I visited the people at The Above and Beyond Charity

All,

I thought I would send you an update about my visit to the Bristol Children’s Hospital when I handed over the cheque from RB08 to the Above and Beyond Charity.

I meet Helen Morris the Senior Matron who coordinates the children cancer units throughout the South West (Gloucester to Swindon, to the Scillies, a huge area) at the Children’s Bone Marrow Transplant Department in Bristol Children’s Hospital, which is the centre of seven units throughout the region. They had organised a photographer, people from the charity and those who provide the complimentary therapy services to meet me there.

I was shown around the unit as they explained what a difference the complimentary services they offer makes to both the patients and their parents. The work they do at the bone marrow transplant unit is incredible and there were a number of both fantastic and tragic stories of some of the boys and girls who were receive treatment when I visited. The youngest child in the unit was six weeks old. You only needed to see the parents faces to know how their child was doing.

I bumped into the father of a 10 year old boy who was waiting to see his son. His son, who has leukaemia, was in the isolation ward so I was unable to talk to him. On the day I visited it was his 100th day in the unit. I could see his son through the glass, he had tubes everywhere, was unable to eat other than intravenously. His father told me there had been a few problems with his reaction to earlier treatments which is why his son had been there so long and they were preparing him for another round of chemotherapy.

His dad told me that the massages his son received from one of the girls that I was with, paid for by the charity, had really helped his son to ease pain and relax him but just as importantly helped relax his mother, if only for a few minutes, as the charity offers these services to both the patient and the parents.

I came away incredibly impressed by the work that the unit does, inspired by the team of people who I meet and the work they do and pleased that in some small way we have been able to help.

Thanks to all who have supported us and to the marvellous staff at the Above & beyond Charity.

Regards,

Paul.

570 Triathlons later.....

It's confirmed, Manuel is a monster.

His biog at the gym states he is from Madrid, no problem here, he has qualifications up the ying yang on how to torture people in the name of a healthy existence, and he likes to travel (I think it's because he keeps having to run away because he is completely mad) and finally, he has completed 570 triathlons, 30 odd marathons, can swim the channel before breakfast and he does it all for fun.

Sick...........

Any hoo, I went to the Gym on Wednesday to be assessed. I think he is still laughing, although he was highly impressed with my lung capacity at 7.5ltrs.
We went through the whole program having had to show him the website so he would understand what we are trying to do with RB08 and away we went.

Lift this, stretch that, thwannnnggg....... ouch!

Guess what, Manuel actually smiled at me, told his colleagues, "It's Justiiiiiiin my client, come on lets go do ze program....(laughing all the way).

I'm alive but only just. Not sure how, and I'm starting to wonder why I got talked into this madness in the first place. Just one cool Heineken...... only one

...............................Make the bad man stop.

Mac.

p.s: got a called from him up in Wales, the one with the hairy ear lobes, the one who is building Wolf. The seats have arrived he said. Customs have 'em at Heathrow he said, and guess what he said, they want £2000 to clear them and some other bod wants £180 to deliver to deepest darkest Wales. Frankly the £180 is cheap, people have been known to never come back, but surely the Customs have a heart. Pah...