About my blog

CLL is the acronym for Chronic Lymphocytic Leukaemia. CLL is the most common cancer of the blood. However, unlike many other leukaemias, CLL is incurable. Innovative research is desperately needed to provide treatments which are more effective than the derivatives of chemical warfare agents currently in use. Research however costs money.

In 2009 I walked from John o'Groats in the north east of Scotland to Land's End in the south west of England. Hence the acronym JOGLE. The purpose of my walk was to make more people aware of this insidious disease and to encourage them to sponsor me by donating to the research groups I was supporting. It was a most enjoyable experience and I met some wonderful people. Together we raised over 2000 pounds for the cause. Thank you everyone!

In, 2010, the blog was being continued for those who may have be interested in following my walking holiday in Wales. This was not a charity walk.

Sadly this year, 2013, Alan Frost, a senior member of the Wednesday Loafers, our cancer support group, passed away. Many medics will tell you that CLL can be cured by a bone marrow transplant. Alan had battled with the cure for many years. More research is needed, but significant progress has been made since I started this blog.


CLL is still killing my friends. The organizations listed at the side of this blog would welcome any contributions you would like to make towards their research.

Please feel free to pass on the details of this site to anyone you think may be interested. The link is www.cancerwalker.com
_______________________________________________


Saturday, July 17, 2010

Sat 17 July

Did I suggest yesterday was hard? Forget that. Yesterday was easy. Today was hard! (For my scientific friends that is what we call a re-calibration.)
I had a great evening meal at the Grange in Capel-Y-Ffin amongst very good company, not walkers this time but horse riders. The conversations would have been completely unintelligible to me but for my almost daily visits to Hutt Valley RDA.

I got a breakfast for 8:00am but was delayed polishing my boots etc. It was well after 9:00 by the time I left the Grange. By the time I had rung Shiel (my wife) from the phone box opposite the Capel, (of -y-Ffin fame) it was about 10:00 am.

Instead of taking Tony Drake's route up the valley I took a very steep, but clear path straight onto the end of the ridge fron where it was a gradually sloping walk to Twmpa. The way underfoot was reminiscent of walking the Pennine Way above Edale.

At the top I had a chance neeting with two blokes, Brian and Ian, out on a day walk from Merthyr. Photographs may hopefully soon appear. We had a great time chatting while we walked along, putting the world to rights, and it made the climb to Waun Fach much easier for me. They left me on the walk to head down to the Grwyne Fawr reservoir. I thought I had done most of the climbing by then so I was in for a few surprises. The days had started with terrible wind and rain but gradually got better as the day wore on, but the cross wind was always pretty fierce.

To give credit to Tony Drake, today's walk must be one of the best ridge walks in Britain. If you are only carrying a day pack. However with a full camping pack, and I'm not a light packer, it was very hard work. I reached the campsite after 9 hours, absolutely knackered! Mind you it is possible some of the fatigue and sweating I have suffered since the walk might have other causes. However the 'mother node' in my neck was smaller than it's been for 20 years, after the walk.

The campsite in Crickhowell is an excellent walkers campsite but you have to be over 18 years old.

No comments:

Post a Comment