Circles of Blue » Tag » fundraising

Tag Archives: fundraising

London to Paris 2019 cycle videos

By | |
1 Comment

kev at paris 2019In June I rode to Paris with a 10 mums and dads of kids with Type 1, plus 16 year old Jack (who has Type 1 himself).

Finally the videos are done.

It was ridiculously hot, riding in temperatures up to 43 Celsius, that made it quite hard work at times. We managed to minimise some of the heat by leaving our hotels really early but it still wasn’t enough, especially on the hottest day, day 3.
It was a self-supported ride, where we carried our own luggage, tools and spares, and were responsible for fixing any mechanicals. Out of the four Paris rides I’ve done we experienced the most issues this year: from Svenia’s tubeless tyre puncture woes; to Steve’s broken spoke; to Andrew’s cracked wheel rim 30km from the nearest shop!
The heat and issues were all overcome and we had a lot of fun, it really was a great group. Caveat: every trip has been great fun, brilliant team work and camaraderie, lots of beer and wine too.
The end result was we raised £12,000 for JDRF.

Here’s the videos from this year. Sit back, enjoy, and if you think you might like to do this let me know. If you want to do your own trip then full planning information is available at london-to-paris.winchcombe.org

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gW3_zP4nHmA

London/Paris Fundraising – Win a Dexcom G6 Starter Park

By | |
Leave a comment

The raffle is now closed, the winner was Claire Reidy

Here’s a video of the draw being done…

eiffel and us before finish

Introduction

Us Diabetes Dads had a great ride to Paris, we’ve been back a few weeks now – yes, yes, I’ll do some videos soon. Hopefully some of you managed to follow the fun on our Facebook page – London To Paris Diabetes Dads.

Fundraising went so much better than we expected, topping £13000 so far – thank you, thank you, thank you – but we’ve got something left before we close the fundraising down…

Dexcom has generously donated a starter kit for the brand spanking new and shiny Dexcom G6, which 900 of us UK people saw this week on Dexcom’s release webcast.

If you’ve already donated to our ride already you can still enter this raffle.

What’s the prize and how much is an entry?

Up for grabs is one Dexcom G6 starter kit worth £159 (exc VAT), which consists of one G6 transmitter and three sensors. It’s enough for you to trial G6 for 30 days if you use it continuously, or 3 lots of 10 days if you don’t. The transmitter will last longer if you decide to buy more sensors afterwards.
The G6 is a vast improvement on any previous Dexcom product, and let’s face it they were pretty damn good. It doesn’t need calibrating, it lasts officially for 10 days, it’s slimmer and its inserter doesn’t scare the daylights out of you.
Entry is £5 for one chance. If you wish to have more chances you can – just like you would when buying multiple raffle tickets – you just need to donate multiples of £5 when you enter.
DexcomG6
(Note: it’s only the transmitter, the sensors and the inserter you get, no phones, no watches)

 

How do you enter?

NOTE: This is open to UK residents only.
Read all this stuff below then head over to our ride’s JustGiving page to enter, see link at bottom of this section.
On our Just Giving page donate £5, or multiples of £5 to get more chances.
Make sure your name is correctly set up, so that we can announce the winner in July.
DO NOT SELECT GIFT-AID.
You will need to go back to the JustGiving site on 20th July to check whether you’ve won.
IMPORTANT:Please let me know you’ve entered via Twitter or message me via Faceboook.
Okay, now click this link: A Dozen Diabetes Dads Do London to Paris

When is the draw and how will it be done?

After the World Cup finishes we will collate a spreadsheet of people who have donated a multiple of £5 between 16th June 2018 and 15th July 2018.
If you’ve donated £5 you’ll get one line in the spreadsheet, if you’ve donated £500 🙂 you’ll get 100 lines in the spreadsheet.
The winning entry will be chosen by placing each entry into a bowl and chosen at random.
The winner’s name will appear on the Just Giving site and here once the draw is over, details should be published by 20th July.
PLEASE COME BACK TO CHECK WHETHER YOU’VE WON AS YOU WILL NEED TO CONTACT US TO GIVE US YOUR FULL CONTACT DETAILS.
We will pass the details of the winner to Dexcom and they will contact the winner to arrange delivery of the shiny new G6 starter kit.

Here’s some raffley legally stuff

This online ‘raffle’ is legal because JDRF now hold a Small Society Lottery registration with their local council, Islington, it’s reference LN/18477-100518 if you’re interested.
To be honest it’s taken us ages to get this licence, and we’d wanted to do this ‘raffle’ before we rode to Paris but getting it right (and legal) was important so we just had to wait until now. But as a bonus the offer is now for a G6. Woohoo.

Here’s an incredibly important disclaimery type thing

Dexcom has provided us with this chance to increase our fundraising.
They want nothing in return and never actually expected us to be in a position to raffle it online, but now of course they’ll get a little marketing in return, but that’s not something they expect.
Kudos to Dexcom for helping us with our fundraising and special thanks go to Gerald and John for helping us.
Dexcom has also giving us this opportunity knowing full well that half of the Dads on the trip as Nightscouters. It’s refreshing we’re still friends and can talk openly.
33683908_1662174733829712_7420630583182622720_n

London to Paris with the Diabetes Dads – A Suitable Momento

By | |
Leave a comment

Fields of goldI’m always fond of having a souvenir of somewhere I’ve been, something I’ve done and I prefer it when that thing is practical.

Clothing is often a favourite and I was made up in 2015 when I managed to find a London to Paris cycle jersey but I’ve put on far too much weight to even think about wearing it again and arguably it never fitted anyway.

With 12 Diabetes Dads doing this trip I wonder if it was possible to get something made, something personal whilst practical at the same time.

Cycling jerseys and shorts were out, the quantities you’d need to order to make it worthwhile were too high and we’re all different sizes – although it appears we’re mostly in the XL and XXL categories…and that’s before they wine, cheese and baguettes we’ll be consuming.

Taking one look at my now aging water bottles the idea came to me, could we get some bottles custom made, with our own design?

Well yes, we could, so we did. Et voila.
water bottle3

Suppliers, Quotes and Costs

I searched the internet, got a few quotes and decided to go with Bottles & Bags, a small family run business specialising in this sort of thing. They’ve lots of different bottle types, sizes, colours and after a few chats with Caroline from Bottles & Bags I got a fixed price for the Gripsport 750ml bottles with one print colour and delivery for a shade under £210.
If we wanted a second colour it would be another £30 on top, for three it would another £30 on top of this. So in the interests of keeping costs low I opted for a single colour, the JDRF blue, printed on translucent bottles.
It’s possible to select different colour tops and you can mix and match within your order. One of them closely matched the JDRF blue too which was perfect.

Designing a template

I still like the header design of my London to Paris Cycle Ride web site, especially the blue skyline silhouette so I wanted to feature this. I wanted London to Paris 2018 in there and the JDRF logo to take center stage.
Bottles & Bags supplied the template with the instructions that it has to be 300DPI and its print size should be 140mm wide by 110 high maximum.
To do this I used the free graphics software GiMP.
This was the final design, although in the end I chose to get the printers to match my logo colour to the pantone colour of the blue lids they had, I think it works out well.
Bottle - blank background

Still too many bottles

Even 50 bottles was too many so after a chat with JDRF I offered some for sale to members of the Cycling @ JDRF UK Facebook group, at a slightly inflated cost of £5 a bottle – any excess will of course be put into the Diabetes Dads London to Paris fundraising pot. At least this means that all the Dads don’t need to have four each…although I’m so excited by these I’m having four.

Can you spare a pound or two?

If you can spare a few quid you can help us raise money for JDRF UK using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diabetes-dads.
Or donate by texting DDTP50 £1 to 70070. You can change the ‘£1’ for any amount, e.g. ‘£1000’ 🙂

London to Paris with the Diabetes Dads – 5 weeks to go

By | |
Leave a comment
Bottle - blank background
The logo I’ve designed for the event water bottles

A few years ago I helped get a large team of Diabetes Dads – Dads with kids who have Type 1 – together to ride the London Nightrider. Around 30 of us rode, raising £20k for JDRF. It was a great night.

This year twelve of us are riding from London to Paris, starting on the 24th May from JDRF’s offices in London, through to the Trocadero in Paris which we’ll (hopefully!) reach 4 days later. Many hardcore cyclists would do this in less days but this will be a social ride, discussing diabetes, our kids and tech. Plus there *may* be stops at the odd auberge.
The ride will be unsupported much like the ones I’ve done in 2015 and 2016. If you’re thinking of doing something like this yourself check out my blog at london-to-paris.winchcombe.org.

It’s 200 miles, 65 miles for days 1 and 2, 35-40 miles for days 3 and 4.

How fit do you need to be

This isn’t something only the uber fit can do, you just need to train. Like most of the team I’ve started from nothing, no regular training for months before starting training for this. Starting at 10 mile rides and now happily at 40 mile rides, a few more training weeks should see me able to complete the event.

Getting fit is hard

Many of my friends think that I cycle all the time so this ride will be easy, but prior to starting training I’ve not cycled since last year’s Nightrider in June 2017. I’d forgotten how quickly you lose fitness and just how hard it is to get it back again.

Fundraising is hard

I’ve not done any fundraising for a couple of years but times are tight for many and I’m finding fundraising really hard at the moment. I think I’m suffering from this challenge being no harder than the last one and that people think this will be easy for me, it won’t, I’m no weekend-warrior-cyclist, those hills and that mileage really take its toll on my still-in-their-forties-just legs.

Training not walking

It seems like I’ve been waiting for the warm days – like today – to appear and I never realised how much of a fair weather cyclist I must be. It’s time to stop talking about the ride and get out and do some longer, decent training rides over the South Downs.

If you can spare a few quid you can sponsor us using this link: https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/diabetes-dads
Or donate by texting DDTP50 £1 to 70070. You can change the ‘£1’ for any amount, e.g. ‘£1000’ 🙂

Diabetes Dads do Nightrider (again)

By | |
Leave a comment

CaptureOnce again some of my Diabetes Dad friends and I rode in the London Nightrider, as we did last year when we had a huge group. Whilst the group wasn’t so large this year a good few thousand pounds was raised by the other Dads. I didn’t raise any money this year as I had a free place after coming to agreement with the event organisers who in turn used lots of my previous year’s video as promotional footage.

Yet again we had a great meet up and curry at Lahore Kebab House long before the ride and we’re really pleased that not only did JDRF challenge event organiser Bronagh come along but JDRF’s CX Karen too. It felt great to be supported and their support spurred us on for the ride.

What interested me this year was that two-thirds of us were using Nightscout and we had a bit of fun reporting on our kids’ glucose readings throughout our ride.

We had lots of fun.
Take a look.

(Here’s last year’s video)

JDRFDadsLogo

World Diabetes Day 2016 and Blogaversary 4

By | |
1 Comment

londontoparisSo maybe this blogging was a fad after all, I’ve hardly kept it up-to-date, happy instead to read the blogs of some of the community’s new bloggers, like Amber.

Real life is more important right now

In fact it’s not just the blog which has taken a back seat to real life, Diabetes has too, well at least it has for Amy.

Aim for the sky Amy, diabetes won’t stop you

Life for Amy has just been so busy at the moment, with school, with friends, with gigs, with hobbies.
She’s decided to aim for the sky as far as education goes, striving to get herself into a position to apply to undertake a medical degree at one the UK’s most prestigous universities. At this stage whether she gets there or not is neither here nor there but one thing’s for sure: she has not considered that having Type 1 will stop her in her quest.
With the attitude to life and diabetes she has I have absolute faith she will achieve major successes in life.

Technology takes a back seat…

November 2015 saw Amy going to strength to strength with Nightscout and her Pebble watching displaying her glucose levels.
Then her Pebble broke and I never got round to fixing it.
Then eventually she decided that she wanted a break from CGM when her Dexcom G4 transmitter battery died.
From a parental point of view and especially as a member of the Nightscout UK team I’ve found it a little difficult to come to terms with a lack of CGM data, after a couple of years relying on it.
BUT, this is Amy’s diabetes, this is her choice and regardless of what I’d prefer I must respect her decision.
For the moment she’s wearing the occasional Libre and this is generally working very well for her, giving her poor fingers a rest from jabbing with a lancet. Libre is enabling her to see her data and we’re taking such a back seat that I have not looked at any of her data, whatsoever.
We’re so lucky that Amy is on top of her diabetes and things are going well, if she wasn’t and things weren’t maybe we wouldn’t be so relaxed, but for the time being technology is not the answer.

But Thank God for technology

One year ago today we were waking up to the morning after the terroist attacks in Paris.
I’d taken Jane to Paris for her birthday celebrations, it was the first time we’d ever left the kids (aged almost 18 and 15) alone, so it’s darn typical we’d go on that weekend to that city.
But Thank God for Nightscout, which enabled us to take that well needed break, knowing that we could see how Amy was and if needed get help to her, or nudge her sister into helping, or so on.
Without Nightscout, we’d never gone away that weekend.
Without Nightscout, Jane and I would never had the fantastic time we had.

A year of presentations

For me, this last twelve months have been somewhat challenging, but has brought forward some fantastic opportunities and experiences. I’ve always hated public speaking, in fact I won’t even speak up in a pub or a group, preferring instead to listen to everyone else, so the idea of doing presentations used to freak me out.
After the presentations at CWD FFL 2015 I’ve launched into seeking opportunities to present Nightscout to other families and health care professionals, all for awareness only.
First it was the opportunity to visit the Houses of Parliament with INPUT Diabetes for the Medical Technology Awareness meeting.
Back in January, along with Stuart, Kate and Amy, we presented two long (1.5hours) presentations to JDRF and Diabetes UK, giving them a run through of everything Nightscout.
A few days later I got the great opportunity to present about our life with T1 at Dr Partha Kar’s TalkT1 event, and of course slipped in a fair few slides about Nightscout, try stopping me.
Then in April Dr May Ng asked me to present at the CYP North-west education day, talking about our life with Diabetes and of course Nightscout and OpenAPS got some slides too.
Again in April I presented Nightscout to the National Diabetes Psychologists meeting.
This year of presentations culminated with my biggest opportunity yet: presenting Nightscout to NHS England. Again this was done purely for their awareness, our Nightscout team of presenters (me, Kate, Matt) expected nothing but we got so much more – blimey, just realised I never blogged about this…must do that soon.

And some fundraising too

I was amazed that my ‘let’s get a team of Diabetes Dads cycle London Nightrider‘ post on our Facebook group resulted in a team of around 30, raising close to £20,000 for JDRF. I enjoyed all the organising of this and giving us Diabetes Dads the chance to meet up.
I’m also pleased to have helped my friend Kelly organise of group of 16 of us to cycle from London to Paris. Between them they raised thousands for several local Diabetes charities, enabling the purchase of CGM to help others in need.

A few other things I’m proud of

Getting Carlo to link his Libre-scanning Glimp app to Nightscout.
In April as part of promoting Diabetes UK’s 100 Things book, Jane, Amy and I appeared on a local TV channel. It’ll be the one and only time I let my eyebrows get a media outing. I was really proud of Jane and Amy, they did brillantly.
JDRF’s Type1Catalyst event saw both me and Amy in Parliament, unfortunately though for Amy several hours walking around Camden meant she spent most of the time in Parliament trying to get out of a hypo.
I’m proud to be one of the founding members of the new T1 Resources web site. Sophie and Mike really have done a great job of organising such a great resource.
Most recently I’ve enjoyed being a judge for the QIC Diabetes Awards.

Cycling from London to Paris for INPUTDiabetes – How it went

By | |
Leave a comment

London 2 Paris Logo + Input LogoWhilst the cycle ride from London to Paris had nothing to do with Type 1 Diabetes as such I was raising money for INPUTDiabetes so here’s a little bit of information about how it went.

Fundraising

Initially I set a target of £320, one pound for every kilometre of my trip. This seemed like a good idea for me as I guessed I’d have some tired dark moments where it would be an effort to turn the pedals and the thought of raising another pound for just one more kilometre would spur me on. Luckily this never happened.
Initially the uptake for sponsorship was slow and I was worried that I wouldn’t even make £100 but towards the event itself sponsorship poured in and exceeded my target.
I raised £511 which will turn into £623.75 including GiftAid.
A key thing is that I never felt under pressure to raise this money, I didn’t have to pressure people to donate just so I could reach a target set by a charity, as is the case with organised London to Paris rides. These targets are generally £1500 minimum sponsorship for a trip like this.

How much did it cost?

£200.
Yep, that’s all.
If I’d gone on an organised event I would have still had to pay £100 up front.
The price included all travel costs, all accommodation costs and some food but not all. It doesn’t include any extra bike bits (pannier, rack) or clothes you might need to buy.

How did the trip go?

Honestly I don’t think the trip could have gone any better: the routes worked and we never got lost; our bikes didn’t break; the accommodation was superb; we all had a great time.
One unknown for me was how I would feel on days 2,3 and 4 having to get up and get back on the bike for several hours. Each morning though I woke up fresh and ready to get cycling again, excited about that day’s ride.
For more information take a look at the new blog I created all about the trip, particularly the Trip Reports area.

Fancy trying it yourself?

If you can cycle 50 miles at 10mph you can do this trip too. None of us trained to be able to ride the full distances day after day – see this training page for more info – and as you’ve got all day to cover the distances the pace can be quite slow.
I’ve created a new blog which details all the routes, the planning, the costs and reports about each days’ rides here: London to Paris Cycle Ride.

Blogaversary 2 on World Diabetes Day 2014

By | |
Leave a comment

Spinnaker Tower on World Diabetes DayIt’s hard to believe yet another year has gone by in the Diabetes world, here’s a little bit about what’s been going on.

But first, it’s my blog’s birthday; 2 years old today (well actually yesterday but let’s not worry about that minor fib). Its visits have doubled since the first year’s statistics: I’m pretty darn amazed with that. What really pleases me is that I can see from the stats that people have searched Google and found the answers in my site, that’s kind of why I started it in the first place.

In December 2013 my daughter Emilia decided to take part in the TrialNet study at Bournemouth. It was two long months before we found out her results (and mine) were negative which pleased us, although we were saddened to hear that a friend’s result was positive.

Christmas and Amy’s Diaversary (29th Dec) came and went and her 6 month old Animas Vibe insulin pump made life easier during the festive period.

Amy and KevEarly in the new year I started my shifts as a national peer supporter for Diabetes UK, answering phone calls once a week and helping people find solutions to problems, or giving them ideas from the experiences we’ve had in the family. It’s proved to be really rewarding.

AccuChekInsight1March was a whirlwind on a particular day, the 15th, which saw us have two back-to-back diabetes events, doing their impressions of buses and policemen (none around, then there’s two). The first was an education day held by the local Type 1 families group Seahawks where amongst many other things I got to check out Roche’s latest pump, the Insight. It a great event and I was sad to rush away from just after lunch. But rush we must as Amy was doing a sponsored Indoor Skydiving in aid of JDRF along with lots of kids we knew pretty well; she loved it, every minute of it.

dblogweek squareIn May I joined in with blog week and I remember how nervous I felt when releasing my poem for Tuesday’s entry: A Childhood All Gone. It turns out I needn’t have been so nervous and I think that’s turned out to be my most favourited/Retweeted/Liked blog post ever.

flatline-dayEarlier in March Animas got the green light for use of the Vibe pump with Dexcom CGM for children, something we’d be waiting for since June the previous year. One year after getting her pump Amy went live with CGM and what an eye-opener that turned out to be.

twitteravatarJune also saw me cycling 100km around London overnight with a group of friends in the Nightrider charity event, where my local group of 8 raised £2700 for JDRF. On the plus side the training for it and switching to a healthier diet has also seen me shed 1.5 stone.

My personal highlights for this last year though involve each one of my kids. First Amy spoke in front of hundreds of Paediatric Health Care Professionals in a transition chat set up by the wonderful Dr Kar from QA Hospital in Portsmouth. Secondly, it was Emilia’s prom and a combination of pride and tiredness (from Dad-taxi pick ups at 3am) made me quite reflective: The Forgotten Sibling.


wpid-20140921_133723.jpg emiliaswing

Type Onesie fundraising for DRWF

By | |
Leave a comment
DRWF logoDiabetes Research & Wellness Foundation

Raising awareness locally

Last weekend a few Twitter friends and some of their families went to Havant shopping centre to raise awareness and money for DRWF, an international diabetes charity whose UK base is quite close to me. DRWF are unique in that they are a global charity helping people with all types of diabetes.

I’ve meet a few of the DRWF team before: Sarah (the CEO) at the Portsmouth Sweetmeet in May; Claire who does the social media at the DRWF Wellness Day South day in June. There’s something quite special about DRWF, after all which other Diabetes charity Chief Executive would recognise you instantly and come over and have a chat?

When my friend Laura (aka @Ninjabetic1) came up with the idea of raising some money in Diabetes Awareness Month it didn’t take her long to figure that trying to help DRWF was the right option. And so started the conversations which led to many of us local Twitter friends meeting for the first time.

Jane, Amy and Emilia were there; Steve, Suzie and their daughter were there; Laura was there; Helen and her daughter (who has Type 1) were there; Tanwen was there, along with Sarah and Claire and her husband from DRWF. I know what you’re thinking: where we you Kev, in your onesie? Sadly – well luckily really – I was going to see Chase & Status at the O2 in London, so sadly/luckily I couldn’t buy/don a onesie and wear it out in public. Shame eh?

Claire’s husband took a video at the event, it’s pretty good, watch it and get to hear how Type 1 Diabetes has affected my family and friends and what a cure would mean to them.

httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=30ioXK51uis

JDRF Walk to Cure – Meetups, tweetups & eat-ups

By | |
Leave a comment
walktocure2013
Warming up before the walk

A tale of two cities

Each year JDRF organise Walk to Cure sponsored walks around the globe, with this year’s falling on 13th October for both the South and South-west & Wales regions. Right from day one I was torn as friends of mine (Becky, Helen, Sarah) were going to the event in Netley near Southampton – merely a 10 minute drive from me – and others (Annie, Mark, Chris and more) were going to the one in Bristol – a shade under 2 hours away.
With apologies given to my local friends we signed up for the Bristol Walk to Cure.

“Luke, use the force”

As we neared the university campus where the walk was starting from we saw a couple of Star Wars Stormtroopers. It seemed a bit bizarre but maybe that’s what people do in Bristol each Sunday morning…oh no, hold on, this where we’re meant to be.
*brakes screech to halt*

One hug too far

Walking up to registration and Annie spotted us, greeting us with the customary hug that we’ve become used to when meeting Twitter friends with whom I speak to more regularly than family or local friends. I looked around for Izzy, who I’d been wanting to meet for ages; there she was waiting with another hug for me.
Annie pointed me towards Rufus – JDRF’s 6 foot tall bear – who was walking towards me. “Don’t forget to kick him in the shins” she said as inside the costume was her husband.
The handshake wasn’t working between man and bear so with outstretched arms Rufus demanded a hug. It worried me how pleasingly cuddly Rufus felt but worse how long he held me for, a little too long in my opinion. 🙂

Expected and unexpected meet-ups

Recovering from my bear hug I walked into registration and was recognised by Chris who’s young son Alfie had been part of Gav’s GBR30/30 that Amy and I had been involved with earlier this year.
After, we met Mark – whom we’d met many times – and Danielle who’s on Twitter too.
Before the walkers went through a warm up routine a speech was made by Colin Rowland, whom I last saw at the JDRF Discovery Day in April. Colin and I had spoken a fair bit since April and it was great to see him; I had no idea he’d be there.

Walking to Cure

These walks are short, being aimed clearly at the youngest kids, and we opted for the longer 5km walk.
At this point the rain started. Typical!
Amy was walking in front with Annie’s kids, whilst Jane and I walked round with Colin and his wife, having a great chat about diabetes, Amy, pumps, CGM, the future, running and cycling.
At the half way point we left Colin and waited for Annie/Mark/Izzy/Danielle who never appeared. I suspected they’d employed the old school cross-country cheat tactics of waiting behind a tree somewhere until everyone returned.

Post exercise carbs & protein

As any athlete knows you need to make sure you take care of your body replenishing lost carbs and taking on protein. With this in mind I polished off a huge slice of Annie’s superb chocolate cake and we planned a trip to Nando’s… that’s an okay post-exercise recovery plan right?
Nando’s was great, with 10 of us there, adults at one end, kids at the other and me getting to sit next to the wonderful Izzy and hear all of her future plans.

Today had been brilliant.

Rufus’s finest moment

Just before the walk the walkers were put through a warm-up routine, so I’ll leave you with a video of Rufus’s finest moment:

httpv://youtu.be/zrMbDl3nhis

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Day 29 to Gav, day 1 to Amy, day 3 to me

By | |
Leave a comment
Gav's GBR30/30 ChallengeGav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

This article is about my involvement with Gav’s challenge, where I cycled next to him during the last four days of his challenge, whilst he ran 30 miles or more each day for JDRF and DiabetesUK.
If you’re expecting to find out about how Gav got on with his diabetes or running you’re going to be disappointed, you’ll have to wait and buy the book or attend one of his talks. Sorry but his tale is his to tell, not mine.

Saturday, 25th May 2013 – Bodmin to St Agnes

Today was my 12 year old daughter Amy’s big day: she’d cycle her longest distance ever (27 miles); meet an inspirational athlete who, like her, has type 1 diabetes; raise lots of money for charity; run with Gavin into St Agnes carrying his Olympic Torch. My wife Jane would also be cycling with us today.

The planned route and elevation

Late the night before I changed the plan slightly so we’d join Gavin about 3 miles in, halfway up a 500ft hill. Why? Well to be honest I’d had enough of hills by this point and I didn’t want Amy’s big day to start with a 500ft hill climb, knackering her out with still 27 miles cycling and a run to the end with the Olympic Torch.

Setting off from Bodmin Jail, or Gaol to ye olde rascals

Gav was going to depart from Bodmin Jail and although we weren’t going to cycle from there we went to see him off on his run, to then join him 3 miles later. When we got there everyone was downstairs in the old jail checking out the cells, we ventured down there too but I knew Amy wouldn’t last long, she hates things like that.
Afterwards it was photo time and Gav had a little issue to sort out before we could start his run:

Our journey begins

Meeting Gav three miles in we parked the car in a country layby and left it there, hoping it would still be there 10 hours later. We were halfway up the hill we were trying to avoid but actually it didn’t seem to bad, probably because yesterday’s gales weren’t there any more, leaving a lovely sunny day for us to enjoy.
After a couple of miles Gav’s sister Kaylie joined him running and Amy warmed to her straight away, cycling next to her for the next few miles.
We passed by a road sign for a town which made me smile, especially whilst on a diabetes-related trip.

Lovely countryside, quite roads

For the next few miles we cycled on cycleways, the Goss Moor trail (where people on horseback rode past) and very quiet roads. The sun was shining down and I only was pleased not to need the fleece+jacket I’d worn on the previous two days.
Amy and Jane were enjoying themselves too.
httpv://youtu.be/Q5-pgPmXt1s

A great support team

Throughout the day Gavin’s family met us at different points, giving Gav a cheer as he neared them, motivating through the next stretch.
httpv://youtu.be/LtrLYHkEZaM

Gav in “Countryside Meltdown Shocker”

On the way to the final checkpoint, Gav laughingly had a bit of a breakdown, longing for tarmac and concrete. Watch it happen:
httpv://youtu.be/3fl3tJjzNcc

A cock-up of a finale

day 29, new inn goonhavernWith 6 miles or so to go we stopped at the New Inn at Goonhavern for a quick drink, meeting up with Matthew Wood and his wife Clare – Matthew ran the first day with Gav and was going to run the last too. Gav’s Dad Vince bought me a refreshing pint of shandy and as he passed it to me Gav said “right, I’m off to finish this thing”.
“Erm, ok, Gav, I’d better drink this first.”
Matthew was staying in St Agnes and told have which way to run, but it differed to the plan I’d done previously, but I hatched a plan where he’d go one way and we’d go the other and get in front of him, to be in St Agnes ready for his arrival. Amy would then collect the torch and run with Gav to the end point, the St Agnes Hotel.
If only it had worked out like that!
Leaving twenty minutes later than Gav we sped down the first hill – at 35mph for me: “woohoo…yeah…damn, that hill goes up…and up…oh kak”.
The series of hills kept coming and coming, downhill then uphill and downhill again.
After cycling over 23 miles already the last 4 were killers to our tired legs.
Day 29, Amy with torch at St AgnesThis was broken by calls from Emilia, then Gav, then Vince (Gav’s Dad) then Emilia again; all asking us where we were and when we’d arrive. I had no clue.
Finally, St Agnes neared and Gav met us, gave the Olympic Torch to Amy and ran up the hill with her bike, whilst Jane and I followed, slowly.
Amy was elated, but sadly for Jane and myself we’d missed seeing her finish with the torch.

Day 29, finish group shot

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Day 27 to Gav, day 1 to me

By | |
Leave a comment
Gav's GBR30/30 ChallengeGav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

This article is about my involvement with Gav’s challenge, where I cycled next to him during the last four days of his challenge, whilst he ran 30 miles or more each day for JDRF and DiabetesUK.
If you’re expecting to find out about how Gav got on with his diabetes or running you’re going to be disappointed, you’ll have to wait and buy the book or attend one of his talks. Sorry but his tale is his to tell, not mine.

The night before…

Dad rang me on the phone to confirm the time he was picking me up in the morning.
“Ok, Kev, I’ll see you at 5am”
“What, 5am! No, later, can we aim to leave here at 6am?”
We settled on him arriving at 5:30am, to leave at 6am on our 3 hour drive to Torquay in Devon, to meet Gav and cycle 30 odd miles next to him. It was going to be a long day.
5:30am obviously stuck in my Dad’s head, as that’s when he left his house, to drive to mine, 45 minutes away.
We were already late.

The route and elevation

Today’s route on flat land was due to be 33.6 miles, or 54.2km in new money.
You can click on the map to show it in Google maps:
GBR3030, Day 27, route map
GBR3030, Day 27, elevation

Plymouth ho!

At Plainmoor, the home of Torquay Football Club, we met Gavin, his sister and his Aunt, took pictures and readied to set off.
I presumed that the hilly route would be quite normal to Gavin, who’d already run through Scotland, the Cotswolds and the Mendips but he next four days turned out to be some of the hilliest routes.
I was dreading it, I hate hills, which is why I’d cleverly (or not!) spent hours changing the route to minimise elevation changes and therefore hill climbs. It only took me a couple of miles to realised all this was in vain and that I should have put it a lot of hill cycle training beforehand; it was too late now.

Did I say that I hate hills?

Just two miles into the route came our first steep hill, a road still within the boundary of Torquay.
I slowed as I cycled and watched as Gav ran on, powering up the hill. Half way up my unfit legs told me to get off the bike and walk.
I was disappointed but as I walked up I looked at the terracing of the houses and realised it was probably the steepest I’d ever attempted to cycle up.
And just at moment Gav’s sister Kaylie caught the moment on camera.
The next 3km were up hill all the way and at this point I lost Gav.
Here I was, meant to be supporting someone who’d already run 780 miles and I couldn’t even keep up. I didn’t catch up with Gavin until we reached the first checkpoint, 5 miles or so in.

Downhill(ish) to Totnes, then up, up, up

Kaylie joined us for the run to Totnes, running alonside her brother for the next 5 miles.
The lack of inclines pleased me and finally I felt like I was doing what I set out to do, thoroughly enjoying cycling through the beautiful countryside.
Totnes approached, where my Dad was waiting with my first pasty of the trip, which on reflection probably wasn’t a good idea.
Out of Totnes the road just went up and up, on a road not suitable for cars, or my bike, at least that’s what it felt like.
Through miles and miles of countryside we went and reached the halfway point at our first pub stop, the Avon Inn at Avonwick. I looked forward to a beer until I looked at the elevation of the road that came next. I ordered a coke.

Climbing and falling

The new few miles were pretty good although it was getting pretty windy and we could see rain in the distance.
Gav had told me he would run at 5mph to conserve energy but at 24 miles in he was caning it at 9mph, as the photo shows.
The road was getting busier, the clouds were getting darker but we pressed towards Plymouth.
Through the pouring rain I cycled into Plymouth and towards the finish line. My odometer told me I’d already clocked 35 miles, the most I’d ever cycled by 10 miles…and that was on the flat.
Gav and I neared the finish line and just before crossing the road I fell off my bike, with my feet still in the clips. My elbow felt like it was broken, I may have sworn a little.
By the time we reached the finish the sky was turning quite blue…as was my arm.

Plymouth. Hi!

Gav ran with the torch to the finish, near the Fish on a Stick and the Mayflower steps.
I was pretty relieved today and its weather and its hills was over.
Day one end, 36 miles done to Plymouth

And finally…

Gav knew the cold water in the harbour would soothe his legs so like our countrymen in 1620 he descended the Mayflower steps in search of salvation.
httpv://youtu.be/ynjPNTVRH70

Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge – Running from John O’Groats to Land’s End

By | |
Leave a comment
Dr Iain Cranston gives a talkGav’s GBR30/30 Challenge poster

You know most of this already right?

There can’t be many people in the UK who use the internet and have some association with Type 1 Diabetes but haven’t heard about 21 year old Gavin Griffiths’s amazing challenge of running 900 miles between John O’Groats and Land’s End, over 30 days. If you haven’t heard about it then take a look at Gavin’s web site: http://diathlete.org/the-gbr-30-30-challenge/

Donation, donation, donation

If you’d like to donate to Gav’s GBR30/30 Challenge fundraising pot please click this: http://bit.ly/gbr3030donate

How did we get involved?

I’ve been following Gav’s progress and tweets about the challenge for many months but never thought I’d ever get involved but when the opportunity arose on the 27th December – two days before Amy’s second Di-aversary* – I signed up.

So there it was, we’d cycle next to Gavin for one of the days of his GBR30/30 challenge. It seemed to us like a token effort considering the challenge itself but Gav seemed pleased with the idea.
The next day we were at Amy’s clinic and even the Doctor knew about Gavin and his challenge:

*diaversary – the anniversary of a person being diagnosed with diabetes, turned around to be a positive thing.

Why get involved?

If you’ve read the article about trying to inspire Amy then you’ll have guessed correctly that this was part of the plan. I wanted Amy to meet Gav at least and to see/hear first hand that the life of someone with Type 1 Diabetes doesn’t need to be held back; that she could aspire to have a great life without be ‘stopped’ from doing stuff*; that someone with Type 1 can do stuff that people without it (like me) could never dream of doing. I figured that if this mindset sank in before going through the next tricky teenage years then Amy would be better placed to deal with adolescence.

* ok, I know there’s stuff she just won’t be able to do (join the army, drive for more than a couple of hours without stopping, eat without using an A-grader’s knowledge of GCSE’s mathmatics) but I’m talking in general; about not just sitting there and bemoaning her situation.

Logistics, logistics

I asked Amy if she’d liked to do the cycle and she jumped at the chance, even though the furthest she’d ever cycled was 24 miles the previous summer. I told Jane that I’d need her to provide driving support as we’d be starting in one place and ending somewhere else 30 miles away.
“But I’d like to do it too”
“Damn, I’d better ring my Dad and ask him to drive then”.
Logistics turned out to be the trickiest thing but I came out with a plan, saw it through and it all went well in the end.

Meeting Gav

I met with Gav one Sunday morning – he was late, I think it’s a trait of his 🙂 (Just joking Gav!)
We discussed the challenge, what troubles he was having and somewhere along the line I offered as much support as he needed, especially for the last four days, starting at Torquay and ending at Land’s End.

Soon it became clear to me that I wanted to do more than cycle just one day but the logistics of anything else seemed to difficult, until I threw a couple of ideas my Dad’s way.
Suddenly the agreed plan was hatched, Dad and I would support Gavin from Torquay to Plymouth and Plymouth to Bodmin; Jane, Amy and I would cycle from Bodmin to St Agnes; we’d all be there at the (Land’s) End to cheer him home.
I decided that I was going to cycle some part of all those four days but I kept it quiet, for a while at least.