DAILY ECHO columnist Stacey Heale is giving a talk as part of Winchester Heritage Open Days, a free festival, running from Thursday (September 13) until Sunday (September 16).

The festival is partnering with Wire Wool events, to bring a series of talks on this year's festival theme, 'extraordinary women'.

Stacey is married to Delays frontman, artist and poet Greg Gilbert, who was diagnosed with stage four bowel cancer in winter 2014.

Stacey, who at the time was on maternity leave from her job as a fashion lecturer at Solent University, launched a huge fundraising campaign to pay for lifesaving treatment for him, not available on the NHS, which passed its initial £100,000 target in 48 hours, and has since raised more than double that sum, propelling the family into the spotlight.

Her talk, which takes place at 10.30am on Saturday, at Hampshire Records Office, is entitled 'Right now, it's like this,' and explores using photography to document family legacy.

She said: "Photography has been one of my biggest loves since I was a teenager. I taught it in my role as a fashion lecturer. It has been natural to take photos of our life with cancer.

"I realised that there are so few images shown to us about what cancer looks like, how multifaceted it is.

"I wanted to document the process and I suppose help myself understand what is happening to us, while showing others what this illness is.

"As one in two people are diagnosed with cancer, I want to start a dialogue and make it more normal to discuss the feelings around it.

"I am also aware that we don't talk about or post on social media the parts of our lives that are uncomfortable or harrowing. My talk is about the motive for doing the opposite and how being vulnerable can help others."

She added: "I'm talking about how taking photographs has helped me through Greg's diagnosis, specifically about showing the vulnerable scary realities of it, how sharing images on social media can offer a carefully curated perspective, even during critical illness, and how I feel the weight of creating a family legacy for our two young girls."

Amy Brown, who organises Wire Wool events, said: "Heritage Open Days is an amazing volunteer-run programme of events that I was thrilled to be invited to be involved with.

"The Winchester team truly are amazing, and with this year's theme of Extraordinary Women, I knew I had to be a part of it.

"Heritage Open Days is often misconstrued as dusty old buildings owned by rich people opening their doors to the public for one day of the calendar, but this is no longer the case.

With the Wire Wool Events at HODs, I wanted to put women at the forefront and explore the heritage we create as well as the heritage handed down to us.

"Heritage is framed as something we have little choice in, and merely inherit. When in fact we all hold a great responsibility in what we pass down to future generations. I hope everyone enjoys all of the events in Winchester this year, whether looking back to the past for inspiration, or onwards to the part we can play."

Heritage Open Days is England's largest festival of history and culture, bringing together more than 2,500 organisations, 5,000 events and 40,000 volunteers.

Places across the country throw open their doors to celebrate their heritage, community and history. It’s your chance to see hidden places and try out new experiences, all for free.

This year, the remaining open days run from September 13 to 16.

For more information on Heritage Open Days, visit heritageopendays.org.uk

For more information about Stacey Heale's talk and the other Wire Wool talks, visit wirewoolevents.com

Stacey's weekly column, Postcards from the Storm, is in the Echo and online every Tuesday.