and I love to immerse myself in the sights, sounds, foods and people and to find and appreciate the best in them all, wherever I may be.’
Susanna Callaghan
‘You know that feeling when you take a look around and think I can’t believe this is real – it’s just so perfect. I had that feeling on a very average day back in 2000. I’d been to Pizza Hut with my boyfriend of 4 months and we were then going to watch a film. We were sat in the cinema; I can’t even recall the name of the film as it was quite boring. It’s hard to describe what happened but it was like a sudden wave of realisation that I really was totally and utterly in love. At that moment I felt a contentment, excitement, exhilaration and an energy I’d never felt before. I wanted to bottle that feeling to remind me that you don’t have to be jumping out of planes or going on amazing holidays to feel like you’re alive. It’s all these normal days in between the big events in your life where the real living takes place. Thirteen years later and we’re now married with 3 children and I’ve had many moments where the beauty of life has quite literally taken my breath away but I always try to remember it’s often the little things in life that mean the most.’
Claire O’Brion
‘I fell in love with life at the beginning and the end of a period of time in 2002. I had been told I would never be able to carry a child, something which made me very sad, and felt my life lacking, as being a mother was my ultimate wish. In January 2002 I found out I was pregnant. My then partner now husband and I had been together 3 months. After many ups and downs of pregnancy our beautiful daughter was born 26th September 2002. We just celebrated her 11th Birthday, and are married with an 8 year old son too. I have systemic lupus diagnosed just after my daughter’s birth, but LOVE life with my wonderful family I thought I would never have.’
Victoria Bailey
‘Last day walking The Pennine Way. High up in The Cheviot Hills, not a soul to be seen. 360 degree panorama, breath taking! I’m the master of all I survey, or an insignificant intrusion in a serene wilderness? How good it is to be alive!’
Christine Parsons
‘It is a warm, not hot, day when we go fossil hunting. The walk to the beach is challenging quicksand, boulder hopping, slippery breakwaters. One section is littered with the detritus of human life, a cliff fall has dumped the remnants of a landfill onto the water’s edge. There is beauty alongside the rusting engines and black putty-like blobs of oil-ridged ammonites emerge from boulders, fierce-white crystal strata run through pebbles. I become engrossed in scouring the beach for an elusive fossil, a vertebra perhaps. A tooth. A jawbone. I lose myself in a pretence. I am Mary Anning, the first fossil hunter. I am a pioneer. I am so obsessed with chasing glory that I don’t pay much attention to the sieving taking place at the shore. Who wants a tiny belemnite when larger, richer pieces await discovery? But my son is engaged with the ritual, the digging, the swirling, the washing. ‘Mum!’ I look up, catch the joy fizzing from his face. He holds up a tiny rock, makes his way slowly over and shows it to me, the tiny curl of an ammonite resting in the centre of his palm. ‘It’s a gold one, mum. For you. I found a gold one! Do you think it’s valuable?’ he asks. The iron pyrite, that has accumulated on this rock over millions of years, shines. Immeasurably so. I pick it up and fall in love with life a little more.’
Jenny Long
‘I never really knew what I wanted to do after I left school … I um’d and ah’d over a number of degrees but finally decided to take a year out and work with the elderly in their own homes as a domicillary worker. I’ve never looked back and I’m now working in a hospital on an elderly ward … its hard work and extremely testing at times but it’s so rewarding that I couldn’t imagine working anywhere else now. I realised how precious life is when an elderly lady came to us one day … she knew she was dying but through it, she still managed to look on the bright side of life. As she sat and held my hand in her final hours, she told me about her life … and told me something which I’ll never forget. ‘Live life to the fullest, regret nothing and take risks … because you only get one shot at life, so make the most of it’ That’s when I fell in love with life and realised that although we moan about little things, we need to look at the picture on a larger scale and live every day like it’s our last.’
Katy Cunniffe
‘I fell in love with life when someone fell out of love with me. It was a bad break up and in a week I found myself homeless and jobless. I used my savings to buy a ticket to Vancouver as I had always wanted to go. On the first day I went for lunch alone in a restaurant overlooking the city. Looking at that view made me very proud to be brave, and despite finding myself completely off plan, utterly in love with life.’
Katie Eunson
‘Insecurity, depression, exhaustion and worry overshadowed one of the best times of my life. I look back now and can see the joy and love in those moments but at the time I thought I had gone mad. I had left my job (with no replacement job to go to) and moved hundreds of miles away from my friends and family to set up home with my, now, husband. We moved in December, just a few days before Christmas and during one of the coldest and snowiest periods in recent history. Looking out the window at the car buried under the snow, feeling a deep sense of sadness and surrounded by boxes and general chaos I felt trapped and worried that I’d made a terrible decision. Then the local choir started setting up to sing Christmas carols in the pretty square outside our new flat, I turned around to my dusty, sweat stained boyfriend, who looked up at me and grinned his beautiful grin and suddenly realised how incredibly lucky I was. I looked out the window as new snow started to fall, looked at the twinkle of the Christmas lights, heard the choir begin to sing and, instead of feeling trapped, felt a new sense of freedom and the ability to start writing myself a new future with my soulmate at my side. It’s funny how much difference a few moments can make, how much a smile can mean when it comes from the one you love.’
Verity Yeates
‘After my mum was diagnosed with breast cancer in 2011, I was amazed at her reaction. She wasn’t upset or angry. She wasn’t ashamed or scared. She was confident and lively. She was energetic and in love with life. She had always held her tongue in annoying situations and done as she was instructed. But cancer gave her the ability to see what she had and love life for every minute. I have never been so proud. I learnt from her that the time we have is precious and we should love life for everything it gives us!’
Louise Graham
‘When I was 13 I was rushed to hospital with HSP and given a week to live, I’m 21 now and I’ve just graduated with a degree in psychology, climbed Mount Snowdon and everyday I remember to smile because I’m so lucky to be here! Life is beautiful and everyone should fall in love with it.’
Emily Myles
‘The defining point of my life was my first day working in a secure unit on a mental health ward. It wasn’t the patients that shocked me, but their families. It made me see that some people can be so lost within their own mind that they are unable to comprehend what is going on around them, yet their families never give up hope on them. It completely changed my outlook on life and bought me closer to my own family.’
Steph Bowman
‘A few years ago I went through a rough time, where I became very negative about everything and life in general. I’d go as far as saying I didn’t even like myself. During this time I met a lovely guy, we went on a few dates but I let my pessimism get in the way of letting things develop further. We didn’t speak for a few months and Valentine’s approached, a day which I never really cared for. That evening there was a knock at my door, and there he stood with a present for me … a cherry pie! During our first date I had told him this was
