It's hard to believe that Daniel's surgery is less than 4 weeks away now. We have been busy making our preparations for the trip (and still have plenty to do in that respect). Daniel himself is a little apprehensive about it all, unsurprisingly, but he is also excited. He has been getting extremely tired over the last couple of weeks, despite the best efforts of everyone who works with him to keep him rested etc. He desperately needs this week of half term to relax and recoup his energy, in readiness for the challenge ahead. We have now appointed the private physio who will be working with him a little bit before we go (and we hope a lot after we return). The NHS is only able to provide a burst of physio for a short time after we return, but most of the physio input over the next couple of years will need to be done privately, and this is why we are so thrilled that our fundraising has gone past our original target. The physio is vital to a child's making the most of the operation, so it means a lot to us to know we have the funds in place to give Daniel the physio input he needs.
Meanwhile, other people have continued to be busy fundraising on Daniel's behalf, for which we are indebted to them. The last 7 days have been a particular frenzy of fundraising activities!
Last Sunday (14 October) we had 3 events happening simultaneously....
Firstly
Matt and Simon from Billy Shears Hairdressers set off from Cheltenham before dawn (and in the freezing cold) to cycle down to Bristol. It took them just under 5 hours (I believe they might have
got a tiny bit lost deliberately challenged themselves by taking a diversion). Once there, Matt girded his loins and did a bungee jump, all in aid of Daniel!! Neither Simon nor Matt had ever met Daniel before we started fundraising (in fact Matt met him for the first time only a couple of weeks ago), and we have been overwhelmed by the effort they have put into extracting sponsorship from all their clients, raising over £1500! Thank you so much to you both.
I will add a photo of Matt's bungee jump when I have one, but see
here for the article and photo that appeared in the Echo about their fundraising for Daniel.
As Matt was taking his life in his hands and jumping off a crane only attached by a bit of elastic,
Anne and Paul were taking on the Cardiff Half Marathon, both sporting their 'Help Daniel Find His Feet' wristbands! They both completed it with fantastic times, and have raised lots for Daniel (I will add the final total once it's in). Here they are, feeling victorious....
And......at the very same time as Anne and Paul were doing their stuff in Cardiff, Chris O'Riordan was in Oxford tackling the second of his '3 half marathons on 3 consecutive Sundays'. Chris has so far completed Cricklade and Oxford half-marathons in the last 2 weeks, and we wish him the best of luck for Birmingham tomorrow! I will add all the photos of Chris after tomorrow, but he has already raised over £1200 for Daniel!
And finally, on Wednesday Michael Cartwright completed his cycle to work (Cheltenham to Newbury). Michael has tried many things to get out of this cycle ride over the last couple of months- a broken bike chain, a nasty knee injury, and even a new baby, but on Wednesday morning he got up, looked out of the window, decided it looked like a dry day, so set off! What Michael's quick look out of the window hadn't told him was that there were gale force winds outside! Nevertheless he battled on and arrived at work just under 4 hours after setting off - quite a commute!
