2010

For me, 2010 has been a year of celebrating being fit again after last year's operations by building up my cycling regime.

Every morning before breakfast I cycle a minimum of 18 miles (a loop via Eastleigh and back), usually 24 (extending the loop via Twyford) and frequently 30 (via Winchester).

Some weekends when the weather was good, I have taken myself off for a longer cycle (perhaps 40-50 miles around the New Forest). In the summer I cycled to Hayling Island and Poole and Studland a couple of times and once on a circular route that took in Corfe Castle and Swanage (108 miles).

And in July, I took part in the Hayling Island - Paris cycle (except it wasn't Paris but St. Malo, Rennes, Angers, Tours, Alençon, Caen), cycling 400 miles in 5 days and raising over £880 for my charity.

It was fun (and hard going at times with two days of nearly 100 miles duration and up at 5:30 each morning so we could exit the large towns before the rush hour) but I'm not expecting to repeat it in 2011. I want to go from Ho Chi Minh City (Saigon) to Angkor Wat for my next sponsored cycle but may wait until 2012 – our charity has someone cycling from Perth to Sydney next year and we'd probably both be vying for the same sponsors. I'll have to find £1700 (unless I had sponsorship of over £3575 – but I don't believe in depriving the charity of some of the donations). That way, I'll return to Asia, which I want to but Karen's not keen, and have an enjoyable (?) cycle (which Karen wouldn't want to).

Cycling in France, although I shared a room with someone my age who hadn't been on the ride before either, I didn't see much of him. There were 200 of us cycling but apart from the start each morning, we were seldom seen together. We tended to group or pair up with others who wanted to keep the same pace or take the same number of hostelry stops. I paired up with a young father from Wales, Geoff, and, although we'd been booked into different hotels at each day's destination, we met up in the evenings to eat and chat together.

The French are far more accommodating of cyclists on the road than the British, and nobody felt uncomfortable going into bars or shops in lycra. On the last day, we were in fancy dress. I had borrowed a patient gown from the hospital. Geoff wore a devil costume. At the lunch stop at Argentan, each of us visited a patisserie separately without anyone batting an eyelid. They probably thought we were just Les Fous Anglaises. On Bastille day, all the shops and cafés were closed and finding somewhere for lunch was tricky. And when we arrived at Angers that night, we were disappointed they had had their fireworks the night before. However, on the last night (a reception at Caen castle) we were treated to their fireworks which they'd kept for the weekend.

And our return from Portsmouth to Hayling island en masse with escort cars and cycle outriders was quite exhilarating.

I was re-elected secretary of Barrett's Wessex at our AGM in July.

The chairman of the national charity (Barrett's Oesophagus Campaign) came to see me for an informal meeting at which he asked if I would become a trustee and after consideration I agreed. I have my first board meeting in January. (The other trustees are well respected public figures including BUPA director and the managing director of NEXUS (who manage public private health initiatives for the government).) We have asked Lord Karzi to be our patron and our vice presidents include David Blunkett, Martyn Lewis, Dame Carol Black, Lord Turnberg … I think I'm the only one that's just plain Mr and without a long string of letters after my name but they wanted me as I “get things done”! Well, I have set up a website for the local group (www.barrettswessex.org.uk) and produced a couple of newsletters apart from my work on the national website forum where I am considered the overseer and guru for helping others come to terms with the fact they have a potentially pre-cancerous condition. (Oesophageal Adenocarcinoma is now the 5^th most common cancer, with incidences set to triple in the next 20 years, and only a one in five survival rate.)

On a few occasions this year, I have been priviledged to be a “surrogate dad” to the 9 year old daughter of a single parent friend of Karen's.

We've taken her on day trips including London and Cotswold Wild Life Park and I've taught her to tie her shoelaces, swim and ride a bike.

I have managed to get into an art class again this year where an eastern European model, Martina, has provided inspiration. I shall be putting some of my work on the art pages of this website in due course but meantime, here's a taster.

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