It seems appropriate to be launching my blog in January 2009, if only because one of my resolutions is to be more IT astute (my other resolutions are what they always are - to lose half a stone and be nice to the kids).

Blogs puzzle me though. What exactly is a blog? A personal diary? A soapbox? A breaking news outlet? Memos? A shared space? Collective intelligence? A daily pulpit? I would hope that this blog will become all of these things.

But I do feel slighty discomforted by blogging.

For a start, a little question keeps popping up and asking me why anyone would be remotely interested in reading about what I have to say? Who cares what Helen Bulbeck thinks? I can't get my own children to hear me, let alone anyone else.

Secondly, I think you have to be a teeny bit egotistical to want to write a blog, unless you have a motive. And I do.

For those of you in the know, you will know that the Hampshire Chronicle has done a stirling job of supporting brainstrust, the brain cancer charity, by providing publicity, right from its inception to where it has grown to today.

If truth be told, we were taken by surprise when, in April 2006, the HC called to say that we would be the headline news - our daughter needed life saving surgery in the States and we had founded brainstrust.

We were so taken by surprise that we stayed up all night finishing the website. So thank you, Hampshire Chronicle - you certainly got us focused!

A strong, deeply rooted desire is the starting point of all achievement, and whilst brainstrust has achieved a huge amount, there is still a long way to go on our journey. I want a future where I don't meet patients who have learned too little, too late, about their condition so that instead of making informed decisions about their treatment, they are planning how to spend the last few precious months.

I want a future where I don't meet another parent who hasn't been told what the options are for their child who has a brain tumour, so that they feel isolated, frightened and disempowered. brainstrust is fixing this. It is being done and we are the ones to do it.

It is important though that you, the Hampshire Chronicle blog readers, join in the fun, the seriousness, the thinking, the imagination, the ideas, the news and views that will be appearing in this blog. So - join in the blog, join the fun and let's get the job done. And I promise not always to be on my soapbox - much.