London Marathon Number 45044.

Just a week away until the big run, London Marathon 2018 and I am excited!

I have my number 45044, and off to London Excel on Wed to get my paper number with starting instructions etc. I already know I am starting in the red zone in Greenwich.

I have my T-shirt from ‘ORCHIDS Fighting Male Cancer’ with my name bodily printed front and back.

I have my head gear – you won’t miss me now!!!!!!!

This lovely lady from the sewing shop I have regularly gone to for years kindly offered to help me when I described what I wanted – “a penis hat”. I have every intention to wear all the way around the course no matter how hot my head may get, as I carry a donation pot too.

Training pre-Christmas was going well and I even did a half marathon running around Snetterton race course, after being talked in to it by Roger (brother-in-law)! Training post-Christmas has not been great for a variety of reasons of life impacting events: moving into the house, changing my job, both limited me for some weeks, as a consequence the only running I was doing was my long run on Sundays. Then the weather has been really awful. Combinations of lots of heavy rain and the temperature dropping hence icy conditions, followed by all that horrendous snow. I was for a number of weekends running over snow drifts or thorough flooded roads. A slog of an experience, so my London Marathon is going to be about getting round the course and getting my medal, the time I do it in has no bearing on my outcome.

The fundraising has gone exceptionally well, to date I have raised almost £3,500 with two collection pots to come plus whatever I may gather on the day itself.

I am very humbled with the generosity people have donated to both me and on my virgin money giving page, so if you have not given yet and would like to this is the link https://uk.virginmoneygiving.com/fightingmalecancer.

A lot of the monies raised has been through fundraising, at

·         The Cherry Tree pub in Wicklewood

·         Wicklewood school where Dylan got involved in counting the money as it came rolling in over a few weeks

·         Hingham Church collections in February

·         Donation of a chocolate Santa at Christmas and an egg at Easter from my friend and colleague in Bexley. Her dad is a chocolatier and in his time has made chocolate treats for the Queen whist also worked with Wall’s in the manufacture of ‘Vienetta’ and Baileys in the manufacture of ‘Baileys chocolate liqueurs’.

The fundraising began in the Cherry Tree when a pub regular donating two giant peanut squashes, so over a couple of weeks people paid to guess the weight of each vegetable. One of the winners was our very own Milo, he donated his winnings to his vegetarian grandparents who enjoyed many meals. This raised £35. 

The pub then donated one of the monthly Coffee Mornings for me, so we spent a Saturday afternoon posting notices through letterboxes all around the village which resulted in a nice crowd attending, this raised £216.70. It is from this event when Hingham Church requested to also support our cause donating all church service collections in February, this raised £40.

The next event was with the local school where Dylan attends. The fundraiser activity was to collect coins in a ‘Smarties’ tube, which starts with us giving all the children a tube of smarties in the hope they will return the tube filled with coins. Dylan was involved in counting the many 20 pences collected and would keep me updated on how things were progressing, this raised £240.

Quickly followed was a Family Quiz in the pub with raffle where I did lots of requesting prizes for many of my regular shopping places, which raised £270.

The Teams

 I was chatting with my colleague Trude in Bexley, where she is a Social Care Manager, when she shared about her dad’s occupation and career. I was astounded at her interesting history right in the middle of our usual operational hospital day, requesting if I would like a big Father Christmas to raffle? What a treat to be offered! So Santa started in Bexley on a large plastic bucket as I carted him between a number of locations to sell raffle tickets. He then travelled with me 150 miles as I took him to the pub in Norfolk, where he sat on the bar for a weekend, then we travelled together again back to Bexley. The raffle was drawn in Bexley and the winner was the Cherry Tree landlady, so he travelled back to Norfolk again. Poor Julie was quite taken aback so re-raffled Father Christmas locally, the second winner had children who enjoyed consuming Santa whilst also sharing with local children too. Santa raised £200.

To my surprise one of the ladies in the pub wanted to organise a clairvoyance evening and ‘Julia Edge’ the clairvoyant agreed. What an interesting experience having never been to anything like this before. Julia did extremely well with an element of heckling and background disturbance, a lot of people were acknowledged from ‘the other side’ including my own mum who she was thrilled! This raised £255.

Line up is left to right - Me - Julia the Clairvoyant - Julie the Landlady - Margaret the person who had the idea!

 In March we had another Family Quiz, raising £170, quickly followed by a giant chocolate donation from Trude and her dad. I was handed a giant Easter Egg reflecting on the information shared, the Queen would have received an egg similar to this made by Trude’s dad in his time. WOW! A good selling point, with tickets sold both in the pub and also by my folks around their short carpet bowls team’s circuit. The winning ticket was pulled by Dylan on Easter Monday for a bowls player who has donated the egg to EACH (East Anglia Children’s Hospices) who are considering re-raffling the chocolate egg. This raised £215.

Last fundraising event was a Poker Tournament with a few people including Jerry, I attended the beginning and end of the event, I got the impression all enjoyed the tournament although tolerating the winner being the landlord! This raised £142.

The last monies to be collected are in a couple of charity pots:

·         one at the pub and

·         the second with my lovely sister-in-law at the opticians where she works. She tells me for all those little twicks some time required for your glasses, being part of the customer care, the charity pot is offered if the customer wants to acknowledge the service delivered.

So feeling hopefully these pots will have a few more pennies to add to the grand total too.

Finally for those of you who want to follow me on Sunday 22^nd April there is an app you can download and follow my progress and perhaps look at the TV as I may be coming up to where the coverage is – you never know you may see me!! The links are as follows:

Android:

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.tcs.londonmarathon

Apple:

Go to App Store on iPhone/iPad and search for 'London Marathon'. Install App called 'London Marathon 2018'.

Looking forward to Sunday and sharing my experiences. Speak soon :).