Quiet without Milly

It's so quiet without Milly. She is in America visiting a friend and flew out on her own and even went through the airport and got to the gate on her own. She didn't seem a bit bothered and was more worried about how much time she'd have for the duty free shop! Anyway, she phoned quickly from the plane and they (American Airlines) were looking after her well and she was really excited. But it's quiet without her, so I know you're having a good time Milly, but come back soon!

Such a lot has happened and every time I update on here I wish I'd done it sooner. There's always too much to tell you …

The day after I last wrote, me and Milly were both included in the Queen's Birthday Honours list and received B.E.M.s - that's "British Empire Medals". I'd known about it for a while and it was killing me to keep it quiet, but Milly only found out that week as we worried that she'd slip up and tell by mistake. So the day before I was up early cos we had loads of reporters around here all day. Some of them were really, really nice and others were quite grumpy and it made me wonder why they bother doing that job. If you don't enjoy talking to people and can't be nice, it's not going to make a good interview, is it?!

We also found out on that week, that we were being presented with Diana Awards. I was presented with a Diana Courage Award and Milly got a Champion Fundraiser Award. It was lovely to see Milly's school friend Evie there too and Hannah, another friend of mine from Alder Hey, also getting awards for their fundraising.

The next week, Milly carried the Olympic Torch through Keswick and amazingly, the rain stopped and although he sun didn't come out, it was dry. All of Milly's friends came from Windermere School and they were really supportive and had some lovely little songs they'd made up. I really enjoyed the atmosphere and was really proud of my sister. Love you Milly <3

The next day, Mr Lavender, who is Milly's head teacher, invited our whole family for a special lunch to celebrate our Honours and everyone was so nice. If I wasn't ill, that's definitely the sort of school I'd like to be at. They are just so nice and value everyone for who they are.

While we were in London, we were invited to have another look around Downing Street and I really enjoyed it cos I felt so ill last time we went and didn't really get much out of it. We bumped into David Cameron and I don't think that he actually recognised me as the same person he met last year. I guess minus the puffy face and plus a long wavy red wig, I did look different LOL.

Before all of that, i got to go to my old school prom and I felt so amazing putting on my beautiful dress. It was probably one of the best days of my life and I felt like a Princess and just loved swishing my skirt around. I've got to say thank you to Robyn who did my wig and made it sit just right and thank you to Cathy who treated me to having my make up done so that I didn't look so pale for a change! I've got a huge big thank you to say to Sharon from Promise Bridal in Barrow cos she gave me my dress as a present and made everything so special. Sharon first contacted me last year after I did my bucket list and offered to let me go and try on the dresses and play around in them. I didn't even think I'd get to my prom then so she just did it for me to have fun and feel good. So thank you Sharon cos you made me feel amazing, we have some lovely photos and I know that my mum and dad will remember the way I looked and felt forever.

My big news is that we had our first family come to stay and they had a brilliant time away from hospital. I have to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped make this happen. I've not met these people but I hope I will - Phil from Coppermine Cottages, Dennis from the Coniston Gonola, Maria at Hawkshead Relishes, Danni at Grizedale Riding Center, Katherine from Birdbakes and John from the National Trust. I'm really grateful that you are supporting my dream and I hope that you all feel proud of yourselves for helping.

After all that excitement, we were away in London at the Diana Awards and Downing Street and then on Saturday, we had Ulverston Carnival which was just amazing. This year, Alice's Escapes was the main charity for the collections and it was so nice cos it was in my own town. My Grandad had spent hours making the wooden bits for our float and my Nannie painted it all for us so thank you Nan & Grandad, you're the best. Mum and Jill and Cathy were sat in our conservatory until about 2am sewing the sails for the boat and putting sequins on everything lol. Then on the day, lots of friends turned up to add the finishing touches and loads more of Team Alice turned up to help us collect during the carnival parade. We all had so much fun and it was lovely and sunny and I just had a really good day. The best bit was when we won the 'Best Float' and I got to collect a cup from Ellie, our town carnival Queen. So thank you to all of the carnival committee for supporting our charity, we had a fab day :)

Then, just this week, we were invited up to Ulverston School to collect more donations for the charity. Ulverston is our local high school and they have been so supportive of my charity. One of their pupils has just completed a sponsored walk that she's organised entirely by herself and another is swimming for 5 hours continuously to raise money. I don't want to put your names here in case it's a problem but you know who you are, so thank you very, very much.

Right, I've probably forgotten loads but I'll update again soon and there shouldn't be as much to remember. I'm off to Birmingham tonight and tomorrow we're visiting Cadbury World. It's not an arranged visit cos we're last minute as usual, so I'm hoping it's open on Saturdays!

I'm back at hospital at the beginning of next week and then Milly is back home on Friday so life will get noisy again!

Love Alice x