OK, I am now writing about the three charities I am going to cycle for, and try to raise money for. One of them I don't know who it is yet but I have decided on two of them.
My mate, Simon, is one of the nicest blokes you'll ever meet. The type of guy who's always got time for you, would drop everything to help you out and always has a smile on his face. When my wife was suddenly taken ill during pregnancy he was round in 10 minutes to look after the kids (at 11pm) so we could get to hospital. He volunteered to drive the support van for my trip and I am forever indebted to him for this. Simon's daughter has a rare syndrome called McCune Albright's Syndrome and I am going to raise some funds for her or for research into it (there is no official charity). She is only 5 and is currently in a full body cast due to having her legs broken and reset. You could never wish to meet a happier girl and if I can do something to help her life be better than I will try.
My second charity is Macmillan's. Two reasons for this. The observant ones of you will know that I lost my Dad, aged 47, in 1994, to cancer. Whilst he didn't directly use Macmillan's I have always been amazed at the 'service' they provide for cancer sufferers. The second reason is due to the courage and tenacity of someone I've never met. Twitter is a strange beast - I have people I now consider to be good friends, I have made jam for them (seriously), invited one to cook a dinner party for us, swapped (not very witty on my part) anecdotes with them, and bantered around football, family, kids etc...well, just after Benjamin (my second child was born) a twitter friend (Stacie Stewart, her off Masterchef - and dinner party above!) recommended I follow via #ff (on Friday people recommend people they follow with the hashtag #ff or 'follow friday') Jhalmitt (username not her real name - Jay!) who had had her baby two days after we had Benjamin. We immediately hit it off, and became 'twitter friends' (that is a really lame phrase - sorry). A few weeks later Jay mentioned her sister was running Race for Life and would anyone top them up an amount to get to a milestone, and when I read about it I topped up. Don't really know why, I just did. Her sister 'I985' (Amber) is 26 (I think) and is suffering from cancer, despite this she has just run 10k and raised over £9,000 in the process. She is a wonderful, inspiring person, you only have to read her tweet line to understand how happy we all should be with what we've got. Her positivity and that of Jay, and Amber's partner, Fiona truly does inspire me on a daily basis. I may never meet her, her prognosis is not good, but I am determined to rasie money in her memory, and that of my Dad - it will be an honour.
The third charity is undecided. My friend, and father of my daughter's best friend, Nick, is going to do the whole trip with me. He used to be a marine, is much fitter than me and now does security for ships Vs pirates. I am not kidding. I am making him do the trip blindfold just to equalise things a little. The third charity is to be his choice, frankly anyone who can stomach me for 15/16 days moaning about my arse, the weather, roads, the Scottish, Northerners, Southerners, the weather, chaffing of legs in lycra, sunburn, and the weather, deserves a medal. He can choose charity three.
So there we go, I still need people. Please let me know if you want to do a leg. I am trying to badger Dave Gorman, he of telly, book, tattoo, beard and cycling fame, but as he put in a tweet to me he gets 100's of requests to do this a year...and he's a busy guy...who knows though maybe he will come along, just for the craic. Maybe if we all send him a tweet asking nicely... :)
That's all for now - I'm not great at this blog thing. Please feel free to message me on here or via @moosola on twitter.
