Christmas is a time of year when we often think more about our family and what they mean to us.

I’m obviously biased, but I think I have the worlds best and most amazing family.

I was raised in a very loving and supportive home environment, I am the baby of the family, which of course makes me the center of attention a lot of the time, and I certainly loved the attention my family gave me.

Every big decision I have made in my life has been supported by my family. A pretty amazing example was when I finished school at age 18 I said I wanted to move to The Netherlands, so my parents bought me a (return) ticket, and two weeks later waved goodbye to me at the airport.

As a family we spent a great deal of time together, travelling around the world, camping, going boating, working on building projects together and chilling out at home.

We have always been very close, and have continued to be a tight-knit unit, even when the world seemed to be against us. In July 2008 my Dad was diagnosed with bowel cancer. Unfortunately for us, it was diagnosed way too late. A week before Dad lost his hair, in April 2009, we had our last family photo. At 12:15pm on July 29th, 2009 I lost my favourite person in the whole wide world.

While nothing can prepare you for such a loss I think I am very lucky to have such a supportive family and amazing group of friends. I am also amazingly lucky and thankful to have had the worlds best dad. To have been close to him, to be able to share my thoughts, feelings and dreams with him. To have known that even when I did stupid stuff, I still made my dad proud to have me as a daughter.

So this year I want you all to be thankful for your family, spend a bit more time with them and appreciate what they mean to you. But also consider donating to cancer research, to help others keep their dads (mums, brothers and sisters) a bit longer.

I’m not sure which organisation is the best and most effective at passing donations onto cancer research, but some organisations that are all fighting for the same thing are: the Fight Cancer Foundation and the Australian Cancer Research Foundation