Thank You Lucie



Training is a serious business,
we'll have no messing around thank you!

 Just wanted to say a quick thank you to Lucie for spending a whole evening taking pictures of The Big VMT crew. Your help is much appreciated.

Question Time

I spoke to Paul this week and asked him about how he came up with the idea of The Big Vertical Marathon Tour and how it was going so far.

Cherry: What was your inspiration to attempt a vertical marathon?

Paul: I followed Eddie Izzard’s journey closely, as he ran 43 consecutive marathons to raise money for Sport Relief. His incredible effort and determination to succeed inspired me as I’m sure it has many others. Basically I figured if he can do that, I’m sure I can do one little marathon, upwards!

So have you run a marathon before?

I haven’t run a marathon yet but I really want to at some point. I’ve run a handful of half marathons and a couple of 16-mile races but I’m really not built for running, my times are all very average.

What were your reasons for choosing Cancer Research to raise money for?

My grandma died from breast cancer when I was very young but, had the medical profession known then what they know now, we may have been given the time together to get to know each other better. My wife’s aunt was diagnosed with Perth’s disease, (an illness affecting the hip joints which is usually found in young children). She underwent multiple x-rays as part of her treatment. Unbeknown to the doctors at the time, the x-rays that she was having put her at a high risk of developing cancer from the radiation and sadly that is exactly what happened. Alison passed away aged just 8 years old from a cancer that was caused purely by lack of medical knowledge. If Alison were 8 now, she would be undergoing routine treatment for Perth’s disease and would not be at any risk. This, and thousands of stories like it are the reason Cancer Research UK is so important to us all. I believe that their groundbreaking work into all elements of cancer from diagnosis and treatment to prevention is crucial to us and we can all do our bit to help out. I’m not a very good climber, but I’m a much better climber than I am research scientist! So I’m taking on this challenge to help in the best way I can.

Cancer Research is definitely a cause close to everyone’s heart, let’s hope we beat our fund raising targets and help them carry on their great work.

So how is it going so far – from a logistical point of view?

Really well. I’ve had nothing but positive feedback from everyone I‘ve spoken to, however insane they think the challenge is! I’ve been thrilled by the generosity of everyone who has given up their time, money and resources to help us reach our goal.

What has been the best bit to date?

The best bit so far has been the realisation that I have the kindest most generous friends and family anyone could ask for. The amount of support I have received from all corners has been amazing.

And what are you most looking forward to?

I’m looking forward to standing at the top of my final climb and letting out one almighty sigh of relief that we actually pulled it off!

What about the worst bit so far?

Haven’t really had any low points. Finding out how much work is involved in organising an event like this has been a learning curve but I’ve enjoyed it all.

And what are you dreading?

I know this challenge is going to be really very hard and I’m ready for that, as is Robin. I know that my body will ache, my arms will throb and my mind will tell me to forget it and go home. But I’m dreading getting to a stage where my hands will literally not grip a hold, a stage when my forearms just won’t work anymore, a stage where it stops being about mental determination and starts to be about physical limits.

Finally, any other crazy plans for the future?

I’ve got a few ideas, but I think I’ll take a break first. All going well I’ll be graduating from the Open University next year so I need to get my head down and concentrate on that for a while.

Cheers Paul, keep up the good work!

Cherry