Challenges

Well tomorrow is the Cycle Marathon at Fit for Free Gym in Speke Liverpool. They have been so helpful - they have two bikes in reception and the plan is to keep them going from 7am to 11pm. People taking part are asked to make a donation of however much, it's up to them. They are also offering any non members that take part free use of the gym for the day, and if you want to join just mention my name and Claire's Wish and you won't have to pay a joining fee :-)

So lets hope it's a good day all round! The next event is a rowing challenge and that's on July 27th, the same again need to keep it going from 7 to 11. People can sign up for half hour or 1 hour slots. So if anyone is up for a challenge come along and sign up, it's all for a fantastic cause :-)

http://www.fitforfree.co.uk/

Time Flies

Where have the last few weeks gone? I didn't realise it's been over two weeks since I wrote on here...whoops.

Anyway, last weekend Clive and I went the Lakes again, and guess what... it rained all weekend till it was time to go home Sunday lunchtime :-( We tried the Western Lakes where we've never really been before. We stayed in a little village called Boot, it was gorgeous, Clive chose the bed and breakfast which conveniently had a beer festival on and of course the England match on a 100-inch screen, how strange he chose that one.

The rain didn't stop us from walking though, obviously because it was so wet we couldn't do any serious climbing. As some of you may know I am not save on my feet at the best of times, so anyway we were up bright and early Saturday morning and out walking for 9am. Which is excellent going for Clive especially as it was a Saturday.

We were in the Eskdale Valley where there's a walk around the river - you can either do the flat walk or there is detour with a small climb up to the waterfalls. Of course with us being backward we started the walk at the end, so we got a little confused, well Clive did he seems to be loosing his sense of direction as he's getting older. We had walked a fair few miles when we realised we had come off the footpath. We came to a point where we had to cross the river, there was a  shallow bit with rocks, it was either try cross it there or walk back and retrace our steps. Clive went for trying to cross the river - it's all right for him he has long legs, I'm not that lucky. But amazingly after a lot of balancing on one leg and stretching as far as my legs would go I made it safely across the other side with my feet still nice and dry :-) Job well done to me I think. Luckily enough when we got across there was a sign for the waterfalls so we were back on track. Off we went up to the waterfalls, this was a very slippery path, and in some places quite steep and you had to walk close to the edge, so this tested my fear off sheer drops (well not that sheer but a start). The path up to the falls also includes bridges that criss-cross across the river and the waterfall. They were stunning views and even in the rain it looked just beautiful. As we got the next to last viewing point, there was a warning on the bridge that the path was very steep and very slippery. We stood for a short while and watched other walkers going up an down, it was very close to the edge at some points. I lost my bottle there, I couldn't do it. Maybe I will go back again when its dry and try again. So we made our way back down and finished the walk and strangely enough we found our way back to the pub just in time for lunch and a glass or two of cider.

After lunch we walked to the next village and back so overall we did approx. 11 miles, and we didn't feel tired at the end. It was the weather that stopped us in the end, we felt like we could have walked a bit more.

New Petition

We've been thinking for a while now about what our next step will be in trying to get under 25's screened. We have come up with a petition to allow young girls between the age of 18 and 25 to be allowed to opt in to the screening programme, so if they are worried or have symptoms they should be give the freedom to choose if they want to have a smear. A lot of young girls have no problems and do not worry about it, but unfortunately also a lot of girls have problems and, as we know, they cannot get screened.

Last year when we had our meeting with Professor Kitchener we talked about the possibility of having an opt in system for these girls, he said it was mentioned at the review board in 2009 but not everyone agreed to it so it was just left! So now we have started a petition to get the government to allow these girls the choice, and if they get that smear and it comes back abnormal it should be up to the girl if she wants to have any treatment, it's her life, her body, so it should be her decision. They have not shown any evidence that treatment causes fertility problems or miscarriages, but isn't a long life without a baby better than a life ending at 23?! I read somewhere on one of the various research papers I've read over the last few years, I think it was one of Dr Redman's papers, that it's not the actual smear that does any harm it's the treatment that is required after if the smear comes back abnormal. Again, that should be the woman's choice, her decision, nobody elses!!!

So please sign our petition and share it with all your family and friends. We are also running a handwritten petition along side it. If anyone would like to get signatures please contact me, either on Facebook Claire's Wish or email me claireswish@sky.com.

Back On Track

Last weekend we took Megan and Millie to the Lakes for the day - we need to keep walking every weekend to keep up with the training. So we thought it would be a good idea to get the girls involved in it and get them walking too. What a fantastic day we had! The girls walked their little legs off. Especially Millie, she's such a little star, she really is, and she is such a little poser. I'll post some pics below. They are growing up way too fast. They loved the Lakes and can't wait to go back.

Also last week I slacked a bit on the exercise :-( but I'm back on track this week. I've been to the gym a few mornings, and walked to work too after :-) My friend Fran who I go with is super fit and a lot of her enthusiasm has rubbed of on me. I have a lot to thank her for - she inspires me some days to go that bit further. She talked me into going for a jog last night after work, I thought it can't be that bad I'm doing okay in the gym. How wrong was I, shit it was hard work. After about 5 minutes Fran was running and chatting at the same time, as for me I was gasping for breath!!! Oh dear I have a long way to go yet. It's made me realise just how much more I have to do. But I didn't let it dishearten me, in fact its made me more determined to carry on. I suppose exercising in the gym is totally different from doing it outside. So over the weekend I will try another jog.

Poor Clive hasn't been able to do anything this week, hes not been well and he's had this nasty virus going around. I was skitting him at first saying it was man flu, feel a little guilty now because he really has been unwell, but he's feeling better today just in time for the girls coming tomorrow.

We've got a busy weekend ahead, with the charity market on Monday, the girls are helping on that. We also need to get some walking in too, as Megan and Millie are going to be doing The Race for Life on 9th July, might take us all day with Millie, but she will do it!