Word up

 

I've been meaning to do a long distance ride for a while, and I've finally committed to doing it. London to Paris is some 500km and if all goes well I'll have cycled all of those kms between 15th and 19th of August.*

20th of August is my 31st birthday, but more importantly the 19th of August marks 4 years since my friend Adrian Sudbury passed away.

I met Ady at Bilborough College in Nottingham back in 1997 when we were studying for our A-levels. I don't know whether it was his Chesney Hawkes looks, or abnormally large hands that made me say "this guy's alright" but whatever it was there was something brilliant about Ady and he became a big part of our friendship group.

We saw each other less and less after college, Ady went up to Liverpool to study, and I bummed around for a few years before ending up at Nottingham Trent.

Both of us ended up working in journalism, myself at BBC Radio Nottingham, and Ady at the Huddersfield Examiner and that is how we got back in touch.

A listener to the station called in to tell me about  'Baldy's Blog' which charted a journalist's ongoing battle with leukaemia. The caller told me it would be a great story for Radio Nottingham as 'Baldy' had gone to college in the city. I clicked through to the site and saw that 'Baldy' was Ady.

I immediately got in touch and Ady joined us on the show to talk about his fight, and why he chose to bare all about his treatment on a blog. At that time Ady looked to be beating the disease and was in brilliant form when we went out for a drink with some other old college friends.

However things got more complicated with the Leukaemia and Ady chose to have no more treatment in order to enjoy his final few months. Those months included an unforgettable goodbye party at his parents house which was both joyous and sad, but more than that it was incredibly brave and dignified. Despite the fact that he was dying, Ady made us feel special.

Ady's blog continued to make a huge impact and the focus became his campaign for better education on blood, organ, and stem cell donation. In fact Ady took his campaign to the highest offices, meeting with Gordon Brown at 10 Downing Street, his story was also picked up by many of the national newspapers and television news broadcasters.

Ady passed away on August 19th 2008, the day before my 27th birthday. I hope to complete the London to Paris ride on August 19th 2012 which will mark 4 years since we lost our friend.

Ady's campaign continues and his parents Keith and Kay are the driving force behind it. Alongside the Anthony Nolan trust they have developed a school's education programme called 'R&Be - register and be a life saver'.

Ady's wish was to make this programme compulsory but he didn’t know that there couldn’t be a compulsory sixth form curriculum. 'Adrian's Law' would change this and would be a fitting legacy for a genuinely brilliant person.

I will be cycling London To Paris to raise money for The Anthony Nolan Trust  the charity which supported Adrian in his quest to develop his programme for schools – all while battling the leukaemia.

Tom

Baldy's Blog http://baldyblog.freshblogs.co.uk/

Latest BBC News story on the campaign http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-south-yorkshire-18110363

 

*Update. I have now had to put the trip back to 19th -22nd September so I can meet fundraising targets.