YOU MUST BE KIDNEYING!

During the course of this summer, I am going to try to complete five, 100km walks, all in aid of the SOUTH WEST THAMES KIDNEY FUND (SWTKF) – a charity that supports vital research into kidney disease and its link with diabetes (www.kidneyfund.org.uk). 

I am hoping that you will help me raise an ambitious grand total of £5000 – that is £1000 for each of the 5 walks.  Do please donate however much you can spare. 

I thought I would let you know how I got on with my most recent walk, that took place this past weekend, from Paddington to Milton Keynes, along the tow-path of the Grand Union Canal – well, the short answer is not as well as I might have hoped! Once again, I did not make the whole distance, ducking out at 77km, after walking for 19 hours.

The weather on Saturday was fantastic (Tropical Storm Bill had faded from the weather forecast), but really far too hot for walking for hours on end – the air temperature was over 30C and the sun really quite merciless as it reflected off the water. There were quite a lot of rather red people on the route that day, and many, including myself, seemed to get a ‘touch of the sun’. The evening became only a bit cooler, and by then, to my shame, I had got blisters on both heels, for which I took some Ibuprofen to gain some pain relief…..I should have known better, as it always upsets my tum, but I had earlier given away the couple of paracetamol I had with me to a fellow walker who seemed more in need of them than I was. The last 15K of my walk were spent trudging in the dark, absolutely on my own, feeling ever more tired and nauseous. The powerful embracing stillness of the pitch black and silent night and tranquil water was sadly rather lost on me. 

I decided to take the sensible path at the 77k stopping point, and have my planned ‘power nap’ in the hope that after that I might be able to carry on, suitably refreshed and rested, to the finish. But my cunning stratagem misfired as the combined effects of the sun and Ibuprofen made the nausea fact rather than feeling. Once again, the event organiser’s fantastic ‘get you to the finish coach’ proved a lifesaver, and the ever-vigilant St John’s team were on my case in a trice as I stumbled off the bus, chucking up in all directions. Oh how embarrassing – but still they gave me a medal!

So once again, I am asking for your forbearance and permission to tot up some distances in order to get me to the elusive 100Km: My pedometer registered an overall distance of 80.1Km for the Saturday / Sunday walk. During the previous week I covered an additional 15.9 (Thursday), 16.5 (Wednesday), 14.8 (Tuesday) and 10.6 Km on Monday, which I hope will be enough to recompense, in some way, for my somewhat sparse performance along the Grand Union Canal. 

And now for the begging bit: My nausea and wretchedness during the walk, though horrible, lasted only a few hours, and I have felt absolutely fine ever since – but people with kidney disease feel really sick and very ill all the time, every day, 24/7, never feeling well or getting a day without symptoms. They are truly desperate for a cure for their condition to be found.  Even dialysis or organ transplant is not the answer, as neither has a guaranteed outcome, is never an easy ride, nor a bed of roses.

To date, almost 80 of you have supported me by donating a massive £2,340.00 (when you add in GiftAid) to the South West Thames Kidney Fund, to go towards the cost of a new vacuum assisted autoclave for the South West Thames Institute for Renal Research – their current model is 17 years old, and seriously in need of replacement in order to allow their vital work into finding a cure for kidney disease to continue.

This e mail goes out to almost 200 people. My most grateful thanks to those of you whose generosity, so far, has raised almost 50% of the target sum. But of course, the other vital half of the money for the special autoclave still needs to be raised. My request to those of you who have not yet decided or got down to sponsoring me is that you might dig deep, go on-line to www.justgiving.com/5x100kmwalk and donate whatever you can, so that we can come somewhere near to the £5000 needed by SWTIRR for their new piece of kit.

The final couple of walks will be take place in two month’s time: London to Cambridge over the August Bank Holiday, and lastly London to Henley only two weeks later. I have had, regretfully, had to come to the conclusion that I am really am too old to attempt a full 100Km walk in one hit, let alone do two, only 14-days apart. But I’m willing to have a go for as much as I can manage, as your sponsorship will carry me on winged heels for as far as I am able to trudge.

More news will undoubtedly follow, but for now I am closing down and maintaining radio silence until nearer the end of the summer. But you can be sure that if we did hit the fund-raising target before mid-September, I will be shouting it from the rooftops.

Previous posting about the GUC walk 27-28.0615:

The next walk will be from Paddington (London) to Bletchley (Nr Milton Keynes) - the 'usual' 100km distance, along the Grand Union Canal (GUC - 27-28.06.15)), and the forecast is that we will meet the tail end of Tropical Storm Bill, so sharing the rains, mud, winds etc with Glastonbury......I really hope that I will complete the full distance this time - my stratagem is to take a bit of a snooze in the 02:00 hours meal tent, to try to prevent me tottering all over the tow-path and not fall asleep walking along. Walking through the night after walking all day is just so difficult, as every bit of you wants to lie down and fall asleep. It is really hard to stay awake. But hopefully, 10 -20 mins of shut-eye, would perk me up sufficiently, so that I can avoid an unexpected dip in the canal. I'll let you know how I fare!

Many, many thanks to the 70+ friends who have so generously donated to the SWTKF so far. When GiftAid is included, the total raised to date stands at a splendid £2233.75! Amazing. 

SWTKF supports the ground breaking research into kidney disease by the South West Thames Institute for Renal Research (SWTIRR). SWTIRR is in desperate need of a new autoclave - such a small piece of equipment, but absolutely vital to their ongoing work - which costs about £5000. This is where we come in! Let's raise that amount - we have until September to do it, and there are three more walks still to be done. 

Update from the L2B, Late May Bank Holiday. 23/24.05.15

Apologies but again, I did not finish the distance! The friend I was walking with and I opted out at the 80K mark. Again, a rational decision, reached after some discussion at 03:00hours on Sunday morning, having walked the equivalent of 2 marathons since 07:20hours on the Saturday. We had 3 options: a – to continue for the remaining 20k (which would take at least another 5 hours, perhaps longer, and we were both very tired, and my walking friend has some nasty blisters); b: to walk 12k to the next stop, and then get the courtesy bus from there to the finish; or c: to take the utterly irresistible free coach from the 80K point to the finish. Needless to say, we made the wisest decision of the day and opted for ‘c’ !

The talk of the meal stops was the apparent difference between the distances we walkers recorded on our various portable devices and the Km markers put up on the trees etc by the walk organisers. There seemed to be a variance of anything between 5 – 10%: one chap recorded 5Km on the GPS on his phone, but was ‘credited’ by the Km markers with only 4….. and in the middle of the night when you are a long way from home, and still have a heck of a long way to go, these things matter! My pedometer recorded 97.9Km; my friend’s recorded 99k, but the ‘official markers’ only gave us 80k. So Eoifie (the dog) is due for another long walk later today, to make sure that I do not swindle you out of some of your sponsorship.

I’m very glad to note that I did not get a single blister, however long the distance actually was.  Point of note: Jean’s top tip for blister avoidance = put the Compeeds on potential blister sites before you leave home; don’t wait for the ‘hot spot’ to form during the walk!

Thank you so much for your support so far. We have 25% (if you include Gift Aid) of the overall total needed to by the South West Thames Institute for Renal Research (SWTIRR - the Research arm of the South West Thames Kidney Fund) to buy their new vacuum assisted autoclave.  As I mentioned before, my son’s friend Mat underwent kidney transplant earlier this month. Unfortunately he had to be readmitted with an infection a week or two later, and now is back in again as although his new kidney is doing what they want it to, other aspects of his overall recovery are not behaving quite so well. Clearly a cure for kidney disease must be found – transplant surgery is amazing and does control the symptoms of non-functioning kidneys, but cannot really be classed as a true cure. SWTIRR’s work can and will find that cure - and our small part, by providing that essential autoclave, will make a real difference to the research team. 

I know I can rely on your support – the next item on the walking effort is London to Bletchley  (near Milton Keynes) along the Grand Union Canal, in just under 4 weeks’ time. ………will I be able to do it? I honestly don’t know. You need a massive amount of good luck on the day, and frankly I am getting a bit long in the tooth for this sort of thing! I cannot change my age, but I can hope for the luck.

LET'S RAISE THE DOUGH FOR AN ESSENTIAL AUTOCLAVE 

The South West Thames Kidney Fund (SWTKF) is the fund raising arm of the South West Thames Institute for Renal Research (SWTIRR). I have discovered that SWTIRR is in desperate need of a new vacuum assisted autoclave - a very common piece of medical equipment, which I am sure you would find in your local GP, dental or podiatry surgery. Their current autoclave is 17 years old, and they tell me it won't make it to 18.  A vacuum-assisted autoclave is essential to allow SWTIRR to carry out certain aspects of their research, - without it, their research cannot take place, and they need just over £5000 to buy a new one.  Surely we cannot let their research programme be jeopardised and the lives of kidney patients’ be put at greater risk by the lack of such a standard and basic piece of equipment.

This is the model they need:

Let’s aim to raise that £5000 cash for them, through my efforts, and your generosity. 

An autoclave has 5 main parts – the outer metal container, a pressure-safe door, an electrical heater, an inner compartment, and a computer-assisted programme that controls heat, time and pressure.  So already we have bought the outer metal container!

My next walk will be this coming weekend (23/24 May), when I hope to cover the 100km from London to Brighton in about 24 hours. I sincerely hope the weather will be kind!

I'll let you know how I get on.

STOP PRESS: I thought you would be delighted to hear about the marvellous work of the South West London Kidney Fund in action.

Mat, a friend of one of my sons, had a successful kidney transplant, on 06.05.15 at St Helier Hospital. The kidney was donated by his Mum (and what a Mum!). I am overjoyed to be able to pass on the good news that 'both Mother and Son are doing well'. This operation will make such a fantastic difference not just to Mat, but to his wife and children as he will no longer have to go on dialysis for 9 hours every night and will be able to live the ordinary, trouble-free life that the rest of us are lucky enough to enjoy.

The work of the SWLKF and the research it promotes and funds makes these complex procedures possible. But how much better it would be if their work could find the CURE for kidney disease, so that transplants and dialysis would be confined to the history books. With your support I am sure that, in the future, they will

Thank you so much for your continuing sponsorship. My next trek will be from London to Brighton on 23/24 May. I will keep you briefed on how I do. My fingers, toes and eyes are crossed that we get better weather than on the Isle of Wight.....

The first of these walks took place over the early May Bank Holiday (2/3 May) around the coastal path of the Isle of Wight. I would have liked to complete it in less than 27 hours……but made a strategic withdrawal at the 64Km point (at just over 13 hours) as the terrain in conjunction with the awful weather made the going so tough and hazardous, literally along the edge of the cliffs in total darkness, I thought there was a real chance of becoming an accident statistic! I think it was a wise decision, but not made lightly, as I was really fired up to finish the 106Km and was blister-free and more than half way through the route. Your support certainly lightened my footsteps and eased my very weary legs, but sadly could not overcome the climate in the English Channel! 

PS: 

It concerned me somewhat that I felt that I let you down – you sponsored me to do a 100km walk around the coastal path of the Isle of Wight, but I only completed 64k due to the adverse going.

 

I felt I needed to make up the shortfall, so Eoifie (the dog) and I embarked on a longish walk on Tuesday afternoon (5th May), clocking up a respectable 32.4km going from home to Happy Valley (just south of Coulsdon) and back.

 

Adding that distance to the 64k of the IofW, the 10km I did on Sunday (the walk back to the ferry plus a short dog walk) and the 4.6km of yesterday (mainly pottering round the garden + a little dog walk) it totals up to 111km, which, by an amazing leger de main, is identical to the full distance around the IofW that I clocked up in 2014.

 

So now I feel a bit better: I hope I have redressed the balance and have paid my dues for your confidence in me, so that I no longer owe you a debt of honour having completed the distance, albeit on the 'instalment plan' !

 

The other three 100Km walks I also intend to do this summer are the:

·         London to Bletchley along the Grand Union Canal (at the end of June)

·         London to Cambridge (August Bank Holiday), and finally, if I have the energy,

·         and finally, London to Henley along Thames Path (in mid-September).

I am sure that most of us will know of someone who has developed kidney disease. I had an older step-sister who tragically died from it at the age of 32. It also caused the still-birth of her baby son. Dialysis and kidney transplants had not been invented as then, in those days, there simply was no treatment for kidney disease. But now, it is a very different story, thanks to the medical research funded by SWTKF and similar organisations. But even with the progress brought about by medical research, it is still a VERY serious disease that  can strike anyone – young or old, and once contracted leads ultimately to daily dialysis and / or kidney transplant. It is only by the dedicated work carried out by organisations such as SWTKF that this life-changing and life-threatening disease can ever be overcome.

So please help me to help them - to make the need for life-long dialysis and / or organ transplant a thing of the past, so the amazingly brave people who are unlucky enough to develop this rotten condition can look forward to enjoying normal, full and healthy lives, without the ever-present threat to their future wellbeing that kidney disease lays on them

Thank you so much for your generosity in sponsoring me.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.