Charity car wash was fun

Hello everyone
Sunday's car wash was fun and certainly much warmer than the one we last held in February this year!

Thank you to all the volunteers who gave up part of their Sunday to come help and support, so thank you Stuart, Jane, Andrea, Caroline, Robyn and Rayne. It was in actual fact very quiet, at first I thought it must have been because we were doing it on the Sunday instead of a Saturday....then we remembered it was actually the beer festival in nearby Saltaire ( World heritage site ), we joked saying we should have set up in the centre of Saltaire - business would have been booming!

Regardless of the fact it was quieter, we still had a good few hours and lots of fun to boot!.... my sister Caroline has been banned from controlling the hosepipe has her skills only covered drenching her fellow volunteers more than the cars!! We raised a nice £94.00 from the car wash and a further £20.00 on two T-shirts my cousin Andrea ordered. So all in all a tidy £114.00 raised on the day. This had taken the total raised so far to just over £4500.00 - very pleased with the ways things are progressing.

I will keep checking the weather in the next month - and if we are due a good weekend and enough volunteers are available, I will try fit in another before it gets too cold.

I am going to look into a winter indoor endurance team challenge - probably around November - this will be a good fun day, probably very tiring, but will be a massive achievement for those who wish to be part of something just a little bit different. I will check it all out and get back to you....but I guarantee, it will take the whole team playing their part for it to be a success.

I'm thinking with professional help of course - if everything including costs can be agreed ( hopefully Lost Earth Adventures ) - an indoor climbing sponsored challenge - please friends around the world - see if you can do the same local to you, set up a team and do the sponsored challenge on the same day - and we'll compete for the fastest time or something to become War on Cancer's World Champions!! we can make it and annual event - see which team rule supreme - just because you are not here doesn't mean you cannot mirror some of the events if you feel passionately enough about what War on Cancer is all about.

FEEDBACK FOR YOU ALL WOULD BE REALLY NICE - LETS SET UP AN INTERNATIONAL CHALLENGE - War on Cancer and I would love that very much!

Okay the indoor winter sponsored challenge I'm going to look into is a team challenge ( hopefully taken up around the world in aid of and the name of War on Cancer - is Climbing the equivalent height of Mt. Everest in a day! - I will check out the costs and logistics of this and of course the minimum amount of team members  required for this challenge. I hope you feed back to me about this crazy fun idea - how many people will ever be able to say they along with their team members climbed the height of Mt. Everest in a day!!

Get back to me please and let me know if you would be interested in this great challenge - especially our friends around the world - I would love for it to happen elsewhere too!

Okay, until next time
Tracy

Charity car wash

Hello everyone

I hope you weekend is going well and you are enjoying yourselves whatever you are doing, this is a quick blog to remind you good folks about the charity car wash tomorrow.

We will be there from noon until 16.00pm, the cost per car as always is a fantastic bargain of £3.00! Keep your fingers crossed that the weather is going to be okay, but no matter, we will be there with our sponges and smiles!

You could always combine eating at the pub while we wash your car - what a great relaxing way of getting your car cleaned while enjoying some great pub grub!

I hope you can make it, please tell your family and friends about it, the more cars the merrier, help us raise a load of money for my two chosen cancer charities - Walk the Walk uniting against breast cancer and Clic Sargent children's cancer charities, two very worthy charities who are doing great work to help eradicate cancer for future generations.

So remember, share this blog on your social networking sites, tell family, friends and neighbours - make me and my fantastic team of volunteers work our butts off in the name of War on Cancer.....we really don't mind!

Thank you all for your continued support

Until next time
Tracy

Total raised by Yorkshire 3 Peak challenge announced!

Hello everyone
I am extremely happy and proud to announce that the Yorkshire 3 Peak sponsored challenge that took place on June 2nd 2012 raised a fantastic £1811.00!! Here's a little diagram and photos of the 3 peaks to remind everyone of what a superb effort the whole climb was.

The Yorkshire 3 Peaks is a tough endurance walk over 25 miles and rough terrain. A superb team of 23 people stepped up for the challenge on Sat June 2nd to tackle the 3 peaks. It's hard to describe what a great bunch of family & friends set off that morning on a grueling 12 hours plus day of climbing over very tough and rough terrain. The weather was supposed to be pretty fair, but turned out to not be so, but no-one allowed the cold, wet weather to dampen their spirits.

Our new friends and mountain guides Richard & Sarah, owners of Lost Earth Adventures and their crew of mountain leaders did us proud that day, making sure not only did everyone get around the 3 peaks safely, but that everyone enjoyed themselves as well. The best compliment I could ever have got was when the whole mountain crew praised every single walker on  them making the day a pleasure for them to work with, and that they had had a great time laughing and joking with everyone.

Richard said it was one of the best days he had been involved in and thank me for letting them be part of War on Cancers first annual endurance challenge. He, Sarah and the others said it had being a truly inspiring experience. Everyone worked really hard that day, but your hard work has paid off handsomely, raising a awe inspiring £1811.00 and raised cancer awareness at the same time. Richard & Sarah, I and WOC look forward to collaborating with you and Lost Earth Adventures in the near future and for many years to come. To every single one of you walkers I and WoC thank you deeply for taking part.

I eagerly await December when I will announce the 2013 sponsored challenge - I hope the team who did this years challenge come take part in the 2013 one and hopefully we can from our tales of our experiences encourage more friends will come join us, it would be great to improve and surpass 2012 with the number of people involved, and hopefully the amount raised. This years challenge was a huge success, not just in the amount of money we raised but in the enjoyment factor of everyone involved.

I thank each and everyone of you who read the blog, share the blog, check out the ads, take part in the events and challenges and most importantly - those of you who always give  unwavering support to WoC and myself, who support the cause I believe so strongly in, and take up with great humour any crazy, mad and sometimes exhausting challenges and events without ever batting an eyelid.

Thank you for helping me to make my dreams of raising money and awareness for cancer come true, you are all my hero's, without all of you, WoC wouldn't exist. You make me so proud.

Until next time
Tracy

Charity car wash date confirmed

Hello everyone

A very brief update today, just to tell you the car wash is confirmed!

I hope you are all enjoying your weekend, we have had a gloriously sunny day here in West Yorkshire! Here's a sunset I shot last weekend, it is as nice tonight for sure.

The car wash will take place on Sunday 16th September from noon - 16.00pm, after that you'll find some of our volunteers checking out Saltaire's beer festival!

We will be holding the car wash at our usual place. The Sun Inn at Cottingley, a big thank you as always to Mike for allowing us to use the car-park and for him donating the water! Hope to see you there, we will be waiting with our sponges and smiles.

Thank you to the volunteers who are giving up their Sunday afternoon to help raise money for cancer charities, without you, these events couldn't take place.

 Until next time
Tracy

Total raised from the Yorkshire 3 peaks to be announced shortly!

Here's a photo of the moon I shot on September 2nd. Really happy with the clarity of it.

I am happy to announce I almost have a total raised from the Yorkshire 3 peak sponsored challenge back in June. I cannot tell you how happy I am that I can give you a total very soon!

The endurance challenge for 2013 will be announced in December - so this allows people to sort out a training programme and accommodation for the sponsored event.I hope we get at least the same amount if not more  entrants for the 2013 challenge - it would be great to get more people to work hard on our endurance challenge while raising money and awareness for cancer charities.

Who's up for another sponsored endurance event next year??? How about you getting a team together to climb ( on an indoor climbing wall ) the equivalent of Mt.Everest in a day between your team??? up to the challenge? know enough friends who would be willing to have a go??.....watch this space!

I'm still trying to sort out volunteers for a charity car wash - I'm looking at Sunday 16th September...I will confirm if I get enough volunteers, it would be nice to get a car wash in before it gets too cold - also we haven't had a chance to use the new enlarged posters, hopefully they will bring in more passing motorists!!...it's either that or I'll be borrowing some traffic cones to re-direct the cars through the car wash ;)

I had another great climb up Whernside this week, I was improved from my climb two weeks ago, I felt really good and am looking forward to my next one! Will be climbing it again in the next couple of weeks....and also have a Pen-Y-Ghent climb coming up too. I will be match fit be the end of the year if I can carry on like this.

I am back to see my bladder specialist next week for more tests, hopefully he will have some answers for me by the end of the tests....as yet it is unclear if the continuing problems I'm having are just a blip as it were, or if in actual fact, the procedures I had done to solve my problems have in fact made it worse....will know more next week.

Loving been outdoors hill climbing and power walking with Molly....not bothered with the gym, always better in the great outdoors!!

My big brother Graham has confirmed he will indeed be coming with me next year when I climb Mt.Kilimanjaro...this is great, I was always going to climb, even if it were just me....but will be brilliant going with my big bro!! My sister Caroline and old chum Mandy would love to be there at the bottom when when get back from our successful climb.....whether this in fact comes off I don't know....would be ace if it could happen. Then a couple of days chilling and recovering at the beach sounds good to me.

I am feeling full of confidence for my Mt.Kilimanjaro climb next year again - I was so very disheartened after my 3 peak challenge, it really shocked me how bad it was. But every week that goes by now see's me stronger and fitter. By the time we go to climb Sept/Oct time....I will be hopefully at my physical best - I know that will never be as it was before the cancer and consequent illnesses and issues I now live with....but it will be more than enough to see me up and down the world's tallest free standing mountain. I as always look forward to this challenge.

I am open to idea's to help get WoC out there and more recognised....Come the New Year, will push with the local papers and radio....anyone else think of something please contact me.

Also - thinking of putting WoC out for adoption......So you can adopt a certain event or a portion of the year or even the whole year! this is a great way for WoC to raise some funds....and for you good folks out there to get involved, whether it is for you personally or your business....I would love to hear from you all! - I will set out a section to promote you/your business if you come forward to adopt us.....will it sell it better to you, if I promise it's not me you are adopting, and no I won't turn up on your doorstep with my belongings ;)

Please seriously consider adopting us for an event, or for a time period....I will make sure you get the recognition you deserve for this. Also we need Ambassadors for War on Cancer - to help spread the word, to tell people what we are doing, and what we are about.All of you can help me keep raising awareness and money to help eradicate cancer for future generations.

So until next time when I announce the 3 peak total raised, take care
Tracy

Successful climb of Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales

  Hello everyone
Here I am at the summit of Greater Whernside in the Yorkshire Dales with my cousin Andrea. The photo below is of Andrea and her husband Simon....the three of us went off and climbed Whernside Sunday just gone.

                                             

I cannot tell you how much I am still buzzing from climbing this peak this weekend gone, the last time I climbed this was in June when we were tackling the Yorkshire 3 peaks as a sponsored challenge for WOC. I was very unwell on the way down and had to call it a day when I reached the bottom, the support vehicle had to take me back to the start/finish point where I spent the next 6 hours being sick. Although I know realistically I had done well to finish one of the peaks, especially since I'd only recently made the decision to stop taking my cancer prevention drug 3 years early because of all the serious complications I had been suffering from taking it. I had only also been back in the gym a matter of weeks. I had hoped in all honesty to complete two of the three....however it wasn't my time then.

So to be invited by my cousins to go back and have another crack at it was brilliant. Thank you Andi & Si for asking me! It was the best feeling in the world to complete Whernside and have no illness or adverse side effects on the day or the day after. It feels like another massive personal step to my own full recovery. I know we cannot live in hindsight, but sometimes I question why I gave the cancer prevention drugs two years and didn't stop them earlier. Well  no matter what happens in my future, I know I gave the drugs my best shot. But couldn't live with the lack of quality of life anymore.... like I said before, I am too young to be struggling to get myself out of bed and dressed.

Don't get me wrong, I am still on a nerve blocking pain killer, but now I'm off the cancer drug, my joint stiffness, muscle and bone pain is manageable and my flexibility and movement is very much improved and I feel totally validated in my decision to stop the Letrozole. Hell I can click my fingers to the beat of a song again!!

There are some more photos loaded in the gallery from the climb, and we were lucky to have some visibility at the summit. It was a cloudy overcast day with the odd blast off sun breaking through the clouds, it was a warm day though. When you climb Whernside, it is a long sweeping climb up, starting off by walking along the side of the Ribblehead Viaduct where the Settle to Carlisle steam train still passes. There are some steep parts to climb on route to the summit, which is 736m or 2414ft. When had some food and a drink at the summit. It started to drizzle has we set off on our descent down the other side of the peak, it didn't take long for it to start raining pretty heavy, which it more or less maintained the whole way down.....it in no way spoiled our climb and we were in fine fettle, laughing and joking all the way down. The rain soaked through my  waterproof jacket, we were all pretty drenched through to the skin by the time we got back to the car. The climb is actually  8.02 miles, but this is over very rough terrain and a fair old climb up and a very steep section on the descent which was made much more difficult with the rocks been slippy with the rain. We didn't rush and completed the walk in around 3.5-4.0 hours... I can't remember exactly.

We are going to go climb Pen-Y-Ghent in a few weeks time, I am really looking forward to this because I never made it that far in June. My plan is to climb all three peaks separately this year, and if I don;t get chance to tackle all three this year, I will definitely try next year. It was a challenge and I want to make up for failing this year.

I am planning on getting out walking a lot through the autumn and winter, cutting down on the gym and getting a mix of flat and hill walking in....I need to get out in the rough terrain to help build up my stamina and endurance more, because of the fatigue I'm fine until I hit empty, then it's hard to find anything in reserve, I want to change that by next year.....after all I hope to have a really busy year catching up on my challenges that I didn't complete or had to delay until 2013. So as well as completing the Yorkshire 3 peaks, I will be tackling Mt. Kilimanjaro and also as long as I can get places, the plan is to power walk the New York marathon for Walk the Walk uniting against breast cancer charity. It will be a great year with so much going on, I cannot wait to sink my teeth into it...and after my successful climb of Whernside, I have regained my equilibrium after my disappointments earlier in the year. I still feel like I'm improving almost daily still from the stopping of the Letrozole and Simvastatin....long may it continue!!

Until next time

Tracy  

Love your family and friends - for they love you!

Hello everyone

I hope you are all getting ready for the weekend no matter what the weather is going to be! We in the UK will be enjoying an extended weekend as it's a bank holiday.

I find it funny how things come about that show you how much you are loved and cherished, this always for whatever reason makes me feel very humble. It's not so much that I think I don't deserve it, but more that I can't understand what I've done or how I instill this feeling on others.

My cousin Andrea txt me to ask if I wanted to go climb Whernside this coming weekend with her and her husband Simon. Her sister, my cousin Sue and her hubby Bill are going too. Simon, Andrea and Sue successfully completed the Yorkshire 3 Peak Challenge in June. Now anyone who has read my blog will know Whernside is one of the 3 Yorkshire Peaks from the endurance challenge I organised this June just gone. Whernside was the only peak I managed on my failed quest, the one I was so very poorly climbing back down from, and the one where I had to accept defeat on the day. I said I would go back to re-do it and hopefully prove I could easily do it without any ill effects.

So I of course jumped at the chance to go prove to myself I could do it and regain some confidence back. My wonderful cousins  Andrea and Simon have decided they  will be picking me up and will be driving, Simon said he isn't going to let me drive there and back, and they are going to leave a car at either end of Whernside just in case I do take poorly again, so I can be driven back to the Station Inn pub where we will start from. How amazing is that? that my family are willing to put some much thought and planning into their walk so I can go safely with them. Thank you so very much for thinking of me!

 I feel so very blessed with the people in my life, so very honoured to call these folks family and friends. So very grateful to them for recognising my need to push myself to achieve the challenges I set myself, no matter how hard they are. To encourage me along saying they'll be there with me instead of saying it's too much, and don't try. A smile and a gentle squeeze is all the encouragement I need, my determination can never be called into question, even if my body cannot always live up to the tasks I set it. I don't for one minute regret being so tough on myself .

As I sit on the cusp of my new life, this new chapter that is starting to open up.....I wait to see if I've been accepted for a placement at college on a part-time course, this is stage one of a completely new career direction for me. It's my second chance in live, and I'm planning on making it a life I truly feel rewarded for doing, it's not about the money, the position or the promotion. I've done all that, personally found it not worth it, too many hours, too much stress and not time or energy to enjoy all my hard work. This time, on my second chance, I want to really give something back, to feel rewarded not financially but emotionally by making someone else's life hopefully a little easier.

Social media gets quite a lot of bad press, always about the affairs that happen because of it, the cheating, whether it be in a real meet-up, or through intent alone...let's remember if it's through intent alone, you can guarantee it's only because geographically it's harder or impossible to meet up for real.

 These kind of stories are all we ever hear about, but lets remember the positive side to any social media network - the side that allows family and friends to easier and cheaply stay in touch across the globe. To all the innocent cyber friendships that are made and maintained and in some cases end up stronger than our real life friendships! These are the wonderful things that social media networks like Facebook can give us. And don't forget the chance to reconnect with people from our past, old friends we lost touch with over the years, friendships from childhood where one family moved away and the letters eventually ceased to be posted. And for many millions of us, a chance to catch up with old school chums!! I love the positive side of something like Facebook, and remember the "bad" people out there who use this medium to start flirting, having illicit affairs etc will always find a way, if not here then somewhere else. A cheater is always a cheater wherever they and whatever they do. Don't allow those few to taint the wonderful gift of social media for the masses.

I myself in recent months have had the enormous pleasure of re-connecting with some old school chums, some I had gone to school with from the age of four, others from the age of nine....all lost in the busyness of life from the age of thirteen....new schools brought on meeting and gaining new friends - and in that time of confusion and uncertainty....old comfortable friendships were lost along the way....no-one to blame, just real life taking over in the whirlwind of settling into new schools.

I went to meet one of my old school chums Maggie this Sunday gone, what a great time we had....it was really nice as we had no awkward stunted conversations, the years just fell away, we were all relaxed, I met her husband Pete and one of her sons Daniel, they were great and very easy to get on with. We chatted about school and about what had being going on in our lives over the last three decades, it all just blended and was a really relaxing day. Maggie summed it up really well, she said anyone watching us, our conversation and our body language would never believe it had been 30 years since we had last being in each others company. So through social media, I have gotten back a very good friend of mine, and I will be eternally grateful to it. I looked forward to our next meet up and more catching up.

Everyday life is very difficult for many people all of the time for many various reasons, from things like, health, financially,physically, emotionally and in many cases a mixture of all of them. So with this in mind, I know I am very lucky indeed to have family and friends who want to spend time with me, not because it's an obligation, but genuine want, but I spare a thought for those who aren't as blessed as me, for those who are lonely and feel unloved,those struggling everyday with constraints on their lives, and  this is why I want to give back, to show those less fortunate that someone does care enough to want to improve their lives by showing an interest in them, to try and ease some of their difficulties, I can't do that financially, but I can do that emotionally, and I do try.

Until next time
Tracy