I haven’t posted anything about the Manchester to Blackpool bike ride until now. It was a great day out and, thanks to the generosity of lots of wonderful people, I’ve raised \u00a3370 to date for Springhill Hospice.<\/p>\n
As the two weeks between then and now have passed, though, a few things have reminded me about one of the reasons I do the ride, and why I’ll try to raise the \u00a3500 each year while I can.<\/p>\n
Around me, ordinary people are living ordinary lives, coping with extraordinary circumstances. Extraordinary to them, but ordinary in the grand scheme of things. Cancer is an all-too common cause of death.<\/p>\n
Most of us will live our lives without being seriously troubled by infection, contagious disease, accident or any of the things that killed the generations that came before us. Conditions which killed people in years gone by are now managed by drugs, without serious complications if you take the drugs and the advice correctly – my diabetes is an excellent example of a condition which is managed now, but which 100 years ago I wouldn’t have been able to write about 20 years after my diagnosis.<\/p>\n
For the people whose lives are shortened, I’m raising the money to help make their twighlight weeks more bearable. Not just the people who are leaving us, but the people who love them, too.<\/p>\n
It’s this reason that sometimes gets me out on the bike; that gets me forgetting my shyness and asking you for money. I’m not precious about it: money’s tight and I don’t blame anyone who doesn’t contribute. I know that most people contribute elsewhere: I’m not special. But it’s heartening to think that something I do on a lovely day out on the bike is helping people at their most extraordinary time.<\/p>\n\n\t\t