The good and the bad

There have been two major items which have impacted on my attempt on La Vélo Francette, one good, one not good. Let’s concentrate on the good.

I finally opted to do the ride to raise money for charity and I had it in the back of my mind to choose Prostate Cancer UK. It is ridiculous that the testing for the disease is so haphazard. The inconclusiveness of PSA tests can lead to men in my situation (whose reading is relatively low) being diagnosed too late and conversely men whose reading is high being over treated unnecessarily.

However I have been helped so much by the Maggie’s drop-in centre at Addenbrooke’s Hospital that I had to include them too. Despite my initial cynicism the counselling I received really made a difference. If you read this Jude, thanks, and many congrats with the baby.

Andrea, the fundraiser at Maggie’s, has an infectious enthusiasm which has encouraged me. As things stand donations have topped £1700 which includes £455 raised at the weekly pub quiz in the village. People have been so kind.

I also had to decide whether to publicise this blog beyond the handful of people who were already aware of it. It includes some quite personal thoughts but after a lot of consideration I reached the conclusion that I should “publish and be damned”. I know a lot of it is pretty dull but I suppose if you have read this far it can’t be too bad.

So that’s the good, now I will explain the bad in the next blog post