Orchid Cancer Appeal

Orchid Cancer Appeal is dedicated to funding research into diagnosis, prevention and treatment of prostate and testicular cancer as well as promoting awareness of these previously neglected diseases. Registered Charity No. 1080540.

1. Prostrate cancer kills 33% of men diagnosed every year with the disease.
2. Over 30,000 men are diagnosed every year.
3. 2,000 men are diagnosed every year with testicular cancer
4. Nobody wants to talk about it until its too late!

I became aware of the Orchid Cancer Appeal charity and the great work they are committed to because I kept hearing from a few of my female friends about the breast cancer charities and I started to think it a bit odd that we hear so much about women's cancer charities and almost nothing about men's cancer charities. Then I heard a report in the news that more men die from prostrate cancer than women from breast cancer. Now don't think for one moment that I think breast cancer is not a problem or that I don't think its a very worthwhile disease to combat, but we need things to be evened up a little, and being a bloke and more likely to be attacked by prostrate cancer than breast cancer, I see it as every males right to push this issue a little harder into the pubic domain so that this cancer can be properly researched and hopefully eradicated.

Please support my efforts to raise money and awareness for this very worthwhile cause. If you can sponsor me for any of the events just follow the link below.

Support this excellent cause by donating online at my specific page set up at Bmycharity

My next fundraising events will be :-

The Terminator February 24th

This is an 10.5 mile endurance race mostly off road, following footpaths, lanes and bridleways. After leaving the village of Pewsey, the route hits the tranquil towpaths of the Kennet and Avon canal, followed by a gentle skip across wet farm land where you will reach a sign which will indicate that the warm up is now over!

Although this sounds like major pain, and I'm sure it will be, I'm training hard for it. In fact I am running about 9 miles currently and this is the furthest I've been able to run since my 4 knee operations about 8 years ago. This is a point I had never thought I would reach, so it is a real personal goal to achieve this and finish the race.

Cliveden Cross Country 6 miler December 2007

Completed the course but this was really difficult as I was really suffering from a bad cough, which actually lasted 2.5 months in the end! Because of this I did not make this a charity fund raising event in the end...

The London Duathlon 2007 9th September

With good weather the day looked set for a potential good race time. The event is really well run and the small criticism I had from last year seemed to have been actioned this year , mainly based around the lack of toilets!

The race starts in waves of about 10 runners going every 30 seconds. I always feel fine about the run section, its the cycling that is my slow event. The run got underway and its a fantastic course around Richmond common, good scenery (if you can get the presence of mind to look about during the race - not always easy!)
The 9K went well (41 minutes) and then you run into the transition area, try and find your bike, slap on the helmet and grab the bike and run out onto the road, mount up and off you go for just over 20K cycling around a large loop within the park, again lovely but with one killer hill that you have to do twice (48 minutes). Lots of people end up walking this hill and to be fair to them its almost as quick to run up than cycle - except for the faster riders which is definitely NOT me.

After the cycle you again go into the transition area and rack up the bike and run out for the final 5K run. This is definitely the hardest part, after the cycle ride your legs just don't move very well, its really painful and everyone tends to run like they are about 70 years old! (23 minutes).

In all I beat last years time of 2.01 hours, doing it in 1.55 hours. Better than I thought I would do, and I truly paid for it with legs that hurt for 3 days after the event. Many thanks to my loving wife Sonja for putting up with me running off for these events and the training.

Dorney Dash 10 K on Saturday, 30th June 2007

Did I mention it was raining!

Great weather, but only for the ducks. It didn't stop raining! Most of the time it was just a little drizzle, but just as the race was about to start it really started to pour. Luckily the event still had a good strong field of 855 who finished. It's always a fast race because the course is around the Dorney rowing lake (venue for the London 2012 Olympic rowing) and thus nice and flat. I was injured before last years race so I did not compete - I had been training hard to do my personal best of a sub 45 minute time - but this year my goal was just to get around in a decent time. Because its around the rowing lake its easy to judge your time, there are distance markers every 250 m for the rowing, so no excuses for not knowing your pace!

I knew I was running a fairly quick pace, but the course record of 32 minutes was not in danger! At the end I fell over the line and wandered off for a bottle of water. I had no idea of my race time as I had pushed the wrong button on my watch and stopped the damn thing at the 2K marker! But later that day they had the results posted up on the web and I have surprised myself with a time of 46.34 minutes. That compares with a time of 49.50 on the same course in 2005!

I've got to same I'm really pleased with myself, except I'm now limping around the house feeling about 20 years older!

Cliveden Cross Country 6 miler on Sunday, 31st December 2006 starting at 11:00 a.m.

My normal time for this on a flattish course would be about 47 minutes, but the Cliveden course goes up and down to the river Thames a few times and its real cross country running over the frozen fields and sliding down hills trying not to slip into the river! What I'm trying to say here is I'll be trying to beat my time from last year, not my personal best time for 6 miles! Currently the time to beat is 56 minutes.
Post Race Report - Ouch, that hurt! When it's classed as a "tough" race, it should not surprise me, but somehow it does every year, and this year was harder because it was so muddy on the course. It was a slower race this year and my time was 57.22, slightly slower than last year and I can honestly say that there was nothing left to give on this one, I staggered over the line trying not to be sick.
The weather was about 10 degrees and although it did not rain the course was really slippy. As usual the 3 climbs from the Thames up to Cliveden house was, and always will be, a tough climb, 172 steps if I remember rightly, and I'm still feeling every single one of them.
But the main thing is I finished under the hour, my knees are in one piece and I've raised just over £400. Many thanks to everyone who donated money.