My First Yes : Snowboarding in La Rosière

The first time I ever said yes was at an opportunity to go snowboarding in the French Alps with the Caring Cancer Trust, a charity that take recovering cancer patients (16 and under) away on holiday as a treat after their treatment.

Here is my story of why and how:

Early December, 2011, I went up to see the charity worker/event organiser on the ward I was treated on as a child to hand in some sponsor money I had raised for the ward. I fund raise for the ward every year as part of saying thank you for saving my life, because "thank you" is never enough.

Whilst I was there, she asked me if I wanted to go skiing with a charity. I immediately said yes because skiing is something I had always wanted to do. However, she then said that I would be going alone. My parents wouldn't be coming and I would go with volunteers of the charity and other children in the same situation as me. I suddenly decided that was too much, and to go without my parents is a step to far, but I still wanted to go skiing, for free too! I said I didn't know, but after some encouragement, persuasion and strong advice, I said yes.

I didn't know why I said yes, maybe I just thought they would stop pestering me if I did, but it turned out to be the best decision ever!

When the day come and we went to the hospital to get on the coach, I was petrified! I didn't know anyone! Okay, I had met them at the meeting a few weeks before, but I knew nothing about them and they know nothing about me.

Everyone who was skiing went to one part of the Alps, and us 9 kids who were snowboarding went to another part so I was sat on the coach with the children I would be staying with. That made me feel slightly more relaxed because it meant I didn't have to make friends with everyone on the coach, only a few people, but I was still terrified!

I spent the first hour on the coach sat in silence, cuddling my bear and being too scared to talk. The girl I was sat next to was just as shy as me, so even she didn't try to make conversation. Eventually though, the boy sat over the other side of the isle, Lewis, started talking to me and made me feel a bit more relaxed.

By the time we had got off the ferry in France, I had made friends with Olivia, the girl I was sat next to on the coach, another girl names Crystal and Henry, the boy who was sat next to Lewis on the coach. It was a challenge making friends with them and talking to them, but when there's nothing else really to do and you're all as scared as each other, it's a bit easier than it should be.

The rest of the coach journey was fun and laughter really. We all settled down with each other, got to know one another and we all felt a lot more relaxed around each other so we had a good laugh. Especially because Henry had too many double espresso's (even though any sort of energy drink, fizzy drink or caffeine was banned on the coach) and me Lewis and Olivia had to stay up all night to keep him from running up and down the coach!

The worst bit was over, I had made friends and the ice was broken.

After 24 hours on the coach, we dropped off all the skiers at their resort and headed off to ours to enjoy our holiday! We stayed at a lovely chalet called Chalet Rosière:

Chalet Rosière
(you can probably tell this is two pictures put together, but it's the only way you can see the whole chalet. And it works!)

When we got there, we chose our rooms, dumped our bags, got our jackets and salopettes on, went and hired our boards and started learning the basics of boarding almost straight away! When you first step on the board, it's a lot slipperier than you think! I can't lie, ended up on my bum quite a lot!

Over the week, we learnt different skills on the board. We started at the bottom of the slope with only our front foot strapped in just sliding down making sure we had the right balance. Then by lunchtime on our first full day, we were using the chair lift going right to the top of the slope and slowly coming down on our heel edge with both of our feet strapped in learning to do 'the leaf'. That means sliding left and right, from one side of the slope to the other and back. Over the rest of the week, we built our confidence, learnt how to turn from our heel edge to our toe edge and even learnt some jumps off of the slope edge and by the end of the week, we were zooming down the slope and even going off piste and through all of the trees! I honestly felt so free on the board and I loved every minute of it!

In the evenings, after a long day of snowboarding, we chilled out in the hot tub (with the most incredible view in front of us may I add!) before dinner, and after dinner we chilled by the camp fire singing songs together while Jim (one of our amazing instructors) played his guitar, did treasure hunts inside and outside of the chalet and watched films. They're moments I will never forget, to just sit with such lovely people and have such a wonderful time!

So that was my holiday. One of the best experiences of my life I shall say! A holiday I will never forget!

A few months later, we were all invited to the Ski and Snowboard Show in London as a big reunion. Whilst we were there, we joined in several activities, got a chance to do some more snowboarding on a dry slope and got to watch back a short film that the camera guys (who were so incredible and their photography skills we immense!) we went with put together of our holiday. We even got to meet Graham Bell, and Olympic skiing champion. It was so lovely to see everyone again and see they were all doing well!