Nearly 5 years ago, my best friends Jamie and Sarah had very premature twins, Billy and Ally. Sarah and her twin boys were very poorly indeed, dangerously so, and needed a lot of special help and medical attention. The fact that Sarah had a third healthy baby last year, and that we will soon be wishing the twins a very happy 5th birthday in March, is in no small part down to the brilliance of the Special Care Baby Unit at Borders General Hospital.
On the weekend of the twins birthday, Billy and Ally's dad Jamie, will be undertaking the 'Pedals, Paddles and Pace challenge'....
"Starting at sunrise on the Saturday, Jamie and two pals will do a cross country bike ride covering over 40 miles of Scotland’s toughest terrain and ascending over 1800 metres. For those who know the area, that is the equivalent of climbing and descending Lee Pen, then Minch Moor, finishing off with Ben Nevis and then a few more tough miles thrown in for good measure. After a night in the camper, the following day will involve a canoe trip along the length of St Mary’s Loch (anything between 3 and 6 miles depending on the conditions) finishing up with a quick hike over the hills by foot to our final destination in Traquair. We hope to be joined by some supportive friends for this final part of the challenge..."
Now, just to be clear, that's Jamie doing that, not me.
1. I'm not completely mental.
2. I weigh in at over 20 stone without a pound of muscle.
3. I can't do any strenuous exercise without getting a throbbing headache.
But, being as the family are so close to my heart, I wanted to get involved with the fund raising, so have (gulp) agreed to do the third part of this challenge too.
This entails walking up and down what the borders folk call hills, but to a fat, middle aged, home counties man, it will be 11 miles of pure hell. I tried out one of these small 'hills' once, when I was a mere 17 stones and had to crawl some of the way up, before asking for an ambulance yards from the summit thinking I was in cardiac arrest.
Those of you who know me well will know how hard this will be for me, but that's really not the important bit. The important bit is ensuring that funds are raised for the Special Care Baby Unit at Borders General Hospital. So with that in mind, please do give what you can to this great cause.
Thank you,
Nick
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