So how I am going to get this 255 pound body around the London Marathon course and more importantly not have a heart attack on route? So that was my question at the end of April 2013 after yet again, I had watched the London Marathon on the television whilst eating a fried breakfast.....trying to drown the hangover from the night before in a layer of grease!

 

 

The answer was clear...lose weight you fat git! So the night before a friend told me about the "Fasting Diet" and I thought....why not? 8 weeks and 22 pounds lighter I am starting to see the benefit but at 16 stone and 9 pounds....with type 2 diabetes and high cholesterol...I still have some way to go before I can be confident of running 26.2 miles and surviving to tell my kids about it!

 

 

 

Another 3 stone 2 pounds approximately until I get to my target running weight of 13 stone 7 pounds!

 

So there lies my first challenge....lose enough weight to not die whilst running the London Marathon...that must be worth a tenner of any bodies money surely?

 

 

 

Why bother I hear you all cry...eat and drink what you want and die a happy man....well here it is.....you knew it was coming I have an inspiration....a person who never gave up who even after set back after set back during her life, raised her children and her grandchildren and the when she got to a point in her life when we could all start to repay her for her kindness, the final and most unkind setback of all.....my nan had a massive stroke at 60 years old and lost her SIGHT!

 

 

 

So after 60 years of struggle she was blinded over night, after sunshine now permanent shade, don't worry the doctors said it might come back in time...almost crueler as she never let go of that slim chance that she might see again. She was a fighter and full of that old "Best of British" spirit that you rarely see now...she didn't moan or complain, she survived in her new world where all the lights had been turned out....she adapted, she learnt to live again in a world of darkness. 

 

 

 

Of course her family rallied round, she moved in with my mum, she lost her much valued independance, but at least she was somewhere where she felt comfortable. She felt her way around the house which was going to be her home, we all had to make changes, no more shoes left on the floor, no moving of furniture, no talking whilst the television was on, no more "come on Nan put the kettle on".....but she was strong my Nan she got on with it....barely moaned, a picture of good old British stoicism.

 

Years went by.....I got thinner and then fatter and then thinner again and she didn't even know that I had changed, grandchildren grew up, got married and had her great grandchildren and she continued to survive and I thought thrive....until one day she came to stay we me and Maggie.....I told her how proud I was of her for recovering so well from the hammer blow of losing her sight after her stroke.......

 

......it all came pouring out and then the tears came and she cried......she cried about how frustrated she was at not being able to see, she cried about how she had lost her prized independence, she cried about how useless she felt, she cried about how she felt she was a burden upon everybody that she loved, but most of all she cried about the fact that she hadn't seen me for the last 10 years, how she had never seen my beautiful wife and how she had never seen our daughter who everybody said was gorgeous....It was then it hit me that she hadn't recovered at all, she had coped living day to day with the most cruel of disabilities perpetual blindness.

 

So my inspiration is my wonderful Nan, who sadly is no longer with us but I know she is now looking down at me probably calling me a "silly old sod" for attempting to do something so crazy! If I can help to bring some light into other people's lives that have been blighted with this terrible disability then I know that I my old Nan will be smiling down on me saying "he might be mad but I'm proud of him"

 

So enough of the sentiment down to strategy.....I need 165 of you to pledge me at least a tenner (dont stop there if you can afford more as every penny really does count) and I will have reached my fund raising goal, whether you do it for the weight loss or the marathon or both, I don't mind but please just give so that we can perhaps bring some much needed light into some very deserving people's live's....

 

Thank you for listening and please give generously for this wonderful cause!

 

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