Page 64 of My Summer of Magic Moments

‘Yep, sure is.’

‘Wow, you look like the Gruffalo,’ the same girl shouted out.

‘Or a poo monster,’ the lad next to her joined in, which caused a fit of giggles through the children and other spectators.

‘Come on, they’re gaining on us!’ Sal shouted, glancing over her shoulder.

They rounded the racecourse stands, were nearing the finish line, and put on a final flourish.

‘Well done, Claire. Go, Bella’s Babes.’ There was a shout from the crowd. Claire scanned the spectators, and – how lovely – there were Jo and Emma in support.

They gave her a big thumbs-up as she made a blast through the big pink finishing posts, hand in hand with her team-mates. It was such an amazing feeling – she forgot about the mud and the aches and the pains. She forgot about her imminent biopsy. All four of Bella’s Babes jumped up in the air like muddy warriors. We did it! Air-punch time.

Claire stood bent over for a few seconds, catching her breath. Her vison went a little fuzzy and she had a little wobble. Her sister steadied her. ‘You okay?’

‘Yes, think so. Just need … to breathe.’ She leant against Sal for a second or two. ‘Must have just pushed myself a bit hard there at the end. I’m fine.’

There were a couple of last shots taken of the team for the paper – once they’d caught their breath and could manage to stand up straight again. Steve lined them up professionally. ‘Well done, you lot. This’ll make great coverage. Bit different from your fashion shoots, Andrea.’ He gave a wink.

Then Ollie and Jack piled in to congratulate their mum with big hugs, not worried in the least about dirtying their clothes as Mark watched in amusement. It was probably the first time ever she hadn’t berated them for getting muddy. Claire walked across and caught up with Emma and Jo in the spectator section.

‘Aw, thanks for coming, guys.’

‘Had to cheer you on, of course,’ said Emma.

‘And see for ourselves you lot covered in mud,’ Jo added. ‘Great effort!’

Claire moved in to give them a kiss on the cheek. They jumped back out of the way. She looked down, realizing the state she was in. ‘Ah, yes of course – sorry. Totally forgot.’

The others from the team caught up with them.

‘Hi, thanks for coming,’ Andrea smiled beneath her mud pack.

‘This was definitely worth coming to watch, just for the entertainment value,’ said Jo. ‘But yeah, well done. You did amazingly.’ She and Emma chuckled.

‘Cheers.’ Andrea pretended to be disgruntled, but then grinned.

‘Right, I think it might be time get back to the car and peel off these muddy clothes, then we can get ourselves home to some hot showers and warm up – asap.’ Claire was definitely beginning to feel a chill now. Even with the silver-foil blankets around them they’d been given as they got through the finish line.

They were all in agreement.

‘Well done, everyone. And thank you.’ Claire was so proud of her team. ‘We did it. And we’ll have raised loads for charity. Our Just Giving page was at £720 yesterday. And it seems to be going up all the time. Brilliant. Thank you.’

‘Aw, that’s really great, Claire. We did good, ladies,’ Andrea added.

‘I actually enjoyed it, in a weird way,’ said Lou.

‘It’s the school-teacher thing,’ Andrea bantered back.

Sal went off home with her family, after muddy hugs all round. Then it was time to strip down to underwear in the field, aka the car park. There were plenty of other women doing exactly the same thing, so no one was bothered, and otherwise Claire knew she’d be cleaning mud off her car seats for evermore. She’d had the forethought to provide two bin bags per person, one for dirty clothes and one to sit on, and once they’d stuffed their tumble of filthy clothes into carrier bags, and the carrier bags into the car, they all got in themselves, now sporting tracksuits, comfy trousers and tees. Claire noted her mascara-streaked eyes and the mud splashes all over her face in the rear-view mirror, then turned to look at her mates. They all looked as bad as each other.

‘Can’t wait for the photos,’ Andrea said drily.

28

The magic of being alive

Monday. Biopsy day. Another ‘dentist’s appointment’. She had the afternoon off work. She got herself to the Freeman Hospital on the bus, and after waiting ten minutes or so was greeted by a friendly nurse. A few questions, a quick change into a hospital gown, then an examination, and after a local anaesthetic they took a small sample with a needle from the lump. Thankfully, it was a fairly straightforward procedure. She was advised to sit quietly for a few minutes, then got dressed, her groin area a little tender with just a small dressing on. The nurse told her to wait a further fifteen minutes just to check she wasn’t dizzy or anything, and then she’d be allowed to go. She wished she’d brought a friend with her now, or Sal – someone to chat to at this moment would be nice – but she still didn’t want to worry anyone. She smiled across at another patient who was waiting too, and then read a leaflet on organ donation. She was already signed up to the register, but it passed the time.