The American author, Harriett Jackson Brown Jr once wrote ‘Seek opportunity, not security. A boat in a harbour is safe, but in time its bottom will rot out.’
Over the last two weeks I have walked 55.57 miles ascending 3,758.08 feet. I have cycled 39.37 miles ascending 2,513.95 feet giving a total of 94.94 miles covered under my own steam ascending 6,272.03 feet on the way. I have also done some golf practice, and made 15 balanced daily lifestyle breakfasts and 15 balanced daily lifestyle lunches and cooked four delicious and awfully good for one meals: Jamie Oliver’s Harissa Chicken Tray Bake, Mary Berrys Baby Vegetable Gratin and Haddock with mushrooms and cream and Jane Bamforth’s Bangers and mash with Vermouth Gravy. Allie, of course, cooked the other 10 delicious and awfully good for one evening meals. So I was eating and exercising in such a way as to prevent my brain tumour from returning as predicted. I was also spending a lot of time at the computer and on the electronic piano trying to stretch my mind and retrain it to enable a greater ability to sustain concentration beyond twenty minutes without tripping my brain into some form of Neurological wobble. This fortnight saw a few small auras but no wobbles.
However, until the day of writing I had absolutely no photographs and no smiles captured so had planned to give you photographs of meals cooked previously. While I managed to raise £79 for the Disasters Emergency Committee, I didn’t manage to secure any additional sponsors. I lost sight of capturing opportunity to save lives through the DEC by capturing smiles and sponsors, and instead focused entirely on security of mind and body. Clearly, security of mind and body is a wonderful thing to aspire to, but trying to save the lives of the world’s poorest trapped in the triple whammy of warfare, disaster and COVID is something I musn’t lose sight of. Or the challenge becomes for nought. It will stagnate and its bottom rot out.
Having written this post I went for a walk with my tabard on trying to create opportunity and lo and behold two delightful women stopped me to talk to me about my fundraising campaign for the DEC, gave me their smiles, took a card and promised to consider sponsoring me.
Please help me to spread a little light into the lives of those that struggle by sending me a photo of your smile that I can publish, with the other 267 smiles so far captured, on the smileometer on my website, and via the Challenge social media channels of Facebook, Instagram and Twitter. Emailing it to me would be best on archie@beatthebeastchallenge.co.uk or message it to me on Messenger or Instagram.
Furthermore I continue to look for sponsorship. Many have suggested that I would find life more comfortable if I was to take a chill pill and just focus on enjoying life, on security over opportunity. Yet I keep fighting and keep writing despite my neurological challenges, purely and simply to save lives; mine, and those who are starving to death as I write: men, women and children trapped in their millions in the triple whammy of COVID, warfare and climate change related natural disaster around the world in the Yemen, Syria, South Sudan, Myanmar, Nepal and India.
There are 64,000,000 active current accounts in the UK. My challenge is to convince just 1% of those account holders to challenge me to keep fighting to achieve success with just £1 per month. If I succeed I could raise over £640,000 a month with which to help save and rebuild the lives of those most in need through the Disasters Emergency Committee. With 72 sponsors so far obtained I am 0.01% of the way towards my target. It is easy to doubt that I will ever get there, but I refuse to, so please sponsor me, I guarantee, that with the generosity of:
- The Royal Bank of Scotland.
- Webb and Wallace Accountants in Doune.
- MHCreations in Glasgow.
- Key Facilities Management in Doune.
That every single penny raised goes to save and rebuild lives through the Disasters Emergency Committee. Not a single penny is lost to costs.
Every penny raised encourages me to keep fighting to prevent my brain tumour from returning as predicted, and to retrain and strengthen my brain, using the mediums of Golf, Music, Navigating over the Hills, Drama, Dance, Juggling, Litter Picking and Writing, with becoming neurologically and cognitively strong enough to one day be able to sustain myself in some form of future employment being my goal while saving lives through the DEC on the way.
Please sponsor me to make me happy. After all, happiness is the key to success!
Thank you, Keep safe, keep being brilliant.
Keeeeeeeeeeeep smiling
Yours aye with love and gratitude,
Archie xx
