What are you WAITING FOR?

As Elizabeth Hutton approached her 40th birthday, she challenged herself in all sorts of ways

- WORDS: MISHAAL KHAN, KATE CHAPMAN.

I used to wonder why people put off doing the things they dreamt of doing in life. Not the big things - like chasing a career or having a family - but the small things, like finishing the book that's gathering dust on the shelf or booking the trip you've always wanted to take. Why would anyone wait until a life-changing event, an illness or the death of a loved one to realise that time waits for no one and to finally tick things off that bucket list?

That was until I was in that position myself. It was July 2016 when I was sitting on the cancer ward, scrolling through my Instagram feed as I had my fourth round of chemotherapy, that it dawned on me that I'd fallen into that trap of putting off the little things, believing I'd get round to them eventually.

Only by now I was exhausted and unwell. Every day I was grateful just to have the energy to get out of bed and walk to the bathroom. So seeing other cancer patients like me talking online about 'bucket lists' and achieving all the things that they hoped to do was inspiring - and the kick I needed to do the same.

Busy single mum

In the years before cancer, I'd been like any other busy, working single mum - juggling my job as the CEO of Kicks Count charity, which I'd joined in 2013 after losing my son Toby during my pregnancy, with raising my two kids, Emily and Joshua.