Alford Car show and a walk at Rufford Park....what's all that about then ?

It's quite easy to explain really as today myself,Mini me and Tom, my Father in law, went off to the Alford Car show this morning, whilst an hour or so later, my wife Teresa along with my daughters, set off to take park in a Leukaemia Research "Forget Me Not" walk at Rufford.

We set off for Alford at 07.50am and met up with Tom at his home on the way, then, after Mini me had decided to "jump Ship" and travel in Tom's 1972 1300 VW Beetle, we headed off in the general direction of Skegness/Mablethorpe and arrived at Alford at Approx 09.10. This was the first car show that had been held at Alford, and due in part to a rather fantastic sunny day it proved to be a very popular local event.

We parked up, set up and started to have a look around the estimated 90-100 cars on display.This was interrupted early on by a call from Teresa and the posse en route to Rufford, who had become rather lost and had found themselves heading for Doncaster!. After a riotous few mins trying to talk them back onto their planned course, they managed to get sorted and arrived at Rufford approx 10.15 where they bumped into my Mum and dad (and niece Emily...hi Em!) who had decided to come along to help them along on their 5k walk through the park.

Back at the car show we resumed our walk around, took some pictures of some of the great vehicles on show then we popped over to the George public house as we had been informed that their was an inflatable assault course to the rear of the premises.This we found, and after a little coaxing, Andy (mini me) managed to get me to have a go on it........after 3 laps of the inflatable from hell i decided that it was a great way of getting friction burns to the elbows, and so decided to retire from the fun and let Andy stay on for a few more minutes before returning to the town square.

After a rather nice lunch of Braised steak in Guinness with veg (very nice!) and a nice pot of tea, we went to the George again for a swift pint then at 2.45 we wandered over to the square for the results of the show, raffle draw and results of th colouring competition (Andy did not win this, so to save any more complaints from him on the subject nothing more will not be said!).

We did not win the raffle (shame!), we did however win a rather nice trophy (smug look on face...now!) to add to the one that we won earlier this month at Sleaford....result!.

After a drive back home (After having to jump start the car with Tom's Beetle because my 600w inverter had drained the battery after being left switched on for over 6 hours...ooops!) we met up with the girls and took a group photo to commemorate a very fine day for all of us...except mini me who didn't win the colouring competition....ooops...mentioned it again!.....sorry Andy Jr :-)

Oh yeah, we even managed to sell 6 LRF pin badges and combined with the sponsorship money the girls secured with their great effort at Rufford, we should be on target to be able to give the charity another £100....nice!

Nathan Hancock also sadly passed away this weekend.

I had only just been talking to Ann and Dan (Joel's mum and dad) when later today my dad told me that there had been another loss of a brave leukaemia sufferer over the weekend.

Nathan Hancock had been a promising footballer, but sadly his career was cut short by a broken leg. He then changed career and was enjoying his work with Linkage Community Trust at Toynton where he worked teaching sports to adults with learning difficulties when he was diagnosed with Leukaemia in February this year.

The main difficulty in treating Nathan was the fact that because he was of mixed race he required a specific and more difficult to obtain bone marrow transplant donor to be found, and sadly there is a shortage of bone marrow donors registered from ethnic communities.

His family tried desperately to find a suitable donor, but even though there was a fantastic turn out to sessions held in the local area, it was too late to save his life.

Nathan was only 22 years old, but before he passed away,yet he asked that the search for, and recruitment of, bone marrow donors should go on, so that others may be given a chance to beat this cruel and aggressive disease. It is up to us to ensure that that wish is pursued with as much vigor and urgency as we can muster, and to ensure that the push for more donors is sought, for the memory of Nathan,Joel and Adrian Sudbury and all the other brave fighters who are nothing less than hero's and who's examples of courage and bravery we can all seek inspiration from.

Nathan Hancock appeal for a donor

Heard about another young guy (22) who is a footballer from Skeggy (Skegness). Saw his family on the telly last night appealing for people to become bone marrow donors.
I think the bit that struck me most is when his mum said "He's my son...my only son". We have to get more people to sign up to the register, and give people like Nathan Hancock a fighting chance against this disease. Their is hope for people like Nathan. Are YOU his unknown donor ?

For me, the most frustrating fact is that around 75% of bone marrow transfers are nothing more than a glorified blood transfusion, and yet if you ask the general public what a bone marrow transplant consists of they imagine a big operation, weeks off of work and lots of pain.....this is just not the case, and possibly due to this widely held misconception it seems that not a week goes by when people such as Nathan have to make an appeal for their very lives!. Surely it is within the realms of possibility to one day bone marrow transplants will become as common, and as accepted as blood transfusion.
This is a link to Nathan's appeal:

http://www2.lincolntoday.co.uk/nathancampaign/index.html