On 25^th  July
2015 my son Jesse was diagnosed with leukaemia. 
The type of leukaemia he had is normally treatable with daily medication
but it didn’t work for him.  By early 2016
his bone marrow was so badly suppressed that the only option was to have a stem
cell or bone marrow transplant.

On the afternoon of 30th June 2016, 100 years after the eve
of the Battle of the Somme, an unknown German man went into a hospital in
Hamburg and donated his stem cells to save Jesse’s life.  The cells were shipped on a plane that
afternoon and by the evening they were flowing into Jesse’s arm.  Thanks to that man’s selfless generosity, the
incredible team at the Beatson Cancer Hospital in Glasgow and the Anthony Nolan
charity that runs an international stem cell donor register, Jesse’s life has
been saved.

I want to say thank you to those people and to everyone else
that has helped and supported Jesse and to do so I am asking for your help.  I would like to do two things, firstly raise
a meaningful amount of money to give to the Anthony Nolan charity, and secondly
encourage anyone between the age of 16 and 30 to consider signing up as a
donor.  Being a donor will mean you may
need to make some sacrifices, but it may also mean you save someone’s
life.  You can find out more information
at www.anthonynolan.org

So what’s my sacrifice? 
I have decided to do a triathlon. 
That sounds Ok you say but when I first started training for this I
couldn’t swim 25m without seriously running out of puff, I hadn’t been on a
bike since I left school and I hadn’t done any running for over 20 years. 

In 10 days time on the 3^rd October I’m planning
to swim 550m across the sea at Oban to Craggy Island, mountain bike 14km around
the island – there are no roads - and follow this with an 8km hill run! 

I’m going to kick the fund raising off with £1000 and if you
feel you could help me out please visit my just giving page.  

Please note the page asks for 15% commission but you can change the amount of commission you wish to pay.  The Just Giving page is a good and useful tool but 15% is a lot compared to say credit cards taking 1 or 2%