Updates
Our progress towards raising our 1m target
Knowing George had a friend's birthday party this afternoon today started with us lazing around and grazing to help us manage his energy levels. This involved indulging in a double breakfast including loads of cereal and crumpets (yes there's a crumpet lurking underneath all of that chocolate spread!) Woody had taken Alex to the Dorking Rugby Club Minis Festival where they were having a brilliant time in today's glorious sunshine! By 12 he had to leave to go to work so George and I tagged in to catch the last two of Alex's matches.
Originally I'd intended to get there a bit earlier to squeeze a 30 min run in before Woody had to leave but at first I couldn't my keys to the house and then I couldn't find the car keys, ghaaaaa! 🤦🏼♀️ As soon as I arrived I dropped George with him and started running but only managed 10 minutes meaning I ran just over a mile ...my old self would have died at even the thought of that yet now I'm thinking that's no where near enough considering I've got to add on 25.2 more with the London Marathon in just 5 weeks weeks time, gulp!
Tonight it's my turn to sit here shattered. After a busy weekend, coupled with my ongoing sleep issues, I'm feeling like a zombie! On the flip side George was on brilliant form and LOVED the football party he went to this afternoon! Our friends were so kind and let Alex join in too and, believe it or not, they even cracked out the BBQ! Quite the difference to this day when George was in treatment having yet another a blood transfusion as well as x-rays in his isolation room to see what on earth was going on with his lungs on this rounds post chemo infection 😢
Back then it was the Momentum Children's Charity that put a smile on his face with one of their music therapy sessions. For us the added bonus was an article on our fundraising efforts appearing in the easyJet inflight magazine!! Incredible to think how much we've raised to help beat childhood cancer with all of your help since back then!
Between us we've got this.
#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge
Sponsor Woody and I to run the Brighton and London Marathons this April 2019 to help beat childhood cancer, uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GiantPledge
Donate or join the team with your own fundraising event in 2019 at giantpledge.com/team
Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at giantpledge.com/shop
Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, giantpledge.com/buy
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: instagram.com/giantpledge
Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com
Today's been one of those busy but fun days running around after the boys as well as treating Woody's mum for her birthday as part of Saturday's mix! After this morning's football practice we took Nana Sue for lunch in Bill's then it was straight onto school as Alex was in a year 5 and 6 performance. Woody went to see him in the first showing last night as being on standby with work he wasn't sure if he'd make it to this afternoon's matinee. He ended up not being called out so we all got to enjoy Alex and his friends in action today 🥰
Alex didn't have a speaking part but was one of the prehistoric stone-age men known as The Growlers in his school's performance of Craig Hawes 'Rock Bottom' musical. All the kids did so well delivering all the cheesy jokes and non stop one liners! I'm always stunned at how confident and brave they can be getting up on stage, remembering their lines as well as coordinating all that with singing and dancing! Congrats not only to them but all the teachers and everyone behind the scenes for making shows like this happen! He went and did it all over again later tonight so needless to say we put one super tired Alex to bed this evening!
Talking of tired we've mentioned before how easily George can crash and still gets shattered over a year down the line from all his cancer treatment finishing. When we arrived to see Alex in his show George was on the edge but had a second wind on seeing some of his year group of friends. He was all fidgety and tried lying down on us at one point during the performance. That said in the interval he had a whale of a time running around getting all hot and bothered in his body brace...kids really do have no form of off switch!
The thick plastic acts like a layer of insulation over his protective vest and skin as well as holding everything including his spine in place for him. He started getting upset wanting to take it off with emotions bubbling up when we put it back on him again. It doesn't help that he's getting more and more self conscious wearing it and it's not even as though anyone has said anything. This means he always asks to wear something over the top. We try and play things down and always tell him no one is looking so fingers crossed this will eventually work as god only knows how he'll manage this summer when the weather turns hot 😰
The second we got home we put the TV on so he would relax and lay still. To look at he's doing so well, and after yesterday's stark reminder with the funeral of a little Marsden friend he really is! We simply want to do the very best by him and sometimes struggle finding the right balance. Things vary changing day by day but we know that eventually we'll get there (🤞)
Between us we've got this.
#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge
Sponsor Woody and I to run the Brighton and London Marathons this April 2019 to help beat childhood cancer, uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GiantPledge
Donate or join the team with your own fundraising event in 2019 at giantpledge.com/team
Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at giantpledge.com/shop
Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, giantpledge.com/buy
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: instagram.com/giantpledge
Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com
Last night Woody and I treated ourselves to a hotel stay up in London. After he won the 'Public Service Award' at the University of Leicester Alumni Awards it was a bit of late one....let's just say this morning we appreciated the lie in! We'd come prepared and brought our running gear with us so after a tasty brunch with some of Woody's Uni mates we made our way to Hyde Park and we both had our first run in central London!
Knowing how easily I get lost I simply ran around the outer edges of the park but even then I found myself having so many other people to contend with. Most of the paths are wide but I ended up ducking and diving around a crazy amount of tourists and let's not even go there with the pigeons! At one point I found myself running alongside two older men and in my head I was screaming, I can keep up with them! Why do I always forget I'm more like a tortoise and only have little legs 🐢
Joking aside I did pretty well but Woody ran much faster than me so we met back at the hotel, had quick showers then headed home. Nuts to think this was just a tini tiny taster of what it'll be like to run the London Marathon...! (I say that as I only ran 4 miles this morning and on the big day itself there'll be over 40,000 people running with me 😲) When we arrived to pick the boys up from school George was pleased as punch to show us some bread he'd made then we all headed off to Pizza Express as a treat to end the week on.
Meanwhile today was the funeral of a very special boy. There was an intimate service for his close friends and family. A stark reminder of why funding childhood cancer research and improving treatments is so vital. When we got home tonight we lit a candle for him much like many other Marsden parents. He lived with cancer for far too much of his short life and now flies high with far too many other young cancer angels.
Thinking of him and looking back to George at this time during his cancer treatment reminds us how fragile life is and just how lucky we are. If you've not already I can't tell you how much we'd appreciate you sponsoring us for our marathon efforts as every penny raised will help beat this awful disease and hopefully stop it happening to other children and their families. giantpledge.com/marathon
Between us we've got this.
#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge
Sponsor Woody and I to run the Brighton and London Marathons this April 2019 to help beat childhood cancer, uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GiantPledge
Donate or join the team with your own fundraising event in 2019 at giantpledge.com/team
Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at giantpledge.com/shop
Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, giantpledge.com/buy
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: instagram.com/giantpledge
Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com
After dropping the boys at school we headed home for a marathon strengthening training session (thanks again Emma McKie Personal Training!) Later on we then put our glad rags on as we were off to a black tie do in London with Woody's University of Leicester friends for the evening. He'd been nominated for Universities first ever Alumni Awards Dinner 😍 Apparently they've held many events before but tonight was the first one they've given awards out for achievements since leaving the University!
When they read out each person and why they'd been shortlisted it was quite hard to hear our story being told in the third person. So much of it still feels quite raw and painful as well as super surreal to the point it can feel a little shocking when you hear someone else's words explain everything.
Of the 5 awards given Woody was shortlisted for the 'Dr Mark Sims Memorial Award for Public Service' ....and he only went and won it 🥳 The event was hosted by BBC presenter Lukwesa Burak, but for this award the family of Dr Mark Sims came up on stage to present it (sadly two years ago they lost their son Mark to cancer).
Having originally been diagnosed at the age of 15 with melanoma they managed to remove the skin cancer from his scalp and he went on to become a doctor! However by the time he was 26 it had spread dramatically and he was given just weeks to live. During this time he fundraised bringing in over £120,000 to go towards cancer research! Read more at wrestlingmelanoma.com/ or check out his book that tonight his family kindly gave us 🥰
It was then onto our first ever silent disco to celebrate but, as we always say, everything we achieve for the Giant Pledge is a team effort so pat yourselves on the back tonight and maybe even have a little boogie people!!!
Between us we've got this.
#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge
Sponsor Woody and I to run the Brighton and London Marathons this April 2019 to help beat childhood cancer, uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GiantPledge
Donate or join the team with your own fundraising event in 2019 at giantpledge.com/team
Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at giantpledge.com/shop
Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, giantpledge.com/buy
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: instagram.com/giantpledge
Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com
Several pretty big things happened today, albeit they're all in different leagues but big things to us none the less. Our Giant Pledge fundraising tipped into the last £25k before hitting the million 😲 I got back out running for my London Marathon training, Woody managed to run non stop for over 30 kilometres and I got to have lunch with my besties for a few of our birthdays albeit a bit late ...w h a t a d a y!
With donations both big and small, plus money coming in specifically supporting us for our Marathon efforts, suddenly the Giant Pledge total has leapt up! We're over the moon but I can't deny I'm feeling a little sick too! The Pledge has long been our distraction / coping strategy as well as making something good come from our god awful situation. It's a milestone we've been so desperate to hit and have thrown ourselves into achieving whilst navigating George's treatment for the last 2 years+. What happens when we hit the target is now the million dollar question...! (see what I did there 😜)
Will we stop altogether, no. But will things change, absolutely yes. The honest truth is we just don't know how yet. I for one know I can't keep using it as a shield to hide away from all my cancer related emotions, but equally I can't bear the thought of just sitting with them - my mental health is fragile enough as it is at the moment. The fact children are still being told they have cancer every day, with far too many of them going on to die, also means more needs to be done ...we just need to find ourselves a manageable middle ground #EasierSaidThanDone
Regardless of this huge question we were both buzzing with our running efforts today. My knees are no way near recovered but it definitely felt good running for a least a bit part of the time on my feet today! And as for Woody, over 30k ...just AMAZING!!! Lunch with friends was lovely eating the delights on offer in Cullenders Delicatessen, even if it was only for an hour you can't beat time with your oldest best buddies. And as for George, it still ceases to amaze us just how far he's come, let alone the fact how much he's now starting to look like Alex! (Check the picture of him out on the far bottom right!)
Between us we've got this.
#thebigpush
#aimhighstaypositive
#giantpledge
Sponsor Woody and I to run the Brighton and London Marathons this April 2019 to help beat childhood cancer, uk.virginmoneygiving.com/GiantPledge
Donate or join the team with your own fundraising event in 2019 at giantpledge.com/team
Buy one of our 'Tackle Childhood Cancer' tees or pick up your superhero cape in honour of the doctors, nurses and super brave cancer kids at giantpledge.com/shop
Sing along & share our charity 'Do a Big Poo' song, youtu.be/U3iOmhIIc_s or buy it here, giantpledge.com/buy
Follow us on Facebook: www.facebook.com/georgeandthegiantpledge
On Twitter: twitter.com/giantpledge
And on Instagram: instagram.com/giantpledge
Or for help with any event you may be thinking of email Lydia.Clark2@rmh.nhs.uk and cc us at GeorgeandtheGiantPledge@gmail.com