An appeal for help. *UPDATE*
Posted: Sat Jan 10, 2015 2:27 pm
In September this year, I'm planning to take on something that I've always wanted to do - Ride from Land's End to John O'Groats. Near enough 1000 miles, sometimes over 100 miles per day. 'Madness' you cry! and you'd be right. So why then?
Recently, like so many others have, I lost my mum to cancer. It was detected on Boxing day 2012 and we were led to believe that the prognosis was good. Sadly, the opposite was true and by October 2013 we lost her.
She was only just 68 and 'healthy' - she never drank or smoked, had porridge for breakfast most days, stayed active and was not overweight. There was no family history either. The cards that we are dealt sometimes....
Thankfully, for the final couple of months, mum was in the Hospice of St Francis.
They help people of all ages, with terminal or life threatening illnesses, and they make the biggest difference you can imagine.
It costs them £4.7 million per year, just to exist, and only 20% of that comes from the government, the rest is down to people like you and I.
I know we hear about these places all the time and we dismiss it, not because we don't care, but because we hear pleas for help a lot these days, and unless you're directly affected at the time, it's easier to let it go.
I too was guilty of this, but I very quickly realised that we all need these places, we just don't know it yet.
The care that they gave mum was incredible. Personal, heartfelt, genuine. They gave her comfort, dignity, and the ability to accept what was going to happen. It was made more heartbreaking by the fact that my wife and I had only just had our little boy, so we had to welcome a new life, whilst knowing we were going to lose another.
I really don't know how we would have faced it without them. Even afterwards, they stayed in touch, regularly calling the family members just to check how you're doing.
Now if I had money I would have given them a sizeable donation, but I don't and I knew I wanted to say thank you, and help them to help others, and so this challenge popped into my head...
It would mean a huge amount to me if you can spare something, anything, to help me reach my target of £2600
You can read a bit more, and donate if you wish at:
https://www.justgiving.com/Ben-Askem
You can also sponsor 1,2,3,4,5 or £10 by texting BENA68 £10 (for example), to 70070
You could even just think of it as buying one of the nurses there a pint
I know that due to the amount of us that have been/are in similar situations and the sensitive nature of this, I may strike a chord with some of you. It is not my intention to upset anyone or open old wounds so if I have, I'm sorry.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this, and in advance for any donations you may make.
It means a lot, it really does.
Recently, like so many others have, I lost my mum to cancer. It was detected on Boxing day 2012 and we were led to believe that the prognosis was good. Sadly, the opposite was true and by October 2013 we lost her.
She was only just 68 and 'healthy' - she never drank or smoked, had porridge for breakfast most days, stayed active and was not overweight. There was no family history either. The cards that we are dealt sometimes....
Thankfully, for the final couple of months, mum was in the Hospice of St Francis.
They help people of all ages, with terminal or life threatening illnesses, and they make the biggest difference you can imagine.
It costs them £4.7 million per year, just to exist, and only 20% of that comes from the government, the rest is down to people like you and I.
I know we hear about these places all the time and we dismiss it, not because we don't care, but because we hear pleas for help a lot these days, and unless you're directly affected at the time, it's easier to let it go.
I too was guilty of this, but I very quickly realised that we all need these places, we just don't know it yet.
The care that they gave mum was incredible. Personal, heartfelt, genuine. They gave her comfort, dignity, and the ability to accept what was going to happen. It was made more heartbreaking by the fact that my wife and I had only just had our little boy, so we had to welcome a new life, whilst knowing we were going to lose another.
I really don't know how we would have faced it without them. Even afterwards, they stayed in touch, regularly calling the family members just to check how you're doing.
Now if I had money I would have given them a sizeable donation, but I don't and I knew I wanted to say thank you, and help them to help others, and so this challenge popped into my head...
It would mean a huge amount to me if you can spare something, anything, to help me reach my target of £2600
You can read a bit more, and donate if you wish at:
https://www.justgiving.com/Ben-Askem
You can also sponsor 1,2,3,4,5 or £10 by texting BENA68 £10 (for example), to 70070
You could even just think of it as buying one of the nurses there a pint
I know that due to the amount of us that have been/are in similar situations and the sensitive nature of this, I may strike a chord with some of you. It is not my intention to upset anyone or open old wounds so if I have, I'm sorry.
Thank you all so much for taking the time to read this, and in advance for any donations you may make.
It means a lot, it really does.
