Remembering Samuel Harvey

Michaela-Hardy1

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page.

me amd rob are aiming to push our physical and mental abilities to the extreme in order to raise money for charities that help and support young people and their families who face the realitiy of  life with cancer. we want to give back to those who helped sam and the family deal with the diagnosis and the last few months of life.

This is by no stretch of the imagination going to be easy, many treckers dont make it to EBC due to altitude sickness and unfortunatly a small number of treckers die on the trail. 

 We are heading for Nepal and trekking up to Kalar Pattar peak - just a little bit higher than Everest Base Camp at approx 6000m (18,000ft) - where apparently oxygen levels are at half the normal percentage. We will head on to Base Camp itself after this to mingle with the hardcore climbers heading for the summit.

The trek takes anwhere between 10-15 days and temperatures can reach -20C towards the top at night.

From here we will hopefully get some great views of Everest's summit, although we are not quite hardcore or rich enough to tackle this climb....this time.

we have paid for our flights, accommodation and everything we will need whilst there out of our own pocket so you can rest asure that unlike organised trecks all donations will be going to the charities (without a percentage going to a treck organiser)

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Rob-Harvey2014

I think it's about time that I got off my backside and raised a bit of money for some of the charities that helped out Sam when he was ill with cancer...

So a trek to EBC and a little bit higher should be a decent challenge to start off with!

Please feel free to donate as little or as much as you like.

Thanks heaps!

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

Samuel-Harvey2

Thanks for taking the time to visit our JustGiving page and for all your kind donations to date.

Update 14/7/14  -  Check out the video below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BwWJy11kw70

Update 13/6/14

Well we did it!!  Everything went largely to plan and our support teams, Glynis and David, Heather and Christine, played an important part in keeping us fuelled and morale up en route.  A huge thanks to them and all the other people that played a massive part in supporting us, particularly our partners and families who had to put up with the weekends of training rides when we'd disappear for hours or even days.

To each one of you that has donated, thank you very much.  Sam would have been so pleased with your support for the charity and a cause that we talked about many times, in the hope that improved treatments and even prevention or eradication of brain tumours may result from research carried out here in West Yorkshire.

For more pictures and stories follow the link to the facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tourdeforce2014  and if you haven't donated yet, please do so, every little bit helps.  Best wishes from the Tour de Force team, Neil, Allan, Cat, Simon, Truus and Stuart.

Update 28/4/14

A lot have you have received the email with our little newsletter, thanks for responding so positively.  Things are going well and we had a full UK team ride out to Hull and back over the weekend, just to make sure we could at least do Day 1 in time to catch the ferry.  Our Minister for Sport and Carnage (Stuart) lived up to his title by taking a spectacular spill, fortunately on a quiet road and not taking anyone else out.  He receives the rubber chicken for the weekend and may well retain it for the start of the tour. 

Warning - Ear defenders must be used overnight to protect against excessive snoring (Neil, Minister of Culture).  No healthy food was consumed during the making of last weekend, except by Cat (Minister for Foreign Affairs).  Simon (Minister for Obesity) on a diet of 3 full breakfasts a day has set the early pace but is still unlikely to reach 10st.

Allan has been appointed to a dual role of Minister of Common Sense and Minister of Weather where his frequent hedge consultations, tree hugging and special wiggle dance should should bring out the sun and crowds.  Although currently absent, in France, Prime Minister Truus has made 2 final appointments, Harvey Brayshaw will become Minister for Diplomacy and Julie Cecere is Minister of Health and Gossip.

Update 30/3/14

Training still on course, nutrition will play a big part in our trip.  Stu has been at the seaside - fish, chips, mushy peas, 4 rounds of white bread and a pot of tea.  Truus, has asked for goody bag of good British curries, naan breads and other delicious treats taking over to France to aid training.  Allan has been visiting the Rupali and Bull, purveyors of curry and beer, respectively, as often as possible.  Neil continues with his usual diet of beer and red wine. Simon has been working away all week, so pub grub ruled. Cat has probably been a goody two shoes, no doubt on a fish diet in Melbourne so doing better than the rest of us.

Update 18/3/14

Thanks for all the latest birthday support.  Training was going well during the lovely March weather last week.  Unfortunately, wind caused havoc with our training at the weekend and the weather didn't help either. 

Cat's off to Australia for a few weeks and has promised to borrow a bike for frequent training sessions.  Yeah right, also Allan and Neil will be commuting regularly to and from work - yes we will.  Simon is already over 1500 miles this year, so the rest of us have some catching up to do, although Truus has probably been getting in some good rides in the lovely French sunshine.

Update 6/3/14.

Thanks everyone that supported for the beige students 60th birthday in February.  Neil and Allan have been doing rather too much training in the pub for the last few months and the task ahead is looking more daunting than ever, so some serious training is required over the next 10 weeks.  Cat is training hard but keeps getting interrupted by hen parties and weddings.  Simon and Truus are both training like crazy so will be difficult to keep up with.  Latest recruit Stuart is a bit of a dark horse and is keeping his training regime quiet.

Please keep up the support and we'll make more regular announcements now we're rapidly approaching le petit depart.

This is a team effort to raise money for BTRS across Yorkshire following our personal experiences.  Sam died 2 years ago because of a particularly aggressive brain tumour and he set the ball rolling with his first justgiving site www.justgiving.com/samuel-harvey to help raise funds for the charities that had helped him.  We said we would continue with his wishes to help fund research and support and hence this site supporting BTRS across Yorkshire.

On a Sunday morning bike ride after the announcement that Le Grand Depart would be in Yorkshire, we decided that it would be a great idea to have our own Pre Tour, Tour de Force in memory of Sam linking the two places he loved, home in Baildon and his favourite holiday spot in the French Dordogne.  The plan hatched, a serious training schedule was put together to take us up to the departure date of 24th May 2014.

The plan is to ride the 1200km over 10 days with a rest day at the halfway stage in Paris.  The team for the full ride so far are Neil Harvey (Sam's Dad, Met Consultancy Group), Allan Booth (Mr Smoothy of Rance Booth Smith, Architects), Cat Binstead (Sam's sister, Switch Thinking Ltd), Simon Chappell (Met Geo Environmental Ltd) and Stuart Humphris (old college mate).  Truus van der Wurff who lives in the Dordogne and is a very close family friend of the Harvey tribe, is meeting the team in Zeebrugge for the ride down through Belgium and France.  Its a big committment so a number of other friends hope to join for the last 5 days.  None of us have ridden over such a long distance in such a short time so the training has been important, but, fear of sore nether regions looms large in our psyche.

Your support by sponsoring us on this cycle ride will be going to a great cause.  Brain Tumours are now the single biggest killer of children in the UK and the incidence in adults is increasing.  BTRS are supporting research programmes being undertaken here in Leeds and your sponsorship could help towards finding the next big breakthrough and supporting families affected by brain tumours.

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity. So it’s the most efficient way to donate – saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

4SamHarvey

Last September a lot of people watched and were affected by the loss of Sam Harvey. I was one of them. 

Sam was diagnosed with a brain tumour at the age of 10 and after lots of treatment was given the all clear. At the time Sam was given lots of help from Candlelighters, Sargents and Macmillan cancer care charities. Sam always tried to help repay them by raising money with family and friends over the years.

In June 2011, aged 19, Sam was diagnosed for the second time in his life with a different type of brain tumour. Sam decided not to have any chemotherapy and opted for quality of life over quantity. Macmillan Cancer Support was a key charity which supported Sam and his family through the last few months raising almost £10,000 on his just giving page https://www.justgiving.com/Samuel-Harvey. People have also continued to raise money for the charity separately which includes his school mates who are tackling the Yorkshire Dales Three Peak Challenge.

I’ve decided to run the Great North Run in memory of Sam for Candlelighter’s, a childhood cancer charity in Yorkshire based at Leeds General Infirmary. I’ve chosen this charity because I would love to help promote and recognise another charity which directly impacted Sam’s life.

Raising money for charity will never heal the pain of losing a brother, it will never give you those lost memories and experiences you wish you could share together. Maybe, however it will help in a small part, to save others and allow them to share those experiences instead.  

4 Sam Harvey, forever loved and forever missed xxx 

Jennifer-Vasis

Thanks for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.

I want to do my bit for Macmillan because they are such an amazing charity supporting the families of loved ones to help them through the hardest time of their lives. I am doing this for Sam to help raise those extra few pounds that make the biggest difference to pay for nurses who are there for the hard times.

Sam has raised an incredible amount of money leaving a legacy to help others in the future. www.justgiving.com/samuel-harvey

Sam you are truly missed xx

Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.

So please dig deep and donate now.