I imagine all royal fans felt the same as I did yesterday when reading the headlines about Princess Kate. With Kensington Palace issuing a cancer update in the early evening, I was initially panicked. Was it that her cancer had returned? Would she have to undergo a different arduous treatment? How would this affect her family? Thankfully, I and the rest of the UK could breathe a sigh of relief as the update was that she had completed the Three Peaks challenge this weekend.

She said she did it "as a chance to explore life beyond diagnosis and to give something back". And in the picture posted on Twitter (I still refuse to call it X), she looks so happy. Her update came at exactly the right time for me because I'm days away from officially starting the training for my own endurance event.

While she did 23 miles of walking and 3,064m of vertical climbing, along with 462 miles of driving between the three highest peaks of Scotland, England, and Wales – Ben Nevis, Scafell Pike, and Snowdon – in 24 hours, my challenge will be a lot smaller.

Next July, I'll be embarking on a 26-mile "Helihike" along the Devon coast to raise money for Devon Air Ambulance.

I'm doing it because, similarly to Princess Kate, I want to prove I can.

My GP has said that I shouldn't be too downhearted if I cannot complete that distance, and have to do a smaller trek.

And a doctor in my cancer team says I should be able to do it if I can still walk by this time next year.

She said this because, as someone with incurable bowel cancer, I'm facing quite a bit of uncertainty. Tomorrow morning, I'll find out if my cancer has spread, and if this means I'll be given a chemotherapy drug where the side-effects could mean I eventually cannot walk and don't have proper use of my fingers.

So, similarly to the Princess, completing the Helihike will be an opportunity for me to explore life after diagnosis. It will mean I'm doing something other than my usual routine of blood tests, doctor appointments, immunotherapy, chemotherapy, CT scans, PET-CT scans, and wondering how much longer I've got left to live.

Hopefully, I will manage it as I want to feel as happy as Princess Kate clearly does in the photo taken after she completed her challenge.

I want to say that even though I'll never beat cancer, and it will eventually kill me, it isn't in control of me, and I can still do great things.

So I'm absolutely delighted that her cancer update was heart-warming and life-affirming.

And I thank her for raising awareness of the importance of physical activity while fighting cancer.

Many days I'm too exhausted to do much, and fighting all manner of side effects from fatigue and diarrhoea to painful skin rashes.

But when I do get out there and even do the smallest things, like going for a walk to the shops or the park, the physical and mental health benefits are immense.