CHRISTINES’ GREAT BRITISH BAKE OFF STORY.

Appearing as a contestant on the 2013 Great British Bake Off has certainly changed my life and is certainly the best thing I have ever done!

I had dismissed applying from my mind because in the late summer of 2012 my husband and I went on holiday to Northern Cyprus. We eating out when I started to feel unwell. To cut a long story short, I collapsed and stopped breathing. My husband Rob, who has never really done in first aid training remembered how to give the kiss of life and he revived me. It turned out I had an ulcer in my duodenum that had ruptured.

I spent time in a Cyprus hospital and then flew back to the UK but, because of the change in air pressure on the flight, I collapsed again and was resuscitated in hospital, where I spent another week!

The reason I tell you all this rather dramatic story is because I had then lost ALL my confidence, couldn’t even go out alone let alone apply for The Great British Bake Off as my dear niece was pressurising me to do!.

I finally filled in the application form in December 2012 quite confident that I wouldn’t get anywhere!

Then one evening in February 2013, I got a call inviting me to an audition but at the same time informing me that 15,000 people had applied!!! I was then even more confident I wouldn’t get anywhere!. In fact, at each stage of the audition journey I was convinced it would be the last.

The call telling me I was one of the 2013 bakers on the show was quite surreal and I just couldn’t believe it! I decided in fact that no way could I do it but my husband put in no few words that if I didn’t I would regret it for the rest of my life and oh my goodness, I would have!

The Bake Off was the most wonderful experience in terms of the challenges, the highs, lows, the triumphs and most of all the other bakers I met and who I still see on a regular basis, in fact a lot of them are demonstrating in the theatre for my Didcot Food festival in November!

Of course, I was disappointed when I got knocked out at the quarter-final stage, but delighted not to get eliminated after the first show, which was initially a worry, and thrilled to get Star Baker twice. But more importantly than all of that I got my confidence, and therefore my life, back.

I have had a wonderful time since the series ended, met people I would never have met, attended events, demonstrated at Festivals, judged many amateur ‘Bake Offs’ had a BBC radio programme and been on the shopping channels.

Coming up now the biggest thing I have done so far, overseeing and planning the inaugural Didcot Food Festival at Cornerstone on the 25th, 26th and 27th November. Over the last 3 years I have worked closely with the town and especially with Jeanette Howse (BEM) who plans and organises the wonderful annual Didcot Street Parade. We decided in 2014 to hold a town Bake Off at the Civic Centre as part of the Street Fair celebrations and to raise funds for the event. This first Bake Off was very successful so we repeated it last year and once again received a good response.

Based on that success we decided to go all out this year and stage a Food festival which would encompass fine exhibitors of food and drink, chef demonstrations and the Bake Off competition. Cornerstone Arts centre came forward as the venue and this exciting event promises to be a huge success for our town.

Visit www.didcotevents.co.uk to read all about it and buy tickets for the shows.