Wednesday already. Where does the time go? Do you remember, when you were young, how Christmas took a-a-ages to come round. Of course, when the big day actually came, it was over in a flash. But the rest of the year took forever to plod by. That was then. Now - life seems to be rushing past faster than a fast thing on quite a fast motorbike. Why else would Harrods have opened its Christmas department? Yep, yesterday they opened their doors to all those people who want to be really punctual with their baubles. I ask you.
Someone we're talking to on our programme tonight must think all their Christmases have come at once. Ever heard of Tinchy Stryder? I'll be honest - not that it'll come as a great surprise to those who've seen my taste in ties - I'm not really up with the latest chart news. If I was - and if you are - then Tinchy Stryder would be no stranger at all. He's one of the biggest things in British music these days - he's number one in the iTunes charts and, my friends, he's from Bow. We'll find out a whole heap more later on.
We're talking to quite a range of people this evening: the father of a Royal Marine who died in Afghanistan last year. Georgie Sparks "didn't stand a chance" according to his Dad. He had to wait 50 minutes for a helicopter to evacuate him. Did that affect his chances of survival? An inquest will attempt to determine that on Friday. We talk to father Wayne tonight.
We've another emotional conversation to listen to, as well. The mother of a young lad who died of liver failure tells us why he should have been given a transplant. He was only 22, after all. The issue here is extremely contentious, however. Gary Reinbach had a drink problem and had been told that unless he could prove that he'd beaten the bottle, he wouldn't get that second chance. I'm not going to begin to judge the morality of all this. Some people have. Some people have made their feelings very clear. Gary's Mum, Madeline, will make her feelings clear tonight.
One more 'one-to-one' conversation to bring you. We've reported before on a young girl called Imogin. Just six years old, she needed a stem-cell transplant for a chance of making it to seven. However, the chances of finding a match were something like one in one hundred thousand. Well, we'll let Imogin bring you the happy ending to her story - from her hospital bed.
Three more things for you to tune in for - we'll be hearing some truly shocking statistics on teenage pregnancy. We'll be hearing the details of the second 48 hour train strike that will hit Essex commuters tomorrow. And we'll be sending Damien down the sewers. You wouldn't want to miss that, now would you?
See you at six,
Ben & Alex (who's feeling a bit 'peaky' and has just been handed a leaflet on swine flu by the chemist. Think I might sit a bit further away from her tonight).
