Lies, damn lies and statistics

Oh alright I admit it, there are no lies or damn lies in this blog but there are some statistics (which I find interesting anyway and will look back on fondly).

My latest post (A moment of reflection, another dose of reality) has had 91 hits already since I posted it at midnight, making it the third highest read page in less than 20 hours since it was published. I wonder how many of the 91 have had some experience of loss when it comes to cancer (it was about a MacMillan event in case you were wondering)? Show of hands please (or at least add a comment on the blog; it would be interesting).

That made me look at the latest readership figures as a whole. I was pretty impressed when my 'cycle across Cuba' attracted 600 page reads in its short life but currently I am burning a hole through that figure like a blowtorch in a paper mill. Err ..... yes I know it didn't read as good as it sounded in my head but give a guy a break huh?

Top 10 for this blog are: -

UK has generated 2 287 page reads

USA has 368 page reads

Germany, 32

Canada, 18

Russia, 12

Australia has 11

Ireland has 7

China has 6 (come on China, you're lagging a bit behind for goodness sake. Thought you were booming?)

Hungary, 6

France, 5

And then there's Estonia, Singapore, India, Slovakia, the UAE, Iran, South Korea and a host of other on 4 or less.

You know what, it would be GREAT if I could know the names of all of you !! Your forename and the country you're in. Anyone? Hello? Err it seems to have gone quiet. Oh well, back to my celebration; the birthday cake is courtesy of my eldest daughter and her boyfriend.

It was lovely although I think the Michelin stars are still an aspiration rather than 'already in the post'. Oh yeah and if from time to time you feel you need some variety, free to check out the latest edition to the blog suite -

European A to Z in 2014 on a 7-seat circular bicycle

A moment of reflection, another dose of reality

Clara White from Macmillan Cancer Support was kind enough to invite me to the press launch of what is known as em2ee; 5 actors from Emmerdale Farm who have trained to be able to cycle 224 miles from the Woolpack Inn (Emmerdale) to Queen Vic (East Enders), non-stop in 24 hours.

The event was held at The Loft in Leeds and the location was trendy, the audience trendier and the level of luvvie-factor was through the roof. I spotted 5 faces that seemed familiar, I assume from my married days when Emmerdale was a feature of most weekday evenings in the house (albeit NOT for me; more of a Camberwick Green man myself). I was so impressed by the set-up, assuming it was a standard MacMillan press launch, that I got my iPhone out and video'd the small reception room as the first guests arrived.

Apologies for both the darkness of the video (it was a dimly lit room; ambiance and mood setting I'm told) and the abrupt nature of the ending; someone 'asked' me not to take any photos as the organisers had an exclusive magazine deal.

Really? MacMillan are also striking exclusive magazine deals? Blimey I've GOT to get me some of those !! It was then I was informed that the whole set-up was primarily the product of the Emmerdale team and their professional network; MacMillan has been their chosen charity since their series producer died fairly suddenly at the age of 42.

The TV stars did their bit, big cheers from the lads with too many Peroni's or too much testosterone ... or both ... and polite hand claps from the young women in all sorts of male-attracting outfits. A lady from MacMillan pointed out some of the key facts including that on average 832 people would have found out today that they had cancer.

The 5 cyclists approached the stage and had laughter rippling around the room, mainly their own, and a Tour de France cyclist went on stage to be announced as a co-rider, but the room fell silent as James Golding, a cancer survivor and all-round challenge cyclist, told his story. A story you can't believe and it hasn't ended yet.

At 6' 4" tall, about 31 years of age, good physique and (evidently) 14 stone (~90kg) he looked the picture of health; a little bit 'Mark Wahlberg'. His story began (and apologies if I don't get this completely right as his story was one to listen to, not to takes notes of) in late 2008 when he was having back pains.

The medical professionals told him to take pain killers and sleeping tablets and he'd be fine but things just got worse. A couple of months later he was admitted to hospital and they discovered an 11cm tumor trapped between his spine, kidney and another vital organ.

Subsequent chemo had little effect and so with less than 5% chance of surviving the surgery he endured a 6-hour operation. Waking with two pipes in his left side, two in his right, one in his abdomen, one in his chest, one in his arm, one in his throat, one up his nose (to feed him) and one somewhere no man wants a pipe sticking, he weighed less than 6 stone (~40kg).

The surgery left his bowel damaged which required emergency surgery again as all his medication, food and liquid were 'falling out' into his body cavity.

His story of recovery continued over many months and he eventually had the strength to lift his own head off the pillow on his hospital bed, his first attempt at standing lasted for 5 seconds before he blacked out and he learned to walk again. He learned to ride a bike and did numerous cycling challenges, leading up to an audacious attempt to cycle from LA to Miami.

On his first attempt, as he cycled near New Orleans a truck hit him from behind at 70mph causing multiple rib fractures, a skid on the road surface of over 120 feet and much of the skin on his legs torn. Yet he made another recovery from this trauma and re-started the ride from LA several months later, completing the ride and raising £95 000.

James's story (click on this hyper-link)

Further cycling events took place and tonight James announced he had two more challenges in his sights; the first was riding with Team Emmerdale on this exciting adventure and the second is ....... 6 weeks ago he was told he had another tumor.

One woman stood near me was fighting back the tears, others simply stopped doing anything and everything as the room fell silent. Even gasps were not possible as his words revealed the reality of this amazing recovery held such a bitter twist. Hopefully it is not right at the end of the story, simply another chapter in an amazing fight by an amazing human being.

And so with that story came a memory for me; that of my Dad. Someone who seemed simply indestructible, someone who seemed to resist all life threw at him and fought cancer so bravely for nearly 6 years before it took him in its grip. Sleep well Pops, the pain is over and my fight to help in some small way to rid us all of the fear and pain of cancer begins.

Ken Major 1929 - 2010
http://youchangedmyworld.com/view_memorial.php?id=63

'A week in the life of' idea

Had a lovely evening tonight at the Yorkshire Mafia evening in Doncaster (if you live/work in Yorkshire feel free to check out http://www.linkedin.com/ and search in 'Groups' for Yorkshire Mafia) and met some new and some familiar faces.

Gary King, Keith Williams, Mark Longbottom and the SMSmiles teams are all great to see plus met with the crazy but lovely Sarah Louise Walker (congrats on the new role as Sales Manager for YM .... so jealous) and a bunch of newbies including Darren from http://www.wakstudio.co.uk/.

The main purpose of tonight for me though wasn't to just say hello and down a Red Bull in good company, but it was also to promote my Twitter account for the North Pole Trek and see if I could start my climb to 1000 followers; not because I'm an ego maniac (err who sarcastically coughed at the back of the room .... just remember it's not big and it's not clever) but because the more followers I have the more likely one of them will re-tweet something and someone may know someone who may know someone who wants to get involved in supporting me on the Trek. Hey, it's a plan anyway.

I also found myself trying to explain (briefly) but failing (miserably) about how complex it can be to juggle everything in my life so here's a thought; I'm going to pick a week and list all the headline activities for that week. Maybe I'll sit back and think "What's all the fuss about?" or maybe I'll re-read it again and again and think "What ARE you trying to fit into your life you flippin' nutter?"

Anyway whatever the outcome it will be a true reflection but tonight I'm tired so it's bedtime. I'll go to sleep with the memory of laughter from those people who found it funny that my colleagues at work are discussing a sweepstake on how I'll die at the Pole; Andrew (recently back from a three week holiday) added 'whiteout madness' to the list.

I'll also go knowing that on Saturday 30th July I'm 50 and feeling pretty smug that I believe I'm capable of doing something so extreme, so arduous and yet so amazingly brilliant before I turn 51.

Good night.

Ahoj Katka, special message for you (špeciálny odkaz pre Katku)

Piatok 22 jul 2011

Toto treba už brať vážne

Viete, zoparkrát sa mi už stalo že som prehltol veľmi NAHLAS, keď realita Treku na Severný pól doľahne na mna úplne a celou váhou: napríklad kedď som prvý krát ťahal pneumatiky, alebo keď som prvý krát dostal email, ktorý nás všetkých zvolával na prvý tréningový víkend na severný pól, ktorý sa uskutoční na konci októbra v divočine Dartmooru.

Neprehltol som nahlas, ale poyastavil sa na moment keď som videl stan pre dvoch včera večer v B&Q (pozn.prekladatela obchod s výstrojou,stavebninami, športovými pomôckami).

No keď  priložený text prišiel do mojej mailovej schránky, prehtol som znova a veľmi zťažka. Od charity Simon @ Charity Challenge.

North Pole

disclaimer

popis

Už celé desaťročie sa Charity Challenge úspešne zaoberá organizovaním charitatívnych výziev vo viac ako 30 krajinách na celom svete. Niektoré z výziev sa uskutočňujú v divočine, či vzdialených a ťažko dostupných oblastiach. Práve vďaka našim dlhoročným skúsenostiam sa nam podarilo identifikovať a zaviesť niekoľko opatrení na čo najlepšie zvládnutie výzvy severného pólu a mnohých potencionálnzch problémov, ktoré majú bezprostredný dominový efekt na každodenné manažovanie a logistiku.

Prosím prečítajte si nasledovné:

Prečítajte si prosím nasledovné informácie v plnom rozsahu a opýtajte sa akékoľvek otázky s nimi súvisiace. Ak nieste stopercentne istý, že akceptujete charakter tejto výzvy v plnom rozsahu, tiež prostredie v ktorom sa uskutočňuje a body jasne uvedené nižšie, prosím nerezervujte si miesto na tuto výzvu.

Prostredie- info:

1.      Trek cez severný pól sa uskutoční v jednej z posledných skutočných divočín vo svete.

2.      Teplotz sa môžu pohybovať kdekoľvek v rozmedzí medzi -45 stupňov Celzia až do +30 stupňov Celzia.

3.      Barneo Ice Camp a pristávacia dráha je spojazdnená len jeden mesiac v roku (apríl), práve vtedz nastáva naša šanca pre trek/ski k zemepisnému severnému pólu.

4.      Cela výzva Severného Pólu sa odohráva na zamrznutom ľade v hornej časti Severného ľadového oceánu. Doska oceánu ma tendenciu posunu a ľad sa môže popraskať a spôsobiť otvorené tlakové hrebene či prepadliny.

5.      Pohybujúca sa ľadová doska má efekt na čas našej cesty. Ak sa pohne vo váš prospech a teda smerom k Severnému Pólu, budete mať menšiu vzdialenosť na dosiahnutie vášho cieľu, no ak sa pohne vo váš neprospech, môže sa stať že sa ráno zobudíte a zistíte, že musíte prejsť pár hodín navyše len abz ste sa dostali na miesto kde ste v posledný večer skončili.

Základňa Barneo je vybudovaná tak že najprv je vzduchom dopravený buldozér na ľad, vztvorý sa pristávacia dráha a pristane lietadlo s potrebnými nástrojmi na výstavbu a vybudovanie základne. Základňa  je vzbudovaná iba na jeden mesiac v roku,počas sezóny na severnom póle. Problémy so zlým počasím, najmä zlá viditeľnosť pre helikoptéru ktorá uskutočňuje počiatočný presun, či pre lietadlo ktoré môže mať problém s pristátim v akomkoľvek okamihu,môže spôsobiť meškanie celej Výzvy Severného Pólu. Dokonca aj keď je už základňa postavená, akákoľvek prasklina či poškodenie pristávacej dráhz, može spôsobiť čakanie na opravu a dokonca premiestnenie samotnej dráhz na vhodnejšie miesto.

Dôsledky

Všetko uvedené vyššie znamená že dokonca ešte pred samotnou Ski Výzvou môžu nastať obrovské meškania a zmeny v programe.

Akonáhle sa dostaneme na ľad a teda samotná Ski Výzva začne, váš progres bude z veľkej časti záležať na poveternostných podmienkach, fyzickom stave skupiny, či je ľadový povrch hladký alebo nerovný s trhlinami a popraskaninami, či narazíte na nejaké prepadlinz alebo dokonca ľadové medvede.

Existuje neskutočne veľa premenných a vz musíte bzť pripravený na zmeny a oneskorenie, ktoré môžu nastať.

Počasie môže oddialiť váš let alebo návrat domov z polárneho ľadovca.

To be taken seriously

You know there have a been a couple of times when I've swallowed HARD as the reality of the Trek hits home; when I first dragged the tyres, when the e-mail arrived calling us all to our first ever training weekend on the wilds of Dartmoor in late October.

I didn't gulp but I did take a moment after looking at a two-person tent in B&Q last night.

But the attached just arrived from Simon @ Charity Challenge and I've just gulped again. The extract of a disclaimer states: -

North Pole

disclaimer

introduction

For over a decade Charity Challenge has been successfully running challenges across more than 30 countries worldwide in some incredibly wild and remote locations. As such, we have identified and put in place a number of measures to best manage our North Pole challenges and the many potential issues that have an immediate knock-on effect for the day-to-day logistics involved.

.

please read…

Please read the following information in full and ask any questions that you may have. If you are not 100% prepared to accept the nature of the challenge environment and the points clearly detailed below, please do not book on to the challenge.

background

1.      The North Pole trek takes place in one of the last true wildernesses in the World. 

2.      Temperatures can range from -45 degrees centigrade to +30 degrees centigrade.

3.      The essential Barneo Ice Camp and runway is only set up for one month of the year (April) and this is when we have the very narrow window of opportunity to trek/ski to the Geographic North Pole.  

4.      The whole challenge takes place on the frozen ice on top of the Arctic Ocean. The ocean ice pack is moving and the ice can and does crack causing open leads and pressure ridges. 

5.      A moving ice pack has implications for journey times.  If it moves in your favour (towards the North pole), you will have to walk less distance to reach the Pole. If it moves against you, you can go to sleep and wake up to find yourself with a few hours walk just to get back to where you were the night before.

6.      The Barneo base camp is set up by first airlifting a bulldozer on to the ice, creating a runway, landing a plane with the equipment and building a base camp for the duration of the one month North Pole season. Issues with poor weather, mainly visibility for the helicopter to make the initial drop, or for the plane to land at any point, can delay flights on to the ice to start the challenge. Even once the base camp is set up, the runway can crack and have to be repaired or relocated.  

implications

All of the above means that even before the ski challenge itself begins, there can be major delays and changes to the programme. 

Once on the ice, your progress will depend on the weather conditions, the physical state of the group, whether the ice is flat or broken up, whether you encounter any leads (breaks in the ice) or encounter polar bears. There are so many variables that you absolutely must be prepared for any changes and delays that might occur. Weather can also delay the flight home, or your return from the ice cap may have been delayed.

A stray dog beats more training updates

Well so much for great plans huh?

After the 4 miles in Heaton Park sunshine on Thursday I knew the forecast wasn't great and the idea of doing another 4 miles on Friday evening, Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon got washed down the drainpipe so I reverted to the gym but clearly not for 4 miles given they close at 8pm on a Friday and 3pm on a weekend (I do actually support the idea that their employees would like a bit of a weekend as well). This post though starts with Saturday and the tale of a lovely dog.

After the gym on Saturday morning (oh before I forget, thank you to the Flanagan family for adding £5 to the pledge sheet that Iveridge Hall have so kindly put up, as well as all the previous pledges of course) I just had time to get home, freshen-up and collect my eldest from her morning team meeting before we were due at my Mums for lunch. At least that was the plan but as we drove along Canal Lane we saw a black Cocker Spaniel wandering aimlessly up, down and across this busy road.

A car slowed to avoid it, a lorry had to brake and wait to see were it wandered and I was hoping the little thing would hop onto the pavement and disappear back from where it came .... but no .... and it remained in serious danger of being squelched.

Years ago we had a black cocker Spaniel called Pepsi (see below) mad as a bloody hatter she was ......

circa December 2003

..... and so there was an extra little bit of affinity with this dog's plight, no  more so than when Bex said "Dad we have to do something". There was a plea as well as a statement in there so we pulled over in the drizzle and she leapt out of the car. She picked up the dog (pretty heavy and clearly in need of some exercise) and walked back to the car with it, her sports hoodie damp from the rain and the wet fur, the dog looking calm but slightly bemused.

"Help, it's flipping heavy" she mouthed so I got out of the car, opened the boot and placed an old towel in the centre of the tyre I still had in there from Heaton Park. We placed the dog inside the tyre (bit like a rubber basket I guess) and I began to call a variety of organsiations to ask her help as the poor thing had no collar on. The dog just looked up at me totally unphased and unemotional as I stroked it under the chin and tickled it's ears as if to say "Dunno what you're doing Mr, not sure I've ever had this done to me before. Can you tell me where I am?".

After Becky had knocked on a few doors and I had spoken to the Police, a dog warden and finally Wakefield Council, we got support from a guy who worked for them and we agreed to meet him so he could take the dog into care.

In the meantime Becky insisted on texting her sister to tell her; cue the flurry of texts and messages "Can we keep  it if no-one else wants it?". I even had Lucia texting me from Ireland saying she would have also wanted to keep the dog but no, Mr Sensible realises it was a calm cute dog but it needed daily love and attention, regular exercise and (like all Cocker Spaniels) it had a 'smell. It's just not something I could commit to.

Stop it with those sad doggie eyes will you?!?!

Lauren had hoped we could have taken the dog home first to show her and she gave me her best fake drama-queen impression (with a smile) as she said "You gave my dog away" but we all realised that no, we really wouldn't be able to ensure someone was at home every day to walk the dog nor poop-scoop etc etc but yes I will ring the Council on Monday to find out if the dog was chipped and the owner found.

Other than that the weekend has been training, confirmation from Mark at the human-size snowglobe company that I can have a free photo in November inside one of their snowglobes; probably in the Manchester area but central London is also a possibility (Peter, start planning your fundraising and Stephen, start searching for a penguin outfit for yourself) and now I have to set-up my new printer and have 15 e-mails to write.

You know it never fails to surprise me how much time it takes (and money) to do all this Trek stuff. The only consolation is that if I think THIS takes a lot of organising just WAIT until I start planning the 2014 challenge; a 7-seater circular bicycle doing an A-Z tour of Europe, and I'm finding that prospect pretty exciting already!

(Photo from http://www.conferencebike.com/)

One challenge at a time Geoff, you're a long way off the £100 000 donations total so let's put the effort into that first. Speaking of which I have a few more ideas: -

- Piccolino's in Sheffield, Restaurant Bar & Grill in Harrogate and a restaurant in Leeds are all happy to support a fundraising evening

- PPiK (the indoor karting people) are happy to talk about an event

- There's got to be something we can do at the SnoZone at Castleford surely (by the way, their PR agency STILL has not contact me despite Emma's efforts)

- In terms of PR exposure, Virgin Money Giving is going to feature me on their blog and Co-op Financial Services have an internal UK-wide magazine that will carry a small article; they will both be interesting as will the efforts of Tottenham Hotspur FC to feature me in their matchday programme (one before and one after the Trek). Hmm need to buy an updated Spurs scarf as the one I've got still has Hoddle, Ardiles and Crooks on it - err, awkward

Right, better get on then. I'll be back on here sometime next week

Tyre dragging abroad

Hello again; yup it's me after another eventful North Pole-related day.

Let's get the important stuff out of the way first before we turn to the subject-matter of the title. Today the Trek suddenly came one step closer to feeling real, and then another !

- Our first training weekend is confirmed; Dartmoor on 29th-31st October and by using the word 'our' it means I now know there are at least 4 others signed-up to do the Trek. The weekend was going to be in September but I and another guy are on holiday and one of the others flys out, for 3 weeks in the Himalayas - that's some serious sh*t !!!!!

- The flights for the Trek itself are now confirmed as 3rd April and a return on 17th April. Evidently we have a connection and therefore an unwanted few hours stop-over in Stockholm airport when we fly out on the 3rd as they just don't have connecting flights to Barneo on the 4th April. Simon Albert (MD of charitychallenge.co.uk) cheerily typed ".... but getting a few hours sleep on a bench in Stockholm might just be the best nights' sleep you will get over the next few weeks!!!". Sobering rather than cheery would be my take on that statement.

And so onto this evenings' overseas adventure; a tyre drag in a Manchester park. Well come on, for a born-and-bred Yorkshireman it can't get much more overseas than that can it!

MVS Photography came to Heaton Park to take some photos as I STILL hadn't got a decent photo of me training with a Candlelighters t-shirt on and I wanted some other 'neutral' shots for press releases and letters to possible sponsors.

After 10 minutes of shots Mark succumbed to the fact that being in a park with me AND the tyres means you HAVE to have a go yourself. Fortunately for him I'd forgotten one of the ropes so we just had the one large tyre to drag yet, in his shirt and suit trousers, he made it look pretty easy.

Once Mark had gone I set off around the Park and did (estimated) 4 miles in total, meeting some interesting people on the way including this young girl who was trying to sneak onto the tyre. I spotted her just in time before she potentially had a serious accident ......... and then gave in to my parental playful side (oh and there's no need for any comments about how white my legs seem are, especially compared to the colour of my face).

And finally there was these two who were happily on the 'pop' but decided to have a go. They were very impressed about how easy I found it to pull the tyre (even though I didn't have anyone sat on it at the time ... as I said, they were on the 'pop'). Oh yes and ... err ... for those of you with good hearing, apologies for the lack of a 'bleeper' to cover-up the word used.

In addition, one little girl and her Dad waved happily, one guy had a little laugh, one boy asked what I was doing and then his parents wanted to know more about why I'd decided to go to the Pole (darn good question; keep asking myself that) and after a few more stares and a remarkable discovery, I finally got back to the car.

I was tired, hot but relieved because when I lifted the tyre into the boot and started to undo the knot in the rope that tied the tyre to the harness I noticed enough wear and tear on the rope that with the lightest tug, it snapped. How lucky that didn't happen at the farthest corner of the Park.

What was that? Oh the discovery I mentioned above. Hmm, well I only saw one piece of dog pooh on the whole drag (well done people of Manchester and/or the Park Wardens) but I did see five (5) pooh bags dotted around the pavement. Some kind souls had apparently poop-scooped but then decided to leave the full bags on the floor. Bizarre.

Right, off to plan a PR release to try and get the Manchester Evening News to run an article and use one of the MVS Photography shots, and then bed.