her other friend had taken on the twin daughters who had been left orphaned, but that with her own 5 children, her 3 bedroomed house was now so cramped that they needed £14,000 to do a loft extension for the twins to sleep in. She was in floods of tears remembering the friend she had recently lost and Jacqueline Gold went and hugged her and held her hand which was quite sweet. Then her friend (who had taken on the kids) came onstage too and talked to the panel, explaining about how her son sleeps in the garage at the moment with no heating in there etc. The kids were all invited onto the stage too and after some discussion the panel said they definitely wanted to give them the money but that they felt £14,000 wasn’t enough and that they would donate £20,000 so they could treat the kids as well! They were all so happy, it was really nice.
By now two hours had gone by and my seat was giving me terrible backache, plus my temperature was going up more so I now sported beetroot red cheeks! I was dying for a drink and during one of the breaks managed to say to one of the runners that I had a medical condition and was getting dehydrated so they gave me a couple of bottles of water – phew!!! During this break Richard Madely was wandering around looking rather bored so I got up and walked towards him. A runner promptly said I couldn’t approach him, so I said could she give him a message that I was Emily Thackray’s friend. By then he had wandered across the stage to stand right in front of me anyway, so she asked him with me standing there. He clearly couldn’t understand what she was trying to tell him so I just piped up saying “I’m Emily Thackray’s best friend and I have Cystic Fibrosis” HAHAHA!!! Kind of a bizarre introduction but I wasn’t going to leave unless I’d said hello to him so I had to make an instant impact! He is the Patron of the CF Trust and a good friend of Emily’s so it was the quickest way to make an impression!
His face lit up and he seemed really genuinely pleased to chat (I think he was bored anyway waiting around!). He was ever so nice, really relaxed and friendly. He asked me all about my CF, how well I kept, how Emily was and we talked lots about her and lots of stuff like transplantation and things. He asked if I wanted to a photo with him….did I ever?!! Brad hastily found the mobile and panicked as he tried to take the picture and took one that was all blurry so had to ask if he could take another, but Richard was quite happy to pose again. Then Richard said “Let’s see the picture” and Brad couldn’t find it on the phone, so he was fumbling around and panicking with Richard Madely leaning over his shoulder telling him how to use his own mobile because he had gone to pieces haha!
Then the show started up again and Richard said goodbye. Mr Viking Man was on next and then in came Sue and her husband!! Their pitch was brilliant and within minutes I realised that the panel were extremely pro what they were doing. They were “interviewed” for about 15 minutes as the panel discussed the book, looked through it, asked about Zoe, what money they had raised so far, etc. I felt really emotional. I just sat there so proud of what Sue and Richard were doing and thinking “this is going to actually save lives, may be even Emily’s or Oli’s or Peter’s”…I was a bit teary at one point. As all this discussion was taking place, Richard Madely came hurrying over to me and whisperingly asked if we would mind him mentioning mine and Andy's situations when he went up on stage? We said that would be fine!
Then Jacqueline Gold said that she had a printing company and they would print 50,000 of the books for free! WOW!!! The panel discussed things further and asked Sue and John more questions and finally agreed that the book would be made a bit smaller/shorter, Jacqueline would print them for free and the rest of the panel would fund the production of 50,000 DVD’s to go with them!!!! It was brilliant!! Sue and Richard were overwhelmed and both in tears as they hugged all the millionaire panellists. It was so touching to see the total support that they gave the whole issue of organ donation and how important they all felt it was.
The Richard Madely came on to congratulate them and ask how they felt. After this he said “Now we actually have two people in our audience who will need transplants. Emma on the left has Cystic Fibrosis and will need a transplant in a few years time and Andy on the right is waiting for a kidney transplant at the moment. There’s a good chance at the moment that they wouldn’t get these operations but let’s hope that with projects like this we can increase those chances”. The cameraman was by now right by me and Andy and had the camera right in my face where it stayed for about 5 minutes! I think they were hoping to film me in tears or something but by then I was just so excited by what Sue and Richard had achieved!!!
I don’t know if we will be shown on the TV or whether that bit will be cut. Certainly they will cut a lot of stuff since they filmed for over 3 hours for one 50 minute programme! By the time it all finished I was totally shattered and could barely stand up! Andy said to me “Quick, go and ask Kanya King if she will put the Live Life Then Give Life web banner on the Mobo Awards website before she leaves the stage”. I said “I can’t do that!!!” and panicked but he said “Course you can…come on!” and took me over to her. Thankfully he did most of the talking and she said “YES OF COURSE!!!!!!!!” I was stunned!! I hastily fumbled in my bag for a piece of paper and a pen (why is it so much harder to find things when you are panicking?!) and she wrote down her email address and PA’s phone number WOO HOOOO!!!!
Then Sue and Richard came over and we finally all got to meet and hug each other. They are two of the loveliest and most genuine people ever and it was so nice to finally meet in person after lots of emailing and phone calls. They asked if we wanted to join them for something to eat and drink and although I was tired beyond belief I couldn’t miss an opportunity to celebrate something like this, so we all decided to go back to their hotel for a drink and a burger. It was nice to chat to them properly and everyone was on a real adrenaline high.
At 12.30 am Brad and I said we had better head home. Poor Daisy had now been in the car 10 hours apart from two hurried leg stretches! She is such a poppet and so patient and adaptable. We finally arrived home at 3.30am and after all my nebulisers etc I finally fell into bed at 5am. What a day!!!
