Blog entry 76 and it's a MONSTER

Well that was the week that was .... although technically it still is given it's only Friday night.

Regular readers may recall it had started with a draining tiring pathetic attempt by me at a PT session at Iveridge Hall (get there if you live around Leeds and are looking for a great place to train; tell them you want a trial and you know of them because of me)

Website for Iveridge Hall

Thankfully the week improved massively, starting with me finally printing out the confirmation of flights for the Trek which created one of those momentary freeze-frame realisations where something sinks in. Dates, times and destinations in black and red ink; gulp. The duration of time I'm away also hit home as although I knew the dates I think seeing them in print and then working my way through the "Okay so it's an 8-day trek which means ..." calculation confirms how many days prep we have before we head out.

After the disastrous PT session last Saturday I decided to take Sunday, Monday and Tuesday off to try and get rid of this blessed throat infection and associated lethargy. Instead of exercise I chilled out a little bit but was also busy confirming meetings coming up on the 30th September: -

- Sue Beckingham from Hallam University who may have a social media student willing to use me as a guinea pig for their year assignment, as well as a meeting with a senior lecturer in their Sports Science faculty; rumour had it they were considering me as a case study for their Masters students. Thoughtfully they'd not passed my details onto the biology department for autopsy interest!

- Might drop in to see Marc Rocca (http://www.roccacreative.co.uk/) after that, just because he's such a great mate and total professional ..... except when it comes to the Friday joke they send out every week. For example todays' was "What do you find beneath a Mexican's carpet? Underlay underlay". Hey don't say you weren't warned!!

- Then to Leeds to meet Suzie Vickers over a bite to eat at 'Create', a social venture restaurant in Leeds, to see if she wants to help out do 'stuff' around organising and fundraising etc.

- I'll be at 'Create' all afternoon as I have a meeting with Jo Boardman (http://www.joboardman.org/) to pick her brains about fundraising for my Trek, and finally Clare Young the 2008 Apprentice finalist who is starting a great new business called Teen Biz UK. She has brains and personality and I have a cheeky smile and a cheque for £500 (to sponsor a teenage entrepreneur). Should be fun.

Wednesday started with me dropping Lauren part-way to college so she could meet a friend and then, driving home listening to her favourite radio station (Capital FM) I heard they were asking for people to send in examples of when they got funny looks from others; cue a text about my tyre-pulling exploits.

After it was read out I also responded to another 'request' for people to text in about the first ever text message you'd received. My entry (true) was "First ever text received was in 1993 from a business contact but it remained unread for 4 months as I had no idea why the image of envelope had appeared on my Panasonic mobile ".

Finally it was time for the training regime to re-start so I did an hour (varying my resistance on the cross-trainer between 8 and 16; 2 songs on my iPod shuffle on 8 and then 5 songs on 16) and, once the 'rust' had been brushed off, I felt pretty darn good after the hour. Then it was into Leeds to Bibi's restaurant to meet Mandy Barwick; a lovely lady with the energy of a spring chicken despite her new found challenge of breast cancer.

Not only did Mandy offer some VERY valuable advice, she promised to support me by helping out on my stand for some of the Yorkshire Mafia Conference (http://theyorkshiremafia.com/pages/conference) and presented me with a beautiful 1.75 litre bottle of Belvedere Vodka (although she had to ask Mario to be in the photo as well because she was nervous).

Mandy said she expected Mario to have smiled; Mario said he WAS smiling.

After that it was home to start putting e-mails together to warn people the Trekker was back from holiday before it was time to depart for the theatre to listen to Sir Ranulph Fiennes presenting his whacky adventures over the last 40+ years. WHAT A BL**DY LEGEND THAT MAN IS.

I wrote in my column for http://www.troymedia.com/ : -

"There is always a risk in being alive, and if you are more alive, there is more risk”.

I read that for the first time last night after listening to the greatest living explorer (as stated in the Guinness Book of Records), Sir Ranulph Fiennes, give a presentation on his 40 years of . . . well . . . madness really.

He has circumnavigated the world, reaching the North Pole and South Poles, crossed Antarctica unsupported on foot, found the lost city of Ubar in Oman, ran seven marathons on seven continents in seven days at the age of 57 just four weeks after recovering from a heart attack and by-pass surgery, reached the summit of Everest at 65 AND reached the last six in the selection process to be the new James Bond (Roger Moore​ ultimately got the part). And all this after serving in the SAS.

‘Boys own adventure’ stuff and a film script that would be thrown out as too preposterous for sure if Hollywood ever caught sight of one, but a valuable insight for me"

Read the rest of my article (on risk management) from Troy Media

Listening to Sir Ranulph was one thing and I know Martin, Jonathan, Stephen, Andrew and Denise also found it hugely entertaining but Denise (of Heart Research UK) had also arranged for me to meet him. Well after listening to that presentation I suddenly felt lost for words and maybe that's why the following photo looks like 'legend meets Homer Simpson'.

The 'legend' is on the left as you look at the photo ... just to avoid ANY possible confusion.

(INFO-BULLETIN - you are now about halfway through this blog entry so feel free to pause, make yourself a cuppa, take a walk round the block and then come back to read the rest).

Hey, how do you feel; better after that drink of tea and some fresh air? Good, then I'll continue ......

Thursday was by far the most amazing day since I'd got back from holiday. After a wee lay-in I was going to go to the gym but it was SUCH a beautiful day I decided to take one of the tyres to the Park and drag it for 3 miles. Two friendly toots and a shout of "Go on lad, gooo-onnnnn you can do it for Hirsty" - a reference to the Capital FM DJ who'd mentioned me the day before so happy days; celebrity status at last!

I also came across a few ladies happy to joke about their own spare tyres and one woman who, to all intents and purposes, probably pulled a series of muscles straining so hard NOT to look in my general direction. I couldn't take photos of her but here are the 6 expressions I noticed in under 20 seconds (just call me an actor of Joey Tribiani calibre)

Happy and relaxed look while power-dawdling in a track suit



Oh hang on a minute, what's that man doing??



Oh my Davinia, he glanced at you. Don't panic, just remember what Mummy said to do when faced with a depraved lunatic who probably has a knife and wants to lock you in his coal shed and feed you to his pigeons.

Just look straight ahead !! He might not notice you. Act and look NATURAL ... yes that's it.

I ..... I think .... yes, he's gone by.

Another catastrophe avoided. Almost as frightful as the time you couldn't get the petrol cap off at the service station before filling the brum-brum with petrol. Remember that awful man who offered to help? Oh he did smell dreadfully cheap; one needed therapy for a month.

After that it was a trip to see Clara White at MacMillan Cancer Support and she has now offered me the chance of 8 (yes eight) days fundraising at supermarkets in Leeds; my Trek and MacMillan hopefully raising £5-6k. YES!!

Heart Research UK also confirmed the Yorkshire Evening Post would be carrying a third article about my Trek with reference to meeting Sir Ranulph, The Mirror confirmed that this Saturday they'd have a small fun feature on it and Rosie from SmileS SMS (who have provided Rosie, an outbound telemarketing agent, for an hour a week for free) confirmed there were now 60 companies and sporting organisations who would gladly promote my Trek come March and April. Given Mandy from Bibi's said most of her experience proved that fundraising tended to be pretty much 'lastsecond.com' then I felt so much better even though actual and promised funds are only at £10 000 currently.

Later that night I made my youngest happier than she's been for a while when we went to see a car she was interested in; her first ever. Yes yes she asked nicely so she was literally skipping as she went back into her Mum's house and, in the rear view mirror as I drove away, all I could see was her literally bouncing with excitement as she told her Mum I'd said yes. Just need to get my eldest sorted as well now but that can wait until she's home from back-packing around Europe.

Of course the sooner they get cars the sooner I can start to look at something other than the Freelander ....

Then it was back to the gym for some free weights, cross-trainer and a quickly abandoned attempt at doing some dips. Well an abandoned attempt after two half dips actually; the down 'half' not the 'up' half. Glad to say though could see my pecs tense every time I squatted the 2 x 16kg weights while stood on a balance board. Call me smug.

And so we reach today. A meeting with Craig and Su at Zinc in Manchester and we're on for another couple of fundraisers. They are a truly supportive and amazing team, all of them. Thank you SO much for your enthusiasm. Hmm must get a photo of you on here!!

Tomorrow is training again; Thai Boxing first followed by a half hour PT session but I'm pleased to say that I'm ready for you Paul ... bring it on!!!!

And finally, Sunday is Mark Van Spall taking some more excellent photos of me training for the three charities who have provided t-shirts and want some PR photos. Oh and of course a weekend with Lucia before the week starts all over again.

Fingers are blistered from typing now and it's 11pm so I'm off. Night night (but if you feel the urge, click on the link or links below to donate; no amount too small and certainly no amount too big)

Donate equally to the 5 Yorkshire-based charities

Donate equally to the 5 national charities

Or send a cheque payable to 'Geoff Major Polar Trek' (mailing address on request) which Bartfields the accountants will deposit in one of their client accounts with Barclays for total transparency. That way you can nominate which charity or charities you want your money to go to

6 degrees of separation .... sort of.

All giddy this evening; probably because I feel excited for the first time in almost 3 weeks about 4 days of training in a row and my new winter training gear. Oh yeah and I'm listening to the most eagerly awaited album for years (the sequel to 'Welcome to my Nightmare', released yesterday and called 'Welcome 2 my Nightmare') ...... and I'm NOT disappointed. Yay me.

Okay first things first; winter training gear. Picture this, it's warm and training with tyres means shorts, a t-shirt and trainers. In fact don't picture it as the expression on your face might frighten small children and animals so look at these two photos from previous blogs ...

Blue skies and sunshine equals .......

..... t-shirt, sunglasses and shorts.

Of course this week has seen the tail-end of Hurricane Katia and some rain so the new formula (which strangely excites me) is: -

Cold, wet, windy (no that's NOT describing me) which means .....

Berghaus gear, gloves, Helly Hansen base clothing and ...

.... a move from The North Face trainers to Salomon boots. And I'm all excited !!! (Yeah I know, go figure)

Now while trying on the gear I was listening to the new Alice album, texting Lucia who is translating another blog entry for Katka (her sister), and trying to persuade Lauren that she really didn't have to feel awkward when her friends saw me wearing this stuff in the pouring rain, tyres attached. Difficult given I'd just told her that Chris the window cleaner had been talking to a fellow dog-walker who mentioned she'd seen some nutter in the park dragging tyres behind him.

Odd, I've been to the park quite a lot and don't recall seeing anyone who fits that description.

(Random entry - I've had 18 page reads this week from Russia, beating USA into 3rd).

Listening to the new album I felt compelled to write a review on Amazon .... which led me to all the previous reviews I'd written and one in particular for a book called 'One Day'. It's soon to be released as a film but I read the book back in early 2010 and wrote this review on the website: -

"Brilliant. There is no other word for this book than brilliant. Well maybe there is but it's probably an Italian word or, more likely, something in Swahili. Never learned Swahili but maybe finding what that one word is would make it more than worthwhile.

I've never laughed so much, felt as melancholy, bit my trembling lip quite so hard or wished my friends Dex and Em, Em and Dex (4eva) could stay just one more chapter.

Moving, incredibly readable, just perfect for some peace and 'you' time. More girly perhaps than I'd normally read (bit of a Jeffery Deaver and David Baldacci fan actually) but so pleased I saw the cover. In fact liked the cover so much I bought the company. Well, the book anyway. Apologies to Victor Kiam ... sorry, sorry. Sorry!

Buy the darn book. You won't be disappointed, and if you are .... well blame David Nicholls. He wrote, not me.

Kabisa kipaji as the Swahili people would say (thank goodness for Google Translate). It means 'Utterly brilliant', in case you can't be bothered to look it up."

Re-reading my review then reminded me of when I was reading this book, it was as my Dad's cancer took its almost final grip. I recall sitting in the sun, alone, reading the infamous page 385 and it was as if the emotions in my life were finally given permission to show. A bl**dy line in a story finally had the tears rolling down my cheeks; for Em and for my Dad.

And for me too I guess.

So I'll close with the words of the wonderful Lucia who, on reading my previous blog entry featuring the inspiring Ellie Jeffery, said "I've just read your latest blog and it brought tears to my eyes and strong hopeful wish that 'cancer' was just a historical entry in anatomy books" ..... and with my best wishes for James Golding who, despite only a 10% chance of success, seems to have had a successful operation to remove a tumor.

Again.

That man is made of steel !!

It's 2am but I have to write

WARNING - THIS POST STARTS OUT HAPPY, BECOMES A LITTLE REFLECTIVE AND THEN BLOODY SERIOUS. Do not think the start of this blog entry is it's true tone and purpose; stark contrasts ensue.


What a holiday. I'll say that again .... WHAT A HOLIDAY !! Bliss, serenity, great weather, beautiful intelligent company and it reminded me what taking time out was all about. Ahhhhh.


Through the large wooden gates (right of the photo), over the bridge into reception where 2 glasses of champagne were presented .... followed by a free upgrade to a fantastic villa.

Part of the view from the terrace on our first morning

Someone clearly got settled on the day bed by the pool (and no it's not me)

Now whilst the photos of the holiday are fun to post on here, it's the feeling of relaxation that I'm trying to convey because this week (returning to work) I've purposefully kept my evenings as free as possible and it brought home JUST how much time and energy I've expended most evenings training or fundraising or just trying to get the profile of my endeavours high enough to attract more public and commercial interest.

This week I've had time to catch up on the cricket one-day internationals, to spend over three hours browsing shops (for bloody expensive outdoor wear for my Dartmoor training weekend and outdoor training aka winter tyre-pulling in the park). I have 9 books and 4 magazines that are untouched but I'll spend some of tomorrow .... sorry, today ..... starting some of those.

In the past I remember, vaguely, having the time to sit for a couple of hours when I lived at the old house just getting lost in a good book whilst sat on a settee with the sun streaming through the window and yet now ..... now .... it's a rare treat to sit down and even read the Sunday Times with a fresh home-made coffee and some breakfast. Nowadays my world seems like it's spinning, getting even faster; every minute precious which is why (despite my eyes burning a little, eager for sleep) I feel the urge to write. I simply HAVE to write.

Of course all this fleeting peace will be shattered starting next week as work, plus all the wonderful things about my family and Lucia, training, fundraising and publicising the Trek consumes almost every minute of every day. I re-tasted the frenetic pace on Thursday when it was 1am before I got into bed and 6am on Friday morning when the alarm went off to get up and drive across to Manchester. I was tired again.

Today's weather also reminded me that Autumn is approaching and the dark mornings and evenings are soon to be upon us.

The view through my kitchen roof 3 weeks ago

The view through my kitchen roof late this afternoon

What a difference a few weeks can make and what a difference a week away and a week 'off' from the Trek preparation can make as well, especially physically as today's PT training session showed. An absolute disaster! Yes it's true I'm just getting over a nasty throat infection but clearly I need to get over it soon as before I know it Christmas will be upon us all and the Trek will be so close I'll be able to feel it in my blood, anticipation coursing through my veins.

(While I'm talking about Christmas, I'd just like to say "Oi, supermarkets ..... no!!!" . My local supermarket now has a Christmas aisle for gawd's sake, complete with Selection Boxes and chocolate decorations for the Christmas tree!!!!!  It's not even the middle of bl**dy September yet).

Of course a return to the norm also means some donations have started to trickle in again, including £100 from Hermes Europe whose CSR Committee voted to support me and 3 branches of Starbucks in Manchester have been doing some fundraising; witness below a couple of photos from the best so far (£60) which was the Halle Mall branch in the Arndale Centre, but my thanks also go to the Manchester Fort branch (£40), the New Cannon branch in Arndale (£30) and not forgetting that the Hanging Ditch branch started it all off (£48). Especial thanks to the lovely Claire for baking for 3 of the events.

The lovely Claire who makes yummy buns

The other thing re-starting is of course the realisation of the reality some people face that is way beyond my woeful and pitiful gripes and moans about sweaty tortuous training sessions, work, feeling 'tired' (especially after returning from a luxury holiday) and the temporary effects of throat germs. Sometimes I can do a great job at humbling myself into a touch of self-loathing.

Reality for people like Daniel who will be writing a piece for this blog soon hopefully, to try to explain what it's like to see your brother suffer and pass away because of Muscular Dystrophy. I also have the privilege of sharing with you a link to Ellie Jeffrey's blog.

Making the big C smaller

Ellie is suffering from secondary breast cancer and her description of what everyday life is like is so brutally matter-of-fact that you can feel her frustration through the written word, be humbled by her emotional strength and find yourself wanting to reach out and give her some of your good health, some of your good fortune at not having to deal with this dreadful thing called cancer. You can find yourself with tears in your eyes as she describes an experience which must drain energy, physical and emotional. and yet you also feel her energy and desire to beat it.

I have (with Ellie's permission) published a few extracts below from her blog but urge you to read some entries yourself and know you will be moved by doing so.

9th September - 'Just My Luck'

The two lumps that had appeared on my chest would need to be tested.  Professor Hope wanted to see if the cancer was still hormone receptive or if it had ‘flipped’ and was now triple negative. We were told this occurs in less than 15% of cases and I pushed the team at my current hospital to check the receptor status.

As I lay on the bed being injected with local anaesthetic I heard a snap. Something in the needle had broken and my breast care nurse and I were sprayed with the numbing fluid. I couldn’t feel my cheek. Laid on my side, naked from the waist up with a face like a stroke victim, Jeez Louise, can I not just get a fucking break here?

After four attempts the trainee doctor managed to clip enough of the tumours out to be tested. I wanted those little lumps cut out of me altogether, but what was the point when the cancer had spread so far in my body? It would be like plugging a small hole in a boat full of leaks, and the doctors had made it clear they believed my ship was sinking.



5th September - Wheatgrass and lemon juice

While Tom was away my brother John was staying with me. He’d been reading up on cancer preventative diet on the internet and after an expensive trip to Holland and Barrett the cupboards were stocked with linseeds, multi-vitamins, turmeric, green algae tablets, and of course the dreaded wheatgrass, or ‘the green shit’ as we renamed it.

Living together again we reverted back to our old relationship. We share the same sense of humour, me often trying to impress him with some quick remark, him teasing me or the pair of us ganging up on whoever is with us at the time. But in his capacity of big brother he was as stern with me as he was playful; he knew that occasionally I would conveniently forget to down my wheatgrass and every day he would prompt me, “Have you done the green shit?  Have you done the turmeric?  Have you done your chemo?”

I think John’s focus on diet was a way for him to play his part, to try to help in a situation where people ordinarily feel useless. The cancer doesn’t just ‘happen’ to me it happens to all those who are close to me. I’ve never lost someone or had the threat of losing someone very close to me so I simply don’t know what my loved ones are going through.

During the hours I felt unwell my brother would sit with me, watching TV and researching the internet. John could have left to go out and enjoy the sunshine but he never did, he just stayed with me, telling me about all the positive stories he’d been reading about.

He took a perverse pleasure in watching me drink the repulsive green shit; it was like entertainment to him. It reminded me of a time when I was about six and he would have been twelve when I’d fallen over in the street and scraped the side of my hip. With no parents around to complain to I found my brother bored in the kitchen and I showed him my bloody graze. “I know what will make it better,” he announced with authority. I remember him opening up the fridge door and reaching for something that I couldn’t quite see. 

As I stood waiting, from behind his back he produced a plastic Jif lemon and handed it to me. “Squeeze the juice over it, it’ll take the pain away.” My trusting, six-year-old self followed his advice and predictably, it was agony.

My illness had changed our relationship. Like many siblings, for us hugs were always reserved for hellos and goodbyes and even then it would be an awkward stilted embrace. A few days into John’s stay, however, I woke up feeling unwell from the radiotherapy and I must have looked particularly pathetic. He grabbed me for a hug and we stood there holding onto each other in silence, both desperately wishing that this wasn’t happening. The cancer, that is, not the hug.


And now dear reader it is 3am and I really should go to bed but, once again, writing this has given me hope that my efforts are going to help many. Not as many as I would like but enough to make me think going to the North Pole next year (and the other exciting adventures I hope to complete before the end of 2020) is a positive thing.

And I am truly blessed that in some small way I feel closer to people like Dr Jon Hastie, Aaron Pask, Daniel, James Golding and the lovely Ellie.

Ellie if you're reading this, I don't know you but I hope that over the coming months and years I get chance to know you, and Tom and John. You are amazing! You are an inspiration.