With 2.08 miles run climbing 55.12 feet and 3.6 miles walked climbing 156.5 feet I am feeling good. I have also managed to complete a session of morning prayer and evening prayer with organ practice which sadly was not great on both sessions. I found myself on both sessions sitting at the keyboard and having to go over and over and over a tune again and again and again to try and force the brain to talk to the fingers. I wasn’t worried today though. I was just tired but persevered as it was still a wonderful opportunity to force the brain to find another way to function. To build the cognitive and motor function coordination function in the healthy left side of the brain just in case the diseased right tries to turn me off. I love that turn of phrase, ‘Just in Case’. Until yesterday I was using the word ‘when’. I have been told that I quite possibly have a significantly enhanced expectation of years left in me and that has given me an opportunity to do three things, enjoy more time with family and friends, to do the very best I can to raise as much money as possible for those in need, and to do the very best I can to ensure my longevity. To create the situation in which I will die despite the disease many many many years from now rather than because of it in the near future. As you know I am using the 5 Fs strategy of food, faith, physical training, family and friends and the focus of the challenge to beat the beast but there is another component. The tumour, if it does try to switch me off one day, will do so by degrading my ability to think and act, degrading my cognitive and motor function until the lights eventually go out altogether. But having to learn to walk again after having my inner ear removed taught me that I can retrain the brain to take on a function for which it was never intended. So learning to play the pipe organ, learning to play golf, learning to juggle, and forcing the brain to navigate across unfamiliar terrain are all focussed on retraining the brain and the only way to do it is to catch the brain when it is struggling and through repetition and perseverance, force the brain to develop another way to perform the task I ask of it. So today has been a good brain training day although it can be torture for anyone having to listen to me torturing the same organ tune time and time and time again until I eventually get it!
There has been a reasonable response so far from my appeal of yesterday and I will not know quite how successful it has been until the challenge’s next quarterly meeting on the 23rd of March in which we look at the accounts and see how much I have managed to raise, divide that figure by five and ask the bank to distribute the funds to the five charities. I really really hope that as many of you as possible have taken up the mantle and are doing all that you reasonably can to make some noise and get more and more people to sponsor me. As I said yesterday, every single penny raised is accounted for and goes to the five charities I support. Not a penny is lost to costs. There are NO Costs. I did forget to say however, that I have no telephone numbers or contact details on my sponsors so they will not get even a single call or letter asking them to increase their donation to the challenge. My plea is to get as many people as possible to give just 15 minutes of their time and sponsor me for as ittle as just £1 per month. So if you are yet to like the page, share the page, sponsor me and ask your family and friends to do so too, please try and find the time to help me make the very most of this very exciting opportunity.
Thank you
Yours aye
Archie.
Thank you for joining me on my own personal journey and encouraging me to walk, cycle, climb, paddle, sport and do good deeds each day to ‘Beat the Beast’ while helping to improve the lives and life chances of so many more people through sponsorship. The Five Charities that I have selected to support are:
- Cancer Research UK – My Father Succumbed to Lung Cancer; a couple of friends are currently fighting cancer and I am fighting a brain tumour. Let’s Help to Beat Cancer Sooner.
- The Prince’s Trust – Inspiring and preparing disadvantaged Young Lives for success.
- British Red Cross – helping those in need around the UK and the world whoever and wherever they are.
- World Wide Fund for Nature – For a Living Planet and a Future Where People and Nature Thrive.
- Help for Heroes – Support for our Wounded and their Families. To learn more about my story that brought me to this point, how I plan to ‘Beat the Beast’, what activities I plan to do within the challenge and why, please see my welcome video on this page.
How to Sponsor Me
The Beat the Beast Challenge is self funding through my own contribution while keeping costs to a minimum with voluntary support and corporate sponsorship in kind. Therefore the entirety of every penny donated will go directly to the 5 charities listed above.
Please sponsor me by completing a standing order form either through your own personal internet banking or by completing a hard copy standing order form in your branch of your bank and then handing it in to the teller.
It is entirely up to you how much you would like to and are able to sponsor me for so do please give as much or as little as you can. Every penny will be very gratefully received.
While I hope you will encourage me to keep going by sponsoring me for every day I survive and am able to find the cognitive and physical capability to complete a day’s task designed to improve my chances of ‘Beating the Beast’ or improving the lives of others, 5 days a week, four weeks a month, for as long as ever I can. Any One off Cash contributions will be most gratefully received and distributed in exactly the same manner to the five charities as the sponsorship. Any one off donations can be made by BACS or cheque.
Thank you for having enough faith in me to sponsor me.
Yours aye
Archie