Health first - but my fans help me in the tough times

I was back at The Jam House in Birmingham supporting Jamie Cullum for Smooth FM which will be aired in August. What a lovely young man he is too, very talented.

As some of you may know I'm currently on the road with my 'For Sentimental Reasons – Ultimate Soul & Motown Tour' and I'm not done yet. From Birmingham, Stratford, Milton Keynes, Maidstone and more, the fans have been great and truly lifted my spirits.

While I've been touring, I have a very sick husband at home. Tony is suffering from severe heart failure after we had to rush him to hospital on Christmas Day night. He's due for major heart surgery soon. I therefore couldn't write this piece without saying a huge thanks to all at New Cross Hospital, Wolverhampton. In particular, the staff in the heart and lung ward, as they've done such a great job of looking after and reassuring him.

As you can imagine, it's a scary position to be in. We've been married for almost 37 years and, at times, I have felt terrible having to leave him but he's insisted 'the show must go on'.

It's thanks to my supporters that our family have made it through this far. I'm hearing of more and more people who have been treated at New Cross and come out fitter than they've ever been. It's certainly very reassuring to hear.

Obviously, I'm no spring chicken myself anymore and the aches, pains and sore knees have officially kicked in. Not even WD40 can help me now. I felt this would be a good opportunity to stress the importance of looking after your health, as a lot of the time we take it for granted.

As ambassador for a number of charities that are close to my heart including Compton Hospice, Balls To Cancer and Cure Leukaemia I have great admiration for these organisations. Not only do they raise funds to help individuals and train specialist nurses, the support they provide for families is incredible and very humbling. Keep up the great work.

My son Ryan is also an ambassador for Balls To Cancer along with some of the stars from Hollyoaks. The team is captained by Wolves star Jody Craddock.

Over the last month the BTC All-Star team have played against West Bromwich Albion, Kidderminster Harriers and Aston Villa All-Stars. I play the doting mum cheering from the sidelines. All of the mums, wives and girlfriends there are doing the same – as well as always making sure the men in their life make the relevant health checks. We know how stubborn some of you men can be, I'm married to one of them.

There's plenty more games to come too so if you fancy a great family day out this summer, that's all for a good cause then check out www.ballstocancer.com. Could along and hang with me and the team.

Even with my squeaky knees, I managed the five-mile sponsored memory walk for Compton Hospice at their annual Compton in the Park fundraiser last month which was a fantastic day.

I have to say well done to my friend Dickie Dodd of Signal 107 and my daughter Natalie, as they both did a 150ft bungee jump for Compton Hospice. All I can say is, they've got more nerves than me. In fact I think I was more nervous than them both put together.

I'll be catching up with you again next month so if you've got any questions you'd like to fire at me or topics for discussion then feel free to drop me a tweet @jaki_graham