A list for living, not a bucket list

What would you do if you found out that your time was limited? If you were told that you could be dead within months, you certainly had no more than five years to live?

Well, that's the situation which I'm facing. On Christmas Eve last year I found out that I had incurable ovarian cancer. I felt waves of shock, sadness and anger. But I also knew that once I'd come to terms with the devastating news, I was going to make the most of the time I had left.

A few days before the diagnosis, as I waited for one of many medical appointments, I thought about the things I might never do. I started to write down some of the stuff in my reporter's notebook. This was the start of my bucket list.

Getting a dog, exploring the ancient ruins in Rome, taking a speed boat down the Thames, having my book published, learning to play poker and seeing penguins in the South Pole are just some of the 50 things I want to do, BBC News reports.

This has become known as a bucket list because it's all the things you want to achieve before you kick the bucket. But I don't like the term. I'd rather focus on the living, not the dying. I prefer to call it my "list for living".

This cancer business is so horrific that it can easily take over your identity. Having this gives you something else to focus on and makes you feel like you again. So far I've managed to do 10 of them. I've pulled a pint in my local pub, I went to Paris with a group of friends just for lunch, modelled in a fashion show and zoomed down a zip wire. Next weekend I will present a Radio 4 programme, Pick of the Week, which will mean another big tick.

But what's most important to me is right at the top of the list - move to the countryside and live in my own house. This is also what I wrote down in my notepad while I waited at hospital back in the winter. A couple of months ago I finally got my own home in a village. It needs lots of work to coax it out of the 1980s but once its done I'll be able to live there. It's an incredible feeling doing something I've wanted for years.

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