Ok – I’ve not gone on full Captain Oates – I do intend to return. But I’m off for a long walk to clear my head and it’ll take me 2 months. It’s been heavily trailed, but in case anyone has missed what’s going on, that walk will start in John O’Groats and finish in Land’s End. Yes – that one. 603 miles as the crow flies, but I’ll log at least 1,000.
This is huge, especially for someone recovering from surgery, and I can’t run yet due to lingering pain in my side that worsens with impact. It looks like I’ll be doing a lot of hiking, especially to start with, so 50k days won’t be possible, but I’ll aim to do what the 2 month plan says in the guidebook and average 20 miles a day. Naturally, the first day will give me about 25 miles over rugged terrain because a) my eyes are bigger than my stomach and b) that’s where the next town is. Fortunately, I’ll just stay 1 night in Wick, so won’t be there long enough for it to get on mine! And so it will hopefully continue for 62 days. I’ll bring a head torch just in case I run out of day at any point.
I was meant to set off around 6 weeks ago on June 1st but when offered the chance to zap your last remaining tumour, sending your apologies isn’t really an option for any cancer patient intending to survive as long as possible. I was also meant to plot out a precise itinerary so that the team at Macmillan Cancer Support could coordinate support e.g. people joining me for sections or with hotel stays donated by sponsors. Given that I’m taking a slightly different route to the guidebook, I’ll have to adapt that as I go and work out how many miles a day I can sustain, but once a pattern is established, I’ll do some forward planning.
I will of course keep everyone updated through social media on a regular, perhaps even daily basis and hope that this challenge builds momentum. So far, I’ve raised just over £29k for charity and I’d really like to double that. Not least because I wasn’t shortlisted for a Justgiving award, so clearly I’ve got to pull more crazy stunts in order to raise more money and awareness and get noticed next year. On that note, thank you to the 10 people who nominated me – I really am touched.
Now the election is over, I hope I can also lean on the political contacts I’ve made to support the charity work and vice versa. During the campaign, I was essentially forced to choose political or charity promotion as, understandably, the charities have to remain neutral. I made a conscious decision not to join the Labour Party in the hope that this fact would be enough for people to trust me to speak neutrally for one or more charities. But regardless, I was dropped for a couple of media appearances, so it turns out I didn’t need to wait, and long before the election was called, I’d effectively chosen the political option as far as all the broadcasters were concerned.
This political support took the form of another big speech at the Labour manifesto launch as well as an appearance at a rally type event a week out. In the meantime, I’d been contacted by Marie Curie, who focus on end of life care and (on their behalf) managed to warn Rachel Reeves to expect lobbying from me on access to the state pension for people with terminal illnesses. It may come as a surprise that this isn’t already happening, but no – there really is no safety net if you end up like me and so many people with cancer and other degenerative conditions are forced either to work if they’re able, or live in poverty. I hope that after my long walk I’ll be recovered enough to fit in the first category – my sick note expires in October and I can’t wait to see everyone again.
That’s just as well because I was invited to the DFE this week and it would have been a bit weird to sit through speeches talking about positive change in education, wishing to no longer be part of it. Sure – early retirement will come and probably quite soon, but in the meantime, I want to turn up and deliver for my new boss’s boss’s boss’s boss’s boss in Bridget Phillipson, who really understands the challenges we’re facing and I’m looking forward to seeing what she now intends to do to address them.
I’ve also been invited to a ‘thank you’ event hosted by my MP Wes Streeting, who I’ve spoken publicly in support of. But I’ll have to send my apologies for that on account of being around 1,000 miles from home.
So off I trot on a my bucket list journey through England, Scotland and Wales’s green and pleasant land. It would take a lot to go wrong for me to not complete this challenge. Because wind, rain, midges, mud, bursting lungs, aching muscles and all consuming fatigue in the great outdoors are all infinitely preferable to lying in a hospital bed.
I’ve set out to show that it’s possible to live a full life post-diagnosis and, just like this new Labour government, I’ve been given the opportunity to get on with what I’ve set out to do. It’s been a long time coming and there were moments when it didn’t look like happening. But now, despite everything thrown in my way, it’s time to get stuck in and step by step, go big.
1 more sleep…
Let’s go!
