C is for California and for Charity
My late September parkrun was at another local venue that I could cycle to — at California Country Park — in Finchampstead. The 24th September was another dry day, with the start point the far side of the lake from the main entrance. I met my daughter Anna near the car park and we followed the signs to the start area. This was to be Anna’s last run prior to London Marathon — which was one week later — and her tapering was well underway.
She loved the sections of the course on the newly re-laid paths as it had springy tarmac that provided some extra cushioning. The course was a couple of laps which weaved in and out of the forest as well the pathways. I finished in position 30th in sub 24 mins (which is pretty pacey for me) with Anna over one minute ahead. She was the fourth female finisher — and it great running form.
At the finish we caught up with a couple of team mates from my triathlon club — Karen and Rachel — who had also taken part, not forgetting Rachel’s dog Maple. There was a nice vibe to both the location and the event, and I am getting used to mindset of trying somewhere new each time, allowing a few minutes of extra time and navigate around the venue to locate the start.
And in this edition of the blog, it’s time to reveal another aspect of my parkrun alphabet challenge and that is to raise some money for charity. There are so many good deserving causes it was actually quite tricky to make a decision, and it’s always important to reflect the back story.
My charity initiative is in memory of my father-in-law Ken who died in March this year, a few months before his 90th birthday. Most of the time I have known him he has been (very happily) retired, having left a high powered finance job for a major oil company in his mid-fifties. He and his wife Rosemary had 30+ years living on the Kent coast, which became a wonderful place to visit for Louise and I with our kids, and then the grand kids, who also have a very strong relationships with G’G and GoGo.
Ken had a diagnosis of vascular dementia a number of years ago, and realising that it would be better to be nearer family, they moved to Wokingham in 2020. The last year had been a struggle to be honest, with carers required several times a day to assist with the process of daily living. Fortunately Ken was never aware of his cognitive decline and remained cheerful all the way through what was a long and gradual illness, with no prospect of recovery.
So the obvious choice of a charity to support would have been one of the Dementia charities, or alternatively Age UK who provide a wealth of resources for those who support elder folk in their later years. There are all worthy causes.
But I’d like to look at this illness through a slightly different lens and that what could be done to prevent the illness in the first place. What we now know — but didn’t ten years ago — was that Ken had an underlying heart condition that would have significantly increased the risk of dementia. It went undiagnosed until it was too late to arrest the decline.
So my charity of choice is British Heart Foundation, and in particular their research into the causes of vascular dementia. Here’s a link to the work they are doing.
I will be running (literally) the fund raising from October until I complete the parkrun alphabet challenge — support me if you can via my Just Giving page. Thank you in advance.
