This one's for you Mum

As I haven't written about my reasons for supporting the Alzheimer's Research Trust on this blog I thought I should perhaps tell mum's story here so people understand why it's so important to me.

In 1997 my mother, then aged 81, had a series of minor strokes.  Shortly after that we started to notice behavioural changes notably memory loss and confusion over everyday items.  We thought it was just old age finally catching up with her.  Then she started wandering and had violent mood swings.  Although she already lived with us it became obvious that she couldn't be left alone for long and so I left my job to care for her. 

The next few years saw a gradual decline into the blackness that is 'vascular dementia'.  My normally placid mum became violent and aggressive.  She had psychotic incidents where she would see imaginary people (children hiding in her wardrobe, Russians sitting on the stairs, women stealing her clothes) and she would shout at them and sometimes throw things too.  She was so convincing that we used to go and check that there wasn't anyone there! 

When my sister died 7 years ago mum did not know who Judy was or that she was her daughter.  The moment I realised she no longer knew that I was her daughter was a terrible time for me.  In the last 2 years that she lived with us, life for us all became almost unbearable as she needed 24 hour care - she couldn't be left alone at all because she would either wander off or hurt herself, she never slept for more than 30 minutes at a time during the night, she became incontinent and incapable of doing anything for herself. 

Finally my husband and I realised that we could no longer provide her with the care that she needed and she went to live the last few months of her life in a home for the "elderly mentally inform" or EMI unit where Harry and his team did a splendid job caring for her.  There she lived a zombified existence unaware of who she was, what she was or where she was.  It was heartbreaking.  She died in March 2005, the day after her 89th birthday. I've been running marathons in her memory ever since.

Thank you for taking the time to read mum’s story.

A question of bad taste?

A huge thank you to the fantastic staff of South East Water who raised an amazing total of £257.87 through their April cake day. As well as the sale of cakes a 'bad taste' day was also held where staff entered a competion for the most clashing outfit! The day resulted in a feast of colours (which to a colour magnet like me is not necessarily bad taste) and some great stories.

Cindy (pictured here in the fab 70's outfit) was brave enough to performed a courier run on the day in her outfit which resulted in extra donations from the staff and customers at her coffee stop!!!

This has given me some ideas for our event on the Isle of Wight in the next couple of weeks but I'm not sure how many of my great volunteers will still want to collect with me if I suggested we draw even more attention to ourselves!

A big personal thanks from myself to my very good friend Simone Ruddle for putting us forward and organising the bad taste day as well as to South East Water for their generous support. Sarah

What's it all about?

I found this on You Tube and it moved me and made me remember why we're doing all we can to raise awareness of this dreadful disease. Susie

O Captain! My Captain!

With apologies to Walt Whitman but you'll understand why that title came into my head in a moment.

I knew little about bikes except that they have a seat, handlebars, pedals, brakes and gears. I knew even less about tandems and I confess that the new terminology made both Mike and I giggle - the rider at the front of the bike is called the 'Captain' and the rider on the back is called the 'Stoker'. I had visions of shovelling coal into the furnace of a steam train!

Training begins

After the first tentative ride we made the decision to proceed with the madness so that meant we had to try a ride slightly longer than the end of the lane and back.

For our next outing, Sarah brought her bike too so she came out with us. Mike had somehow wangled it that he was working so couldn't join us! I have to admit that I was really rather scared about this first proper ride as it is very hilly where we live, no matter which way you go and the idea of struggling up those hills filled me with dread. There was nothing for it but to just head off and I chose a round trip of about 5.5 miles which included some killer hills (both up and down).

As we headed through the village it seemed as if half the population had decided to go for a walk so there were lots of heads doing a "double-take" as we sped by and I waved and shouted "hello" to them! They are used to seeing me running along the lanes but this was an entirely new thing.

The hills were jolly hard work and I huffed and puffed but I found that when we'd reached the top I recovered quickly. The thing that really did scare me was going downhill - oh my goodness the speed of it! I did feel safe with Paul though as he is obviously a very experienced rider. When we got back home I felt as if I could have gone further.

The next outing was a couple of weeks later and Paul came alone. I should have been suspicious immediately. I'd planned a nice little 10 mile route which involved a main road (not too busy though) so I could experience the cars whizzing past. As Mike waved us good-bye we headed off up a steepish hill and when we got to the top Paul revealed his dastardly plan to visit Rye, which is about 12 miles away. I did not have kind thoughts about Paul at that moment!!!

Off we went and for the first few miles I spent all the time looking over Paul's right shoulder so I could watch out for potholes etc. This probably upset the balance of the bike but Paul was very tolerant. The cars really whizzed past us and some of them came far too close which I am used to from running. As we arrived in Rye we caught sight of the wind turbines and it really was a stunning sight (although I suspect that some people might disagree). As we came out of Rye we went up the steepest hill ever and it was jolly hard work. At one point I had to stifle a giggle as we were going so slowly, and must have looked jolly comical, and it reminded me of a scene from the film 'Babe, Pig in the City' where Mrs Hoggett rides a comedy bike in her search for Babe! Then, instead of heading for home we went off to Hastings, up hills, down hills, cars whizzing past, bumping through potholes (ouch).

By the time we got back home and Paul checked the mileage we had travelled 32 miles. I was pleased that I felt OK afterwards with only a slight stiffness on my quads and more importantly I've overcome my terror of riding in traffic (well, almost).

The first meeting!

Here are Sarah and Paul in a photo taken by my husband, Mike, who is always the leading light in my support team, no matter what I do.

I was very nervous and excited all rolled into one on the morning they first visited. They were due at 12pm so a about 11am I rushed up to the village shop to get a newspaper. As I went through the door there were two strangers, a man and a woman, leaving and I wondered if it could be them. Then I was really worried because the man was about 7' tall and thin as a bean-pole and I wondered how on earth my little legs would keep up with the pedalling!!! So it was a huge relief when they arrived and were normal sized and very nice people too (I knew Sarah would be nice because she likes bunnies!).

After a spot of lunch and a getting-to-know-oneanother session it was time to face the bike. So here it is, the tandem itself. It's not a sight you see every day!



I had no idea what to expect, which is probably just as well. I did know that I was nervous about riding on the road and prayed that there wouldn't be any traffic or neighbours passing by to see me fall off.

Here Mike captured the moment we pedalled off along the lane. After a few yards of not being sure exactly what was going on I settled down a bit and it really wasn't as bad as I expected. We had to ascertain if it would be possible for me to actually sit up and knit whilst pedalling as that was still an unknown so I had to be brave and try it. It was OK and I knew then that we could do it and so our fate was sealed!

How it all began - Susie's Story

I hadn't intended to do any extreme knitting in 2009. Oh no, not me, running the London marathon twice whilst knitting was more than enough! However, the best laid plans of mice and men often change and so it was that an email arrived in my inbox from Paul. He'd contacted me via the Alzheimer's Research Trust as he had a cunning plan - that we could perhaps do a ride on a tandem together with me as "stoker" (that's the person on the back), knitting at the same time.

Well, most sensible people would have read that and thought "don't be ridiculous!" but not me. Instead I read and re-read the email and thought "Hmm, what an intriging idea". I'm not entirely sure what this attitude says about me but I was willing to have a go.

Now there are 3 things you should know about my relationship with bicycles:

i) I hadn't ridden one since I was about 11 years old.
ii) I had never ridden on a road in heavy traffic and the thought scared me to death.
iii) I have never had the slightest desire to become a cyclist let alone cycle whilst knitting!

The other thing that worried me was Paul's reasons for doing this - I've been approached by several people who are attracted to the idea of gaining a Guinness World Record more than to the fund-raising side of things. Whilst the GWR is very nice, it is not my reason for doing the "extreme knitting" stunts. What it does is gain valuable publicity and has given me opportunities to talk about the horrors of dementia.

I was also slightly worried that he might be a great deal younger than me and it would look like a young man pedalling his granny out for a ride!

I fired off an email to him and waited for his reply. Thankfully he sounded nice and ticked all the right boxes so several emails later we realised we had to meet up to see if the idea would work in practice.