2012 is the year that I have decided to have a tackle the Isle of Man Parish Walk. The walk involves visiting the parish churches of all 17 parishes on the island in a specific sequence adhering strictly to international race walking rules. It is the largest participation event in the island. Last year 159 competitors completed the race out of a total of 1543 starters. This year the organisers are hoping for a record number of entries with 2012 the target.

Taking part was very much a personal challenge but one which afforded me the opportunity to raise money for my chosen charity. As a member of St John Ambulance, it was an obvious choice for me to decide to not only raise funds for them but to also raise awareness of some of the things that they do. In particular I have decided to raise funds on behalf of the Community First Responders who volunteer many hours of their time to be on call and be available to go to the aid of someone who is in need, someone who is more often than not suffering with immediate life threatening injury or illness. CFRs are despatched to provide emergency aid where needed, reassurance to the casualty and their family / friends and invaluable backup to paramedics especially in the more rural areas and at evenings and weekends.

There are many things that I could say about the service that CFRs provide but that would probably become boring. What might better demonstrate the difference that CFRs can make is the recent experiences of the footballer Fabrice Muamba playing for Bolton Wanderers against Tottenham Hotspur at White Hart Lane recently which most of all of you reading this will have heard about. Within moments of suffering the cardiac arrest Muamba was receiving CPR and was hooked up to a defibrillator. Those prompt actions certainly increased Muamba’s chances of survival and recovery and quite possibly saved his life. This is only one of the many scenarios that CFRs are trained to deal with should the need arise.

In order to provide the service that they do, CFRs need to be equipped with an extensive set of equipment. The equipment includes an AED (Automated External Defibrillator), medical gasses, airways and a wide range of bandages / dressings. Each CFR requires one of these kits and so it is obvious that the more kits that can be provided, the more CFRs can be on call ready to respond in an emergency. One CFR kit costs around £2500. The AED alone costs £1500 and a pulse oximeter £190. At the other end of the scale there are approaching 200 various bandages / dressings costing anything between 24p and nearly £1 each.

I have no idea whether I can finish the walk or how far I can get if I’m unable to. For my part, all that I want to do is raise as much money as I possibly can for this worthy cause. As well as the Parish Walk, I am also planning to compete in the Sara Killey Memorial walk which takes place on Sunday 22 April. The walk is approximately 30 miles and follows much of the same route as the Parish Walk adhering to the same race walking conditions. I will hopefully have more of an idea if what I’m capable of after this and will try to remember to post an update here after the event. Updates of the progress of all competitors of the Parish Walk will be available on their website during the event.

Please donate what you can and thank you for your support.

 

23/04/2012

I successfully completed the 31 mile Sara Killey Memorial walk yesterday in a time of 7 hours 48 mins 28 secs.

24/06/2012

Yesterday I started my first Parish Walk. Although it was dry when we started, it was very windy and the roads very damp following all of the rain that we’d had. There was also more rain forecast which meant the use of wet weather gear a bit later on in the day.

I had a good first few sectors and managed to keep a good pace going. Unfortunately, the Sloc (which is an horrendous climb) probably took its toll and this was not helped by the rain with the result that on the descent I pulled / strained my right calf muscle. I managed to struggle my way a further (I’m guessing) 6 miles to Peel (32½ miles) which was my absolute minimum target and retired there with a time of 8 hours and 7 minutes from the start. I was also delayed by about 10 minutes at the start due to flooding which meant that competitors had to filter through a location more or less single file so that would have given me an even better time.

Although I didn’t manage to go any further (and I definitely had more in me), I am extremely pleased with my pace to Peel, the sort of pace required to stand chance of cracking the full distance. Out of a total number of XXXX starters I officially finished in XXXth place.

With all of the donations made through JustGiving or in cash, I think we’ll have collected somewhere in the order of £670 for SJA Community First Responders. That’s fantastic so a big thank you to everyone who donated.

Phil.