My first blog has to be a tribute to a very special person, a colleague, an IT expert, a best friend and an all round great bloke. Steve Newson has been a big part of my life for the last 8 years... yes scarily Steve that's how long you've been giving me advice and exercising the patience of a saint, with my terrible attention span and grasp on all things technical. From my Blue Arrow days of creating spreadsheets with rows and rows of Temp data to more recently helping with my venture in to social media Steve has been there every step of the way. Having been an operational recruiter for 10 years I could match CV's, interview and assess for any role you like, can I put myself out there creating PowerPoint presentations to be envied, pivot tables to drive any selection of data and research on the Internet to find what I need? thanks to Steve, the answer to this is now, yes I can! It may have given Steve more grey hair than he'd care to admit and there must have been times when he thought he'd kill me.... but has it all been worth it? Yes without a doubt and I hope Steve has seen the impact of his continual patience and hard work on both my career at Capita and on me personally.

Being diagnosed with Cancer is something I think happens to other people, people I don't know, the it'll never happen to me syndrome. I've been fortunate to not have really been touched by this horrid disease. The phrases "life is unfair" and "it always happens to the good guys" are so true in this case. Finding out Steve has cancer has been a huge dose of reality that this does happen and happens indiscriminately. Seeing how Steve has tackled the worst news anyone could face has only reinforced what I already knew and always wanted other people to see in this amazingly, strong and incredible man. Today has been the last of the 6 sessions of Chemo and I hope the results of the treatment give you what you deserve... The time and health to achieve the things you truly want to in life.....

So my first blog.... a huge thank you to you and I'm right here if you ever need me.