Brighton continued

I've just received the final photos from the lovely Ant Bliss. Ant and his team take brilliant photos and hang around in all sorts of weather to take photos of often bedraggled-looking runners crossing the finish line. As I am one of the slower runners I am always delighted to see Ant's smiling face having  battled my way round one of the many downland marathons. More of Ant's race photos later.

Mike took these two shots of the gigantic wheel by the seafront. With the advent of the Millennium wheel alongside the river Thames in London there seems to be  a craze for installing them in seaside towns. 

On a clear day the views would be lovely.

Runners arriving at the start line

Now for some of Ant's photos taken at various points during the race. I always, always have a big smile on my face 'cos I just love running and competing in races alongside other people.

When I started running 11 years ago it was to raise money for Cancer Research in memory of a friend who died of leukaemia. Nobody, including me, thought I'd manage the 5k race and I never dreamt that I would continue running after the race, but I did.

At the time I was a full-time carer for my mum and for one hour each day, after breakfast when mum often had a nap, Mike would take care of her whilst I went out for a walk or a run. It quickly turned into my special time, all to myself and with no worries and it gave me the strength to carry on.

The rest is history and with 31 marathons under my belt I still feel that running has become my life-glue and I can't imagine not wanting to run any more. Some of my best ideas come to mind when I'm out on my longer runs and it really helps to recharge my batteries.

So back to the photos:

17 minutes in

My favourite - both feet off the ground like a real runner!

I love the lady on the right - she's really going for it towards the finish line!

Mike captured runners as they headed towards the finish line

After the race we headed off to the car so I could get changed then we went for a wander round the shops. It was starting to drizzle with rain and the sky looked rather grey and ominous.

I loved this dolphin waterfall. Pity the water wasn't switched on though.

Bet he had a bird's-eye view from up there!

This whacky shop made me smile with it's zebra stripes and zebra's head.

It reminded me of a painting by the wonderful Charley Harper entitled Serengeti Spaghetti. I think it would make a wonderful cushion done in Bargello work. His stylized animals always impress me as he has a keen eye for reducing their form to the bare minimum.

It also brought to mind my own zebra sweater which I knit about 25 years ago. I saw a sweater in a posh shop but it was way beyond my budget at the time so I copied the pattern onto graph paper and then adapted a knitting pattern that I had already to incorporate the zebra stripes. It's made using a very soft cotton and it has been thrown in the washing machine and treated with the minimum of care yet still looks good after all these years.

My very own brown and cream zebra jumper

Funny how some handknits stay with you for years yet others are either undone and re-knitted or passed on for others to enjoy.

I spotted a couple of shops with mosaic in shop entrances. Not complex patterns but jolly all the same.

That evening we celebrated with a glass or 2 of Buck's Fizz for it is a well-known fact that if you put orange juice into champagne it doesn't count as alcohol.

Thumbs Up

I had my dressing changed twice this week and finally the big bandage has been replaced with a waterproof plaster in girly pink. Not only does it make holding things a lot easier, it looks so much better as the bandages got dirty so quickly; although that probably says more about me being a mucky pup than the bandage!

As I pulled into the car park at the doctor's surgery, I spotted the local geese paddling in the water by the recycling bins. As soon as I stepped out of the car they came flying towards me. Not aggressively, they just wanted food as they are an important part of the village and are spoiled by the local people. The local pub takes charge of them. 

They formed an orderly queue and were rewarded with the bread I'd taken with me in case they were around.

They acted as my escorts to the surgery.

Sadly, every so often one is killed on the road as people don't always heed the sign

Tinker update

Our beautiful boy is still with us but the lumps have now joined together to form one great big lump on his shoulder which you can see quite clearly in this photo. Poor boy.

He looks so peaceful stretched out there in front of the fire. He purrs like mad and asks to be stroked and he still jumps around and uses his scratching post as if there's nothing wrong with him. I have a feeling that he will just go downhill all of a sudden so we'll make the most of what's left of our time with him.

Carpe diem.

Brighton

Lovely city - yep

Interesting and eclectic mix of shops and buildings - yep

Good food - yep

Good weather for a 10k? Oh yes. 'Twas the perfect weather for a 10k!

First things first. A nice Americano to give me a caffeine boost

Then a pose in front of Brighton pier

Time for a warm-up before Mike headed off for a wander whilst I got on with my pre-race routine

How did I get on?

52 minutes 48 seconds since you ask and a new personal best time. Mike managed to snap this photo as I was sprinting towards the finish line and I managed to give him the thumbs up sign to say everything was OK.

Apparently he was a bit worried because he saw the time clock was showing 54 minutes as I passed him and he knew I was aiming for sub 53 minutes. But my time wasn't based on the clock time but on my chip time which was only activated when I crossed the start line so I was quicker than he thought.

Even my watch time, which I'd started just before I crossed the start line, was 3 seconds slower than my actual time!

I only had one dodgy  section in the race at around mile 4 when we turned and had to run into the wind. It wasn't a strong wind but it did manage to take my breath away a bit and it took a while to get it back under control. It also meant that I had to up my pace considerably for the last mile and then sprint for the final 800 metres.

I had the biggest smile ever on my face when I crossed the finish line.

More photos to follow soon.

Pennant, a riparian run and an "ouch!" incident

Pennant Magazine

A few months ago I was invited to write an article for Pennant magazine, the journal of the Forces Pension Society. The Editor and General Secretary, Major-General John Moore-Bick CBE DL, thought their readers would be interested in my marathon efforts, the link between physical and mental health (mens sana in corpora sano) and how I use the internet for fund-raising.

I was given 1200 words for the article but I could easily have written 12,000. I submitted a draft with 1300 words suggesting the areas I could condense if need-be but I was delighted when their response was to give me 1700 words to play with, thus turning it into a 2 page spread. Mum's story was included together with links to ARUK and my blog and I hope that people found it interesting and informative.

A riparian run

The other day I felt the need to run just for the sheer joy of running, not caring about the pace or distance. The weather has been pretty vile of late but the sun was shining as I headed off towards Bodiam for a run along the river Rother.

This coppiced tree had been brought down in the storm

I love the darkness of the trees with the light filtering through

Gorgeous lichens

The buttery yellow leaves of a birch tree reminded me of a candle flame (the box on the right is an owl box and there were 2 young Barn Owls in there earlier in the year)

Possibly an alien object for anyone not familiar with game bird husbandry - it's a feeder for pheasants.

A new sign warning of the weir - it made me wonder if someone had come to grief there in their boat 

Smiley sheep

The river was flowing quickly and was only just below the bank

I love the starkness of the trees against the skyline contrasted with the emerald-green grass

In Spring, the river often floods the whole road and submerges both the outer arches of the bridge

It must have come over the bank recently as the football pitch had several large lakes.  The clubhouse had to be built on a platform to raise it above the floodwaters.

The gulls took full advantage of the watery pitch

I loved the yellow/green stripes of the vines on the slope

I arrived home muddy and happy

Ouch!

I'm still busy processing pears and apples. Purees, juices, syrups, chutneys etc. On Sunday it was pears in syrup. These are some Conference pears from our trees. Beautiful, juicy pears.

First I peel and core them using my trusty apple-corer (can you guess what's coming soon?), then I chop them into quarters and simmer them gently in a light syrup of sugar and water.

When they are just starting to soften, which takes about 7 minutes, I pack them tightly into a glass kilner jar and pour in the syrup to cover them.

I'm experimenting with different ways of preserving them this year so I'll also be freezing some and also treating them by simmering in a jar sitting in a water bath (the usual method).

I save all the peeling and cores as there's still lots of lovely pearliness to be had from them. They all go into a pan with a mix of lemon juice and water and are simmered until tender.

Then I strain the mixture through a jelly bag and use the liquid to make a dark syrup. For a pint of liquid I use 1lb sugar and boil it until it reaches the consistency I want.

Now back to the apple-corer. I was happily just getting on with my peeling and chopping when my hand slipped and in so-doing the corer sliced into the side of my thumb. It happened in an instant and then there was blood and everything went into slow motion.

Mike was playing the piano, a Chopin etude, and that served as a soothing backdrop. The corer has serrated edges and as I ran my thumb under the tap I could see that it was quite a deep v-shaped cut, but at least there was still some skin attached at the top end. I found some gauze and taped it round it to provide pressure to stem the flow.

After I'd cleaned up the mess I went and told Mike what had happened. Of course he also told me off for not getting him straight away. I knew secretly that he would make me go to hospital but I have the gene for not wanting any fuss or to be a nuisance to anyone, plus I have spent too much time in and around hospitals so that's why I didn't get him immediately.

I resisted removing my makeshift dressing to show him the extent of the damage as I wanted to wait until the bleeding had stopped so he let me off for a while. However, eventually I had to show him and he insisted that we visit the A&E department. Deep joy.

As it happened, there weren't many people there when we arrived and after an initial consultation with a nurse we were seen within 30 minutes as opposed to the 2 hour wait we'd been expecting. Everyone was very kind and friendly.

Mike came into the treatment room with me and was so sweet and supportive - he knows how much I hate going to hospital. The wound was cleaned and the nurse decided that as some skin was still attached he would use glue and steri-strips (a sort of reinforcing tape used instead of stitches) to hold it in place and then finished it with a tight bandage. He gave me a tetanus jab for good measure.

As the glue is water-soluble I'm not allowed to get it wet for a week so poor Mike is having to do lots of chores including tending the horses and Tinker the cat. No knitting for me that evening but I found I could manage my crochet hook OK which was a bonus.

I've just been to see the nurse and had the dressing changed, in case there was any infection, and everything looked OK. She's given me a much looser dressing which allows me to bend my thumb a bit and I can just about manage some knitting, albeit slowly and very carefully. She said that when she changes the dressing on Friday she'll give me an even lighter one if everything is still progressing well.

This morning I managed to make some bread using just my right hand for the kneading and I covered my poorly thumb in cling film just in case I splashed it with any liquids. Needs must and all that!

Back to normal?

Oh I do hope so!

Our broadband connection has been repaired and after a few days of cutting out intermittently it seems to have settled down.

So it's time for an update on life apart from dementia and fund-raising.

Running

The day of reckoning is drawing near - the Brighton 10k on Sunday 17th November. Ever since my surprise 10k triumph on my birthday I've been doing a variety of speedwork sessions each week to try and get faster.

My target is to finish in 53 minutes or less and my training suggests that that is achievable. But of course there are the variables - asthma, the weather (it can be windy down on the coast), how I feel on the day etc etc.

It would be wonderful to set a new personal best (pb) time there as I established a new marathon pb there earlier in the year. Fingers crossed anyway.

Sorting

The weather is definitely getting cooler so it was time to put away the summer clothes and bring out the woolies. As I sorted through my knitwear Mike commented that I don't wear this cardigan much:

It's the Oregon cardigan, designed by Alice Starmore and I've knit it twice; once for me and then for a friend. My friend loves hers and whenever I wear mine I get "oohs" and "aahs" from everyone. Over on Ravelry  everyone who's made it loves theirs.

So it got me thinking why I don't wear it more often. The colours are glorious and it took ages to knit but I don't like the shape of it as I think it's a bit old-fashioned (I expect fans of Alice Starmore will be screaming at me for that!). The other thing I don't like much is the bulkiness of the steek stitches along the buttonband and I wish that I'd created a steek-sandwich as used by Kate which gives a sturdier finish.

I shall however try to wear it more often and learn to love it as it really is a beautiful stitch pattern and it's lovely and warm.

My only other large item of Fair Isle knitting is the Autumn Rose pullover by Eunny Yang and I love it to bits. I love the colours, the pattern and more importantly the fit of it. The only thing that's a bit off is the neckline which tends to curl but I much prefer this modern take on Fair Isle.

My favourite small Fair Isle project is this pair of seahorse mittens designed by Torirot. A lovely design based on the traditional Selbu work of Norway.

T.E.A.M.work

I do dislike this trend towards mixing upper and lowercase letters and inserting full-stops willy-nilly. Nor am I a lover of acronyms, but what the heck I think I'll jump right on the bandwagon to help get my point across.

In my last blog about the G8 Dementia Summit I ended with a comment about Teamwork (Together Everyone Achieves More) and I've been gathering my thoughts about why this is so important in this context.

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Simon Denegri when he was chairing a meeting of lay champions to talk about the DeNDRoN R.A.F.T register - is there a collective noun for a group of pesky acronyms? An annoyance of acronyms?

Simon is the National Director for Public Participation and Engagement in Research and I've been following his blog ever since as he speaks about many things that interest me.

So back to my thoughts on teamwork.

As a lover of poetry, which you'll find throughout my blog, I really enjoyed this poem about research that Simon penned on World Poetry Day back in March, reproduced here with his permission:

The research poem

If we work together

We can do it better

This thing called research.

This endeavour.

So here I am

Neither subject nor guinea pig

With no letters after my name.

But I know a thing or two.

About what it's like.

About what it's really like.

And all I ask

Is that you let me ask

Why, when, who and what for?

I'll work with you on a cure

Although I'll be long dead by then I'm sure

(But who knows we might get lucky).

If you'll also help me with the pain

And making the day

Worth waking for.

For when dusk does night betray

I want to be able to say

I made a difference for me, for you, for us.

Now that we are working together

Wouldn't you say

it's better?

This thing called life.

An excellent and heartfelt poem Simon and thank you allowing me to share it here.

I believe that teamwork is the key to success in finding a workable solution to many problems. Although working in isolation is both inevitable and desirable sometimes, it's when people get together and share ideas that the real magic happens.

Think of the way that large companies with a forward-thinking management team operate;  they provide places where their staff can meet to socialise and discuss their work. This article about Google HQ is a good example. Brainstorming sessions, in which no idea is dismissed as irrelevant or silly, can throw up some unexpected solutions.

Mike and I often throw ideas around between ourselves to find a solution to any manner of problem. It's that interaction with eachother that sparks off an idea in the other's mind.

I read an article recently in which Professor Henry Markham, an eminent neuroscientist, said that progress in treating dementia and other mental illness has come to a halt, despite an exponential rise in the number of research studies published. He blamed the lack of progress on what he described as a "reductionist" approach in which many scientists focused solely on their own area of expertise rather than sharing data and collaborating with others.

Teamwork improves processes and produces results quickly through the free exchange of ideas, information and data.

Think of that in global terms and you realise just how important a collaboration between the G8 countries could be. But what will actually come out of the G8 Summit? It will provide a platform on which to discuss the major issues facing both professionals and families and my hope is that it will result in a consensus on the way forward for research and care for people worldwide.

Thank you

I'm sneaking this post in as we have a window during which the broadband link is working, albeit at speeds of just 5kb per second which means things take ages to upload and download.  Hopefully it will be sorted out tomorrow.

Here's where we think the problem lies -

See the 2 poles?  The shorter one on the right originally had the electricity cables and the telephone lines attached but was damaged in high winds a few years ago.  It was an arrangement known as a 'shared utility'.

The electricity pole was replaced because the pole was leaning at a jaunty angle, which was quite dangerous, and new cables attached. However, the phone line wasn't moved onto the new pole due to issues with red tape! So, last year when the winds were strong our broadband and telephone line went down and a nice man came and repaired the damage but couldn't move the lines to the new post because of the red tape (?!) so he came up with the idea of tying the old post to the new one and told us that if it happened again that we should insist that the lines be moved to the new pole. 

We managed to get through last winter OK but the recent storms put the final nail in the coffin and so we will be insisting that the lines be moved. I can't wait for that discussion tomorrow!

Thank you

First of all I must thank Nate Taylor for writing such a wonderful article in The New York Times on the 2nd November.  Only one correction - my first knitting stunt was in 2007 not 2008 but that's a minor detail. It was lovely chatting with you Nate; let's see if we can make the New York marathon 2014 a date!

My next thank you goes to the lovely people at PageGroup in Weybridge who welcomed Marcus Barber (Corporate partner Officer from ARUK) and me to their offices yesterday. 

This was part of a roadshow that Marcus had put together to give people the opportunity to learn more about dementia and to get some ideas about fund-raising. My role was to talk about my mum and some of my fund-raising antics.

PageGroup have become corporate partners with ARUK and have pledged to raise £200,000 to support 2 specific research projects.  They have already raised a massive £60,000 which is brilliant. I was very impressed that so many people gave up their lunch breaks to listen to us talk about ARUK and dementia.

I felt a bit wobbly in my own presentation yesterday, probably because I've been writing so much about dementia of late but I hope I gave people some insight into what it's like to live with dementia.

Thank you to Caroline who took such good care of us, to Fiona for setting up the computer and projector and to everyone who attended. Your support and enthusiasm was wonderful and good luck with your fund-raising.

Disconnected

Having said that we'd survived the storms relatively unscathed, our broadband connection has become loosened in the high winds so gathering emails and browsing the internet have been difficult for the last few days. Oh the joys of having overhead cables! Our telephone line is due to be repaired on 7th so it could have been worse. We only had a few large branches down in the fields but the horses and sheep were all OK.

Sadly, elsewhere lives were lost, cars crushed by falling trees and properties damaged, many people being without electricity for days.  We had a minor power cut at around 5am but the workmen got the village back online within a couple of hours.

Being without access to the internet made me think about how isolated we became when mum was suffering from dementia. At times it felt as if we were living in a bubble, completely separate from the outside world.

I also thought about how mum must have felt, unable to communicate effectively or to voice her thoughts and needs in a coherent way. Imagine how it must feel to be locked within your own world, alone with your thoughts and unable to explain what you are feeling. 

Whenever I talk about what happened to mum I always have to stop short of the final part of her life as it was just so awful that even typing these words brings tears to my eyes and a lump in my throat. I did try to speak about it once during a lecture but as I tried to enunciate the words I was completely overwhelmed and so I keep those memories locked away, for my eyes only.

My pensive mood brought to mind a very moving poem I read a few years ago which was displayed within a garden at St Margaret's at Cliffe.

The Old Man

There once was a man who wouldn't die,

He sat in a chair watching time fly by.

Longing for beauty, longing for youth,

He sat lonely and cold,

Silent and mute.

He had once been handsome, young and care-free,

Then he saw his reflection and what did he see?

His face was too wrinkled, his hair too grey,

But he clung on to life,

Day after Day.

But then in the town people stopped and stared,

At the ugly old man with thinning grey hair.

He moved blindly forward, tapping his cane,

He felt like a prisoner,

Clad in strong chains.

He wanted to move and see new lands,

Green rolling hills and soft yellow sands,

But he was immobile, his legs would not work,

He was a recluse in his chair,

Feeling solemn and hurt.

Still to this day he is living a lie,

Refusing to live, refusing to die.

He will not sleep for he may pass away,

He sits lonely and cold,

Day after day.

Local 13 year-old.

I bet you had to get your hanky out after reading that!  How incisive for such a young mind.

At the moment I'm busy blogging my 2nd article with thoughts about the upcoming G8 Dementia Summit but my first entry hasn't gone onto the site yet so I thought it would be interesting to read what Alistair Burns wrote in his blog post (just click on 'blogs' at the top of page). I met Alistair back in January 2012 at the launch of ARUK's Defeating Dementia report and it was good to read his views.

In the meantime, here's what I wrote for my first blog:

Having experienced the devastating effects of dementia on my own mother, whose story appears below, I was excited to hear that the UK is to host the G8 Summit on dementia. Since the Prime Minister launched his Dementia Challenge it feels as if we are finally starting to make some progress in raising public awareness about the disease.  However, investment in dementia research still lags behind other diseases whilst the financial burden has increased.

I am passionate about the need for research into the causes and possible treatments into the disease but I also feel a strong need to offer a better quality of life to those suffering from the disease already.  More and more I hear about people with dementia being left alone in their own homes, often having to contend with difficulty performing everyday tasks that once were simple but now are fraught with difficulty. 

In the very early stages of dementia, when perhaps objects are misplaced or someone struggles to remember words, then this might be acceptable but the thought of someone being left alone in a world that no longer makes sense terrifies me.  Recently Sussex Police launched an initiative for issuing GPS tags to dementia sufferers who were prone to wandering.  This was branded as “barbaric” by some but surely it is barbaric to leave someone alone to fend for themselves when clearly they cannot. 

The Alzheimer’s Society’s report ‘Building dementia-friendly communities’ highlighted how communities can help people stay in their own homes for longer and this has to be the way forward. I believe that my mother’s quality of life was enhanced by living with us in an environment where she was safe, secure and never left in a situation where she could hurt herself accidentally or become fearful.  At home she still had a role as part of the family, helping to prepare food, digging the garden, tending the animals, and helping with household chores which gave her a sense of worth.  She always enjoyed crossword puzzles and jigsaws and we encouraged her to keep doing them to keep her brain active for as long as possible. 

My hope is that the G8 Dementia Summit will be the start of a coordinated global effort to take action on dementia.  No single country has the resources to combat dementia but with teamwork we will; to use an often overworked motivational acronym, Together Everyone Achieves More. 

Peggy’s story 

At the age of 81, my mum had a series of minor strokes. Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items. We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her. Then she started wandering and had extreme mood swings.  Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. 

The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'. My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive. She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too. She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! When my sister died during this time mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter. The moment that I finally realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter was a terrible time for me. 

In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care; she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself.   

Finally we realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live in a special nursing home where the team did a splendid job caring for her in the final months of her life. There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was.  It was heartbreaking.   

During that time I started to learn more about dementia and found that research was vastly underfunded.  I also realised that people often spoke about it in hushed tones as, with so many forms of mental disorder, there is a stigma attached to it; as if the person has somehow brought it upon themselves.  I was so horrified by what happened to my mum that I felt the need to speak out about it and I decided that I would help raise vital funds for Alzheimer’s Research UK (ARUK) as I firmly believe that science and innovation hold the key to defeating the disease.

For my next blog post I'm writing about why I believe this international collaboration to tackle dementia is so important.