Story
Back in August my wonderful Dad passed away from Parkinson's related Dementia symptoms.
Passing at 80 is no great tragedy but the last few years had been extremely difficult as Dad battled with the challenges and indignities of Dementia. The skier, tennis player and resourceful engineer was left unable to even lay the table. Throughout though his spirit and humour remained!
To celebrate my Dad's life and raise funds for the care of Parkinson's patients I will be competing in the 2011 Devizes to Westminster Canoe Race.
My paddling partner Mike Tushaw and I will be undertaking this Canoe Marathon of 125 miles with 77 portages (this means we have to pick our boat out of the water and carry it around a lock 77 times) over a 24 to 26 hour period from Midday Saturday 23rd April to some point on Sunday 24th April - non stop.
The route starts as the name suggests in Devizes in deepest Wiltshire on the Kennet and Avon Canal joining the Thames at Reading and then on to the Tidal Thames at Teddington before finishing at Westminster.
Its a mammoth physical undertaking in a small "Canadian" Canoe, experience of which Mike and I have very little! In fact we only got the boat in November and only started in any type of canoe in October! Most of our October training consisted of swimming back to the boat as we came to grips with balancing the thing!
Please do take a look at the pictures and video posted here on the website. There are a number of my Dad and some of Mike and I in our normal paddling habitat, 500metres max. There are also some of the boat we will be using and the video will give you a bit of an understanding of the challenge we have ahead! More to come, well less quite like the video I hope!
Anyway our primary objective, apart from finishing the race, it to raise money to support the people that care for Parkinson's sufferers. Having seen the disease at first hand the need here is massive!
So please do give generously and stay in touch with our challenge via this website or via Facebook