So not sure where I start…….. Thought it might be a nice idea to explain what a great man my Dad was. Even though nearly 5 years have passed its still difficult writing “was”.

Softly spoken, always there with good advice (work related advice probably better than personal, typical man). Great at maths, fab at explaining school homework, always supportive and ALWAYS there for you when you needed him, a true gentleman. He was a clever man my Dad, his body may not have worked but his brain most definitely did!

Before I was born my Dad was diagnosed with MS and for all those years not once did you ever hear him complain about how difficult life was for him or how much pain he was in.

My first memory of him having MS was when we were walking along a street in Newcastle, he was still walking at the time but used a walking stick. He must have been tired because this would never have happened normally, he asked to put a hand on my shoulder for support. I have never been so proud to be able to be there for my Dad.

He worked for most of his latter life (that I remember) in the UK at Findus as a Mechanical Design Engineer. Always great at his job and thought of highly by the company, so much so, they even moved the design office to the ground floor so my Dad could still manage the team and come to work in his wheelchair. I found out later that one day he
had a fall at work when everyone left the office (quite a bad fall) and from that day forward his team made sure he was never the last one to leave.

In his middle-aged years at the weekend he would go to the “Club” in Westerhope to play cards. Not a regular haunt for a Darras Haller but everyone knew him there, treat him and spoke to him like a normal human being not a bloke in a wheelchair. Thinking about it now, it’s such a shame he had to go so far just to feel normal.

After retiring from work in the later years, stocks, shares and the computer became his pastime…. always surfing. I suppose this is what kept him in touch with the outside world. It was too difficult to go out, not many places where wheelchair friendly and it was generally a bit of an arse!

But then he lost his computer finger. His computer finger was the only finger that he could type with and I mean “type” in the loose sense of the word, finger punching each letter in an aim and fire kind of fashion. We made a joke of it at the time, but I wished so much it would come back. Give him something to do again, some interest. Little did I know it wasn’t long after this he would be taken away from us.

I remember a conversation we once had, I had started to cycle and was telling him about my jaunts, boasting about the miles I had covered. GNBR, 40 miler and a 20 miler all in one weekend……..Well that wasn’t enough to impress my Dad! In his youth he was always on a bike, at one point cycled behind a lorry and kept up with it (they must have gone slower in his time!). “If you did 100 miles a day for the weekend, then I might be impressed” he replied.

A couple of days after he passed away I went for a bike ride. I cried so much and so hard I forgot where I was and the fact I was crying in public, passers-by must have thought what the hell was wrong with me. Looking back it must have been a form of release. On that bike ride I decided it was time to grow up and it was time to give back. I was going to raise £5,000 for MS.

MS is a shit disease, slowly taking away your hobbies, interests, stopping you doing even the simple things in life and sometimes it takes your life. If I can make it possible for someone to have a wheelchair instead of having to stay in the house, then I will be happy. If I can help someone get a computer so they can work it with their eye’s instead of having to rely on a computer finger….. Then OMG I would be over the moon!

This is the start of my fundraising I am going to cycle Land’s End to John O’Groats with my lovely husband.

Hopefully my Dad will be watching, I won’t be cycling 100 miles a day, but I will be cycling the UK in 16 days……and hopefully…… hopefully he will be proud. As proud of me as I was of him for being my Dad. I love you and miss you Daddio xx