Thanks for taking the time to visit my site. 

Newsflash - 30th August)  I cycled all the way from Arlberg to Barcelona, so please continue donating! It can't ever be too much! Maybe we can make the £ 3000 mark! Dad's book "Laughing my way through Life" has been published and is availiable as an E-Book on Amazon or as a paperback at Create Space.com. Nearly 50 copies have been sold and all royalties go to Macmillan!

Thanks for all your donations so far £ 2798 (24th July 2012) - well over my original target of £ 500

Since the memorial service for Dad (it was beautiful - thanks to so many of you for coming), I have successfully completed my cycle trip from the Tyrol to Christchurch (the Macmillan Unit) and Bournemouth (my Mum's home and Dad's until he died) in August have been progressing nicely. I set out on 12th August and it will took me between 16 days to do the 883 miles . The trip will took me along Lake Constance, throught the Black Forest and Alsace and across France to Dieppe, where I caught the ferry to Newhaven, then as near as I could get to the South Coast to Christchurch. See my video and watch my blog to read all about it. Your donations all go to Macmillan caring locally and were NOT used towards my travel costs (accomodation, food, extras for my bike) - that is my contribution.

Please feel free to continue sponsoring this venture although it is already over - EVERY LITTLE HELPS!

What made me decide to do this? Well, I wasn't exactly born on a bicycle, but my parents were keen cyclists in their younger years and Dad built a side-car for me to lie and later sit in - a sensation in the 1950s! In more recent years, Dad was working on international standards committes for bicyles and also did a lot of personal tests. What better reason than to cycle in his honour and for the charity that supported him at the end of his life! For me a bicycle became a means of transport to school and back, which allowed me to go home for lunch and to get away. Although a totally unsporty person in my youth I became more and more interested in cycling as a hobby and have done several trips in and around Austria - the longest one was in 1998 a similar distance to this one, but with considerably more climb - it took me 20 days! I am now 12 years older, but I don't think I'm any less fit (in the meantime I also do a lot of other sports) and am looking forward to the challenge.

The Macmillan trust do such a wonderful job in supporting patients, carers and families that I just have to do this.

Here is what your donation will buy or contrubute to:  

 

 

 

£5,00 will buy a specialist children's book.

 

These books are specially written to help a child understand bereavement; and the Macmillan family support team give them to family where a loved one has passed away.

 

£10,00 will buy a Memory Box.

 

These are keepsake boxes that the Family Support Team give to any children in a family where a loved one is seriously ill. The child is able to decorate the box themselves and put items like photos, perfume etc inside the box. This then becomes a treasured memory of a loved one.

 

£50,00 will buy a selection of talking books.

 

Some of the patients at the Macmillan Unit find it difficult to hold a book to read, so they have portable DVD / CD players that they can use. Talking books are a great way to listen to your favourite book.

 

£100,00 will buy craft materials for the Day Centre.

 

The Day Centre offers diversional therapies such as painting; and the patients really enjoy the opportunity to spend the day at the centre, and create art and paint pottery.

 

£500,00 will buy an O2 saturation machine.

 

Macmillan are aiming for all their palliative care sisters to have these machines. Should a patient require their O2 tested at home, and our staff do not have a machine, the alternative is a trip to hospital for the patient, or an uncomfortable procedure in the home, both of which are distressing when they are very poorly.

 

£1.000,00 will buy a portable hospital bed.

 

These are the beds that Macmillan deliver into people’s homes for when a patient would prefer to be cared for at home.

 

£2.500,00 will buy a Huntleigh Enterprise bed

 

for the Ward at the Macmillan Unit. Most of the beds at the Macmillan unit are 10-15 years old, so they are trying to update them with new Huntleigh beds. These beds offer far superior patient comfort, and make it easier for patient care.

 

 

Some of you will know Dad as a serious engineer. Most of you will remember his great sense of humour. He had a wonderful life, was healthy for almost 75 years, but after that it was unfortunately a downward path. Nevertheless he never lost his humour and entertained doctors and nurses alike until the day before he passed away. He always enjoyed acting the fool, played in works pantomimes, compéred Mum's accordeon concerts, told jokes at coffee mornings. He also wrote 3 books, one of which (the technical one) was published. I remember him as a wonderful father and husband who tried to give us more than was absolutely neccessary, and even when times were hard, he tried (and often succeeded) in not letting us notice this. Evryone who has written condolence letters and emails has said what an "English Gentleman" he was and he is also known as a "lovely lovely man".

I continue to thank Mum for doing such a good job in caring for him for so long.

And I can't say a big enough THANK YOU to the Macmillan palliative care nurses who have made it possible for her to do so. Thanks also to all the staff at the Macmillan unit who not only cared for Dad during his last days but were a great help to all of us. We cannot repay them for all that they have done, but with your help we can ensure that many, many more people will benefit from their support.

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 and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity. So please dig deep and donate now.