IF YOU have been reading my column for a while, you’ll know I’ve become passionate about trying new things and experiencing everything I can get my hands on. This week, I branched out into new territory; arguing with Internet trolls. Greg is well known for throwing himself into online debates about politics but I prefer to have my discussions to dip out of this kind of shenanigans. However, these people said the wrong thing about me on the wrong day. Greg had been taken to hospital with acute stomach pains, the girls were going bananas and I was trying to keep everything together for everyone on very little sleep.

A viral Facebook post of mine from last year has re-emerged online; I posted a picture of the receipt from Greg’s treatment we paid for. The original post received over 4000 comments that I didn’t read at the time, my family had told me there were lots of aggressive messages shouting about how Greg didn’t deserve to receive this money in the first place or that we were taking a cheap shot at the NHS – a notion that could not be further from the truth.

But this week as I teetered on the edge of a cliff, I read some comments that got to me. People who don’t know us telling the world that we are just using the money of the public rather than our own and questioning what exactly we are doing to help the cause. How do you explain the years of pain and distress that the public haven’t seen in a comment? How do you convey that I could not care less about what people think because I was and still am fighting for my husband’s life without sounding rude and ungrateful. That I wouldn’t wish this on anyone and people judging our situation is the least helpful thing in the world. Ultimately, people can think what they like about me…but still.

No, arguing with strangers you will never meet on topics they have no understanding about is not as good for the soul as some of my past exploits such as swimming in the sea on New Years day or holding a winter solstice party. I’m done, I find it all such a waste of energy but I must admit, my tiny dalliance into online arguments put a pep in my step for the day.

* Stacey Heale has left her career as a fashion lecturer to focus on her two lively little girls and husband, Delays frontman Greg Gilbert, who was diagnosed with stage 4 bowel cancer in November 2016. She launched the viral campaign Give4Greg to raise funds for lifesaving treatment: gofundme.com/give4greg. You can read more at her blog, www.beneaththeweather.com