Update

A quick note to say my challenge for Luca has come to a temporary halt with a very annoying niggly foot injury that i cannot seem to shake.  The 14/14 challenge was made impossible by this but as they say, you cant keep a good man / woman down and will be back and carrying on as soon as I am able ………..for the lovely Luca xxx

The new challenge begins………..

Well – it has actually begun and my timekeeping with regards blogs has not improved!!! 14 half marathons in 2014 – started in January and you can follow my progress here………..Not looking forward to this!!!

End of the 10k tour of the UK for 2 legs for Luca ……

Post Newport – week 69, run 69!!! – the final week of my challenge

Well – this is over a week late in the writing and I suspect it is in some ways because I can’t believe / don’t want to believe, it is all over.

My last run was in Newport and was really down to the organisation of Chris Davies and the Lliswerry runners. He organised for me to run a 5k before the official parkrun on Dec 21st so that I could total 10k. I was joined by a number of friends and family at 8am including Luca’s very lovely aunty and also Llewelyn – photographer and Santa extraordinaire. The atmosphere was distinctly festive and there were many costumes as well as Luca T shirts present. The run itself was entirely forgettable for me! I had been ill all week (again!) and had managed one proper meal before the run – I was absolutely running on empty and I had to keep on an on saying Luca’s name in my head in order to keep myself going. Fortunately, Luca (and Zack, Sian and Mo) had all come to cheer us on (well, this is what I kept telling myself whilst watching Luca totally engrossed in any computer game on offer!!!)

I was so so glad that there was a break at 5k and Chris announced my challenge to what must have been around 200 runners for the official parkrun. Everyone was lovely – thank you especially to Ruth Phillips who ran with me a lot of the first 5k as it was really only a trot for her. Thank you also so much to Janice Chappell – who is one of the loveliest people I have ever worked with and who despite knees that should never really be run on, put in the training and ran with me most the way (except when I couldn’t keep up!) all for Luca.

Thank you also for Kerry and Jorja Grace – not only for running with me but for allowing me to go over the line ahead of them when I know that both could have easily run very good times if they hadn’t been running for me and for Luca.

After the run, we all assembled in the coffee room and sang carols. It was an amazing day. My very very lovely work had turned out in their millions (well it felt like it) and run the last 5k of my challenge with me. They had also brought a cheque to donate a great deal of money to Luca’s funds and presented it to me at the carol singing (actually they had to try twice as the first time apparently they made a lovely speech and then when they asked me to come up, I was absent, having taken my niece to the toilet! great timing from Jorja and me!!) Anyway, I cannot thank them enough, not just because of their donation but also because of their interest along the way, their support and their team spirit – I count myself as very lucky to have found them! Additionally – the girls at work had donated to Luca instead of giving Christmas cards and their generosity, support and interest has also meant a great deal.

The generosity of the Lliswerry and parkrunners was humbling – both in spirit, in donation and in their welcome. At one point I remember just looking at the scene – Luca and Zack playing on the floor, everyone chatting, Nas collecting donations, mam looking for her “lost” camera (wouldn’t be a scene without it!), Dad doing well to cope in a noisy busy atmosphere that is a nightmare for anyone who is partially hearing and using hearing aids as those of you who suffer will appreciate. I also was accompanised by my best friend from school who has been an absolute star supporter of both me and of Luca(as she pointed out – we had not seen each other for 20 yrs and then we have seen each other 3 times in as many months – all down to Luca!) Her husband had trained especially for the 10k and ran with me for both – unbelievable commitment – again inspired by Luca. Gareth Andrews, my friend from climbing Kilimanjaro also made the effort to come from Bridgend to run the 8am and 9am runs – so appreciated.

We all left Tredegar House on a high – an amazing end to the challenge and an amazing start to Christmas. In the evening, my family had an awesome quiet gathering with Luca and his family – I shall never ever forget that night and the amazing gift and the lovely words spoken by Mo – it has has been a pleasure and an honour to join them in their journey towards securing Luca’s future.

On Boxing day, I was allowed to do a lap of honour at Rodney Parade at half time in the Dragons vs Blues match. This was special for so many reasons. I am indebted to Mark Jones and Mike Sage who arranged this and let me and 4 “hands” (Meryl, Mo, Nas and Kerry) take over the pitch at half time. The reception was awesome, the programme write up was lovely (thank you Phil James) and the match was amazing. I cannot believe you let us do this for Luca and both he and Zack had an awesome time – you are all complete stars. It went in a blur – mostly because I was trying to keep up with Jorja Grace who seems to have developed into an athelete over this last year!

I got to share this occasion with Luca and Zack and their family and this made the ending of the challenge even more special.

Over the last 69 weeks I have met so many lovely people, re-met many long lost friends and felt the true support of having a close family nearby. I would like to especially thank the following and any omissions are genuinely unintentional. So here goes – many many thanks to the following:

Keiron O’Donovan – physio at Jump in Manchester, for helping me prepare for this challenge. The poor soul must have got fed up with my repeated contacts with new injuries whilst I was in training. I remember clearly the day he told me that some of my many aches and pains were actually a result of training and not the fact that I had truly injured something – his reassurance and help with rehab set me on the right path and I used his teaching throughout.

Mam and Dad, Kerry, Paul and JG – your love, support, transport, maps, guidance, word games, pronunciation, comments on trees, traffic cones, life and the universe, have totally kept me going. Especially thanks to Paul for driving me at weekends when he drives all week for a living and could probably have done without it.

I truly don’t believe I would have made it to the end of the challenge without all of you.

Sarah and Geoff Banks thank you for your support and hospitality and run accompanying – so glad I found you! Tracey James and all the partners and staff at work – amazing support on all levels.

Steve Prosser – my awesome masseur – definitely kept me together physically and mentally!

Wendy Guppy, Lisa Jayne Ryall, Nic Rodriguez, Jenny Finch and Kim Owen – your constant supportive comments and your words of encouragement from start to finish really helped me to keep going.

Kim Gregory, Helen Gadsden, Lisa Wiles, Matt Cawson and Aunty Vi for your help with accomodation, driving me to places and accompanying me on runs – you were and are spectacular!

Tracy Pinder for all her help with ideas and advice for advertising my challenge.

Johnny Leota – one of the loveliest guys I have ever had the pleasure to work with – thank you for growing your hair, shaving it like Mr T and going over the try line with your hand raised for Luca on TV – you are truly a good man

Special thanks to Lliswerry Runners and particularly Chris Davies for giving up so much time and effort to arrange my last 2 x5k 10k run! Without them we could not have done it and with them it was festive, awesome, filled with lovely people, welcoming and completely memorable.

Danny and Nia Lydiate for your unfailing support both before the challenge and during it (that goes for Jemma Gustafson and Natasha Louca Jones too!)

Rhod Gilbert for advertising my challenge on his radio show and also on his web page and Wynne Evans for buying my T shirts for me at the beginning of the challenge.

The South Wales Argus, Wales online and Wales on Sunday for helping with raising the profile of my challenge.

Healthspan for your bursary helping me to fund the challenge and also for all running with me in Bristol.

Leicester Tigers for allowing me to run round the pitch at half time and also Tigers Images for the amazing photo of me and JG – haven’t looked that young for 20 years!!!

Richard Parks for being my best friend ever and also for laughing at me on a regular basis after he made me run my first ever 10k nearly 2 years ago and was there to hear me say I would never ever do anything like that again!

Finally to Mo Syed, Sian Williams, Naseem Syed Luca and Zack – thank you for allowing me to be part of your life – it has been an honour and an privilege to have met you and to played a small part. Your gift is on my wall in pride of place. I hope you will allow me to continue to accompany you on your journey – love to you all.

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark

PS – I SADLY DIDNT REACH MY CHALLENGE TOTAL OF £69,000 – I therefore have to keep going until I do – more details to follow! …………………………………………………………………………………………

Post Wells – week 68, run 68 !!!

From this foto I can really see how tired I am and also how against all the rules of regular exercise, I appear to have put on a stone since I started this challenge. If I had any energy left I would be particularly cross about that but to be honest I will just have to let it go and go and get my pack of revels…..ah, now that might be where I have gone wrong!!!

Well, the penultimate week is done! Oh my gosh – I cant believe this is nearly finished. I was 47 when I started this challenge and I am now 49 – at least it has been a worthwhile use of my last 69 weeks I must say!

Anyway, this week was Wells. It was a “there and back” in one day with Mam and Dad. I left it till near the end as I am really tired now and it is close. Well actually it was supposed to be close. I was trying to make less noise in the car to stop irritating dads hearing aid (just the one hearing aid – he should be wearing two but that is a whole other story – dad if you are reading this – MAKE THE APPOINTMENT!!! – you can’t escape me just because I am not at your house!)

Anyway, I turned the lady’s voice off on my sat nav and began the usual chat with mam and before long had sailed (well driven) straight past my turn off – doh! That added some time to our journey but the weather was fab and we were in good moods (mam and dad probably because the poor souls have sat in the car with me regularly for between 2 and 5 hours over the last year and they were probably secretly pleased this was only just over the hour – or was supposed to have been)

We got to Wells and found a car park where the meters were not working – result! Mam verbalised how little it worried her that we had not paid and no one else appeared to have paid or left notes in their windows – in fact she verbalised it so many times that I realised how worried she was…………

I left her and dad to shop and I ran – first half I misjudged and included some inclines (Kerry where are you when I need you) but the second half was properly flat. I ran to Kerry’s music to try it out – I can see why she shoots out from the starting blocks!! (well apart from talent!) it was much faster than my music – Kerry says it makes her go faster – it just makes me feel mutinous and stick to the slowest possible pace that would not be classed as walking.

I was in less pain as I had “Andrew ACE feet in motion orthotics” in – loving your work Andrew – – no numb painful toes for me this week – and the heel pain was less – yay! I wouldn’t say I enjoyed the run but it was definitely an improvement on St Asaph in terms of pain

I finished and we went to a Greek Taverna for lunch, did a bit of shopping in the cheap shop mam and I love so much and then bundled into the car home having avoided any penalty charges as predicted we would. Could almost hear mam’s sigh of relief.

Well the journey home was interesting. After half an hour we were still 50 miles from home courtesy of my sat nav that had taken us the scenic and cross country and longest route home imagineable. Fortunately I had the good company of mam and dad and a lovely day to drive in.

I was sad again this week as this is the last trip with my mam and dad and this year has really been a treasure of journeys with my family making the challenge so much easier to complete

So many people have been so lovely to me – very supportive and encouraging and I am hoping that next week, my end run in Newport will have a lot of people that I can say thank you to and will include the young man himself – Master Luca Williams – roll on run 69 of 69 in 69 weeks – shame about the £69,000 target not being reached but will def be working on that over the year to come……………

Post St Asaph – week 67, run 67!!!

In case you haven’t noticed – I have missed a week. Last weekend Mam, Dad and I went to visit my Aunty who has Parkinson’s. My Uncle died whilst I was doing this challenge and we try to visit my Aunty in Liverpool as often as we can. This is why I had “banked” a run in the Cambridge week so that we could visit Aunty Vi as I had no annual leave left.

Anyway, this was a tough run but I was in lovely company so it didn’t matter. I had a week of doing nothing in particular except working but I did manage to stay off the revels, ice lollies and any other rubbish for 5 whole days – result (the weekend didn’t carry on in that fashion though!)

My lovely brother in law drove us all to St Asaph on Saturday morning and was in a very good mood considering the main topics of conversation were my Kitten’s impending loss of his “man bits” and my sister and I comparing and contrasting and commiserating about various menopausal symptoms. Poor Paul must have wondered what had hit him – he didn’t bother trying to stop us (especially after hearing about the variety of symptoms we both were sharing including extreme intolerance!!!!!)

We got to St Asaph and it was basically shut! It was a lovely and very, very, very tiny City which Paul and Jorja explored (twice) whilst we ran. Kerry and I popped into a local pub to use the toilet and the manager kindly let us. We gave him a card outlining my challenge for Luca and he said the pub donate to a charity each week and that this week it would be to Luca – how lovely and amazing was that?

I had unfortunately left work on Thursday in a hurry and left to go to St Asaph on Saturday also in a hurry. This meant that unfortunately I had to run without 1) my knees taped 2) my proper trainers and 3) my orthotics 4) my normally positive frame of mind (ha ha!) . If I was ever in doubt as to the effectiveness of any the above (excepting point 4 which has never really arisen!) , this run proved that they have, in combination saved my challenge (personally I think the orthotics have been my best ever buy!! – also worth visiting Andrew at ACE just for his entirely unique and very funny take on life and the Universe!)I was in total pain every step of the way – my painful numb toes returned, my plantar fasciitis raged, both Achilles cried out to stop and my calves, unused to no orthotics both tightened up to a point of pain – did I complain???? Of course I did! every step of the way!! So sorry Luca – I really don’t do much in the uncomplaining manner you do!

Kerry totally kept me going – she looked lovely and relaxed (she wasn’t but is better at ignoring her pain than I am and complains less!) and stayed with me all the way (apparently because her luminous t shirt would protect me from oncoming cars in the failing light – nice of her to try and put it like that!)

We ran a relatively ok route for the first half but it had too many hills and for the second half wemanaged to find a flat route which we completed a “there and back” on (with a detour up a lovely flat path that turned out to be someone’s sweeping drive (twice)!)

After the run we got into the car and our chauffeur (Paul) took us to Colwyn Bay to the same guesthouse as we stayed for the Bangor 10k all those months ago. It was lush. I spent an hour in the bath and then we walked down to the “Toad” to eat – oh my gosh it was absolutely fab – we were starving and ate the most awesome food (too much) and drink.

The starter was the most amazing Portobello mushroom dish and as Kerry descended into a world of gourmet pleasure, she sighed so forcefully through her nostrils that she blew the candle out – we didn’t laugh at all (no really – we didn’t Kerry – don’t worry!)

We had a lovely walk along the front back to the guesthouse and I roomed with Jorja Grace. She was very gracious in telling her parents we had had a good night together when in fact she had let me have the window open (which she didn’t want) and she then had to put up with me when I fell asleep mid conversation (again!) We did have quite a bit of fun trying out various gym moves (forward rolls etc, backward headstands etc ) before I finally fell asleep so at least I was mildly good company for a (very) little time!

This morning we got up and had a lush, lush breakfast and were driven home by the chauffeur again – we managed to stay awake for most of the trip but didn’t exactly entertain with our level of chat.

This was our last mini adventure as a family and it was really quite sad. It was also a fab weekend so thank you to Kerry Paul and Jorja Grace – luv you all xxx

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark

Post Exeter week 65, run 66!!!

Well here we are again! A busy week and then the luxury of being driven by my brother in law to Exeter and the company of my sister running with me as well as the super support of Jorja Grace and her witty repartee! In addition to this it was a “there and back” journey which meant that I had a free day at the weekend – I have been ridiculously excited when this has happened over this last 66 weeks as I have had so few and they have become particularly precious (especially now I have a (very lovely) new job that is full time and really quite tiring).

The journey down was fine and we found a parking place and got changed. During my attempt to remove my hoody I unfortunately got stuck in it. I had forgotten to undo it and it got to that difficult point where it would not move on or off. I waited and waited with my arms in the air for Kerry or Paul or Jorja to rescue me and put me out my misery. After some time struggling in the middle of a public car park I eventually rescued myself. I had been wondering what had happened to my lovely family and when the hoody came off I realised that instead of helping me they had filmed and taken pictures of the entire embarrassing event whilst crying laughing. These photos I am sure will be added to the “photos of Aunty Dee looking like a complete banana” album. Thanks guys – glad you all had a proper belly laugh on me!!!

Once everyone had recovered, Kerry and I set off – I was very very grateful to her for coming with me on this run as she was carrying an injury and really shouldn’t have run – neither of us felt like it but we kind of pushed each other on and eventually finished (stopped to take a pic of the lovely waterfall on the way round and also changing our route every time the gradient looked in danger of moving anywhere away from “dead flat”!)

This led to Mam’s text afterwards saying “interesting route” – I felt pretty proud that we had managed to run avoiding almost every incline – one up for the lazy runners!!!

We had a lovely meal (funded by the bank of mam and dad) in a Harvester and then wended our weary way back (Kerry stiffened up very nicely on the journey home which I was suitably empathetic about – i.e I laughed at her attempts to walk) I feel this was an appropriate reaction after being filmed stuck helplessly in my hoody!

This weekend is a rest weekend and next week starts the 1st of my last 3 runs for Luca -watch this space! ……

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark

Post Brighton – week 64, run 65!!! THE END IS NIGH!!!

Well it has been a hard week. Working very long days at work alongside meetings meant that the revels diet (temporarily swapped to twix pieces and chocolate covered popcorn) made a very big comeback. Most days i managed to finish work, come home and eat rubbish, have a bath and go to bed. Almost forgot to feed the lovely kitten at onee point – all very stressful. OH, BY THE WAY – NEVER TRY TO WRITE A BLOG WHILST THE KITTEN IS SHARING YOUR DESK – THIS HAS TAKEN ME HOURS!

Any way, this all meant that i decided to get the train to Brighton as i really did not have the energy to drive. I was obviously a little the worse for wear memory wise as yesterday morning i rushed around like a mad thing, cancelled a meeting and rushed saying goodbye to Willow Pumpkin Seed in order to get to the train station by 12.30. I managed this with time to spare …..only to realise that my train went at 13.40 – i therefore spent an hour “relaxing” before the train actually went! Not the best start…

Fortunately things got better – i was picked up from the station by my lovely friend Sarah and her husband Geoff (yep the friend i haven’t managed to see in 20 yrs has now been seen twice – thank you Luca!) We went to see Sarah’s mam whom i hadn’t seen for about 20 yrs either which was totally fab and then we went out for dinner. I met the lovely Stefan and Lewis and had a cwtch with the rather cute Honey and with Willow (not of the pumpkin seed variety) and went to bed (rather late after some more reminiscing over school photos). Sarah’s mam had provided a bed and a quilt and pillow so i was totally sorted!

This morning i got tea in bed and then got driven to the start of the run. The weather was ideal for a run (especially if you are a proper runner appreciating such things – unfortunately i am still in the “i don’t like running” frame of mind – still 4 more runs to do so guess my mind might change?!)

Anyway – the run was lush – fast and flat – unlike me!!! I managed around 65 minutes which wasnt too bad although that was my last organised run for Luca so i never managed to break the hour mark. Geoff then drove me to the railway station and i wrote the draft of this blog on the train wending my way wearily home.

This weeked Luca was 5. The fotos look like he had an amazing party. He was 3 when i started this challenge and it is amazing how time has flown. He and his parents and brother have made such progress and it has been a pleasure to be a small part of their journey.

I have also realised how blessed I am to have such a lovely family (however dysfunctional we all are at times!) and also what a great set of friends I have always had but never truely appreciated.

This week the lovely Rhod Gibert also advertised my challenge for Luca on his facebook page – an amazing gesture by a very lovely man for an equally lovely young man – thank you xxx

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark

Post Cambridge and Peterborough, week 63 runs 63 and 64!!!

Well i am obviously getting worse and worse at this time management thing! I am on the train home from having done my Brighton run and am just writing about Cambridge and Peterborough – am getting very tired and more and more disorganised!

This was the last long trip with my mam and dad and i have to say they were mostly very well behaved!!!

This was shown before we left when i went to the garage to pump up my car tyres and mam managed not to comment on the fact 2 of them had only 18 lbs of pressure in them – i spotted the look on her face as i was pumping them up and congratulated her on her self control a couple of miles later – Dad gave the game away by telling me that she had pointed it out to him in the quiet of the car before i got back in so she was found out though!

The journey to Cambridge was very slow and we were late leaving due to (you have guessed it!) work. We were a little subdued. Not sure why but I guess we are all quite tired by the challenge now. We had a last minute panic when we appeared to be going in the wrong direction to the hotel but this was sorted by a precarious stop on the hard shoulder and mam reassuring herself she had read the post code correctly. Our conversation ranged through the usual, including bizarrely this time mam reporting that she had bought me a tin of Roast Stoat for Sunday lunch. I wasn’t quite sure what to make of this – it appears it is a variation on my usual Mock Duck (vege meat stuff) mixed in with a bit of MS interpretation………….

We got to the hotel which reminded me of one of those American motels in the middle of a desert with nothing else around for miles (only this was in the middle of the A14 so not quite the same – but you get the picture…)

The hotel was lush and even better we were allowed to get takeaway and eat it in the dining room which we did on the first evening. We then went to bed and we had a lovely lie in on Saturday morning, We drove to St Ives and then got the Busway to Cambridge – this was an exciting mix of a bus on the road and then a bus on a railway line (doesn’t take much to get us excited!!!)

We got off the train and we deposited mam and dad in Starbucks to have coffee whilst i legitimately changed having classed myself as a customer. I then ran by the River Cam and only got caught in the mildest rain. I made my way back and met Mam and Dad (via Starbucks for coffee and use of toilets to change – again) and we then ventured into Cambridge for some retail therapy. We bought crepes and a hot dog and stood eating them in a random doorway. We know how to eat in style our family !!!

I found some lovely new boots for work and tried them out in addition to my particularly fetching outfit of waterproof running trousers and puffa coat – again classy comes to mind!

We looked around Jesus College grounds and then returned “home” on the (exciting) Busway via M and S for a grand supper that we were able to heat and eat in the dining room – we couldn’t quite get over that fact!

It was an early ish night after Wales v South Africa featuring my amazing backer, Danny Lydiate – (iss you both dreadfully Danny!) and a bit of Strictly (especially for Dad!)

Next morning was a leisurely breakfast then a drive to Peterborough. I ran randomly round pretty much in circles (large ones) and ended my run with a “photo shoot” of me on the floor posing with the Peterborough map in a shopping centre (slightly difficult to get back off the floor I must say – knees and feet suffering badly these days!!!

We met a lovely lady called Jane who asked about my challenge (apparently lying on the floor for a photo is kind of attention drawing!) who turned out to be a massage therapist (really could have done with her) but who stopped to chat to mam re my challenge and Luca’s cause. Have met so many lovely people doing this challenge who have offered up time and money totally spontaneously – see how you inspire so many people lovely boy.

We popped into Asda for food and Pets at Home (also for food but of a different kind) and then made the long journey home.

Good things about this trip

1) Shared with mam and dad
2) Lovely hotel
3) Chance for a heart to heart with my lovely mam
4) Lovely people me
5) Mam and i have now seen the trees through all 4 seasons which has been pretty amazing
6) We had a final chat about the Michael McIntyre / Rhod Gilbert thing (see various previous trips) and mam proudly announced she had finally got the names right – this was brought on by seeing rows of traffic on the other side of the road – a part of a Michael McIntyre sketch – which was funny in itself but is even funnier when Mam puts it down to John McIntyre or Rob Gilbert or Bob McIntyre – the variations were endless and it was almost a shame that by the time we had come to the Croeso i Gymru (pronounced correctly first time!) and the Sir Fynwy (never pronounced correctly) signs, Mam had finally got both comedians named correctly. Far more entertaining the process than the result!

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark

Post Leicester – week 62, run 62!!!

Well – I am now onto the home run. After a kind of rest (well one week off and a run at the beginning of the week rather than the end ) I had only done one 5k arkrun and eaten my own body weight and a bit extra in revels and welsh cakes (my new vice) This was not ideal preparation for what was actually a pretty scary run. This week I ran in Leicester – it was extra special for so many reasons.

My lovely brother in law drove us to Leicester and Kerry and I started our 10k at Kerry and Paul’s old house and ran into Leicester to Welford Road Stadium. We passed loads of great places – Kerry’s old Uni, Jorja’s old nursery and other memory provoking sites including a bus stop – don’t ask! (it’s not dodgy though!). Kerry ran very well despite falling over the kerb (twice!) and I found it hard to keep up (she wasn’t running deliberately fast mind) -I also kept looking at her easy running style very enviously! Mine is a whole new level of odd looking.

We then went back to our hotel and changed. Chris Rose (media manager at Leicester Tigers) had arranged for me to run a lap of Welford Road at half time during the Leicester Tigers vs Harlequins match – live on BT sport. It was an amazing gesture of his and the Tigers as they have their own charities that they work with but they thought enough of Luca’s cause to let me advertise it by running in the Stadium.

I have to say – I was absolutely and ridiculously nervous. I had warned Chris so many times that I was a slow runner that I think he became genuinely scared that I might be still on the pitch at the end of half time! I think he was secretly drawing up contingency plans in case I needed to be bundled off the pitch at short notice!

Luckily my gorgeous niece Jorja Grace came to my rescue – we not only did a timed walk of 4 lengths of the pitch (dodging supporters standing on the terraces) to make sure that I could definitely make it round the pitch during the 15 minutes of half time, but she also offered to run with me. At that point I knew I would be able to do it as I would have no doubt about who the 24,000 supporters would be looking at – and it certainly wasn’t me!

We stood freezing at half time and waiting to start. The other activities were finished and Jorja and I carried out our lap of the pitch. The supporters were amazing — clapping and cheering us both – it was really very emotional as all I could think about was that all these people would get to know about Luca! Pretty amazing thought!

Jorja and I finished on a high – we watched the second half in a bit of blur as we were so excited! After the match we went back to our hotel and had a fab supper. We all were exhausted and went to bed and had a lovely lay in on Sunday morning.

This did not stop us from falling asleep on the way home leaving Paul to drive to the sound of no conversation whatsoever – he is a long suffering soul!

Thank you so much to Kerry, Paul and Jorja for your company and support and also thank you to Chris Rose and Leicester Tigers for allowing us to publicise Luca’s cause. Finally thank you to all the Tigers and Quins fans who made us feel so welcome. Luca – we are coming to the end of my challenge for you so I am going all out to try and raise your profile

Until next week………..

http://www.justgiving.com/DeeClark