Writing and Running for ME/CFS

After the first run.

Generally, I cover writing topics on this blog. But some things in the life of this author are only indirectly associated with writing, and the following is one of these.

For 10 years, from November 2002, when I caught an odd viral infection, I suffered from ME/CFS until just after I retired from employment in April 2013. Leaving work, an environment I found stressful for reasons I’ll discuss later, relieved me of the pressures that were most responsible for the continuation of the condition. I feel I’m now fully recovered (or as recovered as possible).

I’m not going into details here, merely announcing my intention to write an account of my period with ME/CFS in book form. I want to share empathy with and hope for those still suffering the condition, and provide help and personal insights for those involved with sufferers. I’ll donate 50% of the proceeds of the book to the charity that helped me from the beginning. Action for ME was there with advice and information right from the start and I want to support this organisation. I chose the charity as the recipient of 10% of revenue generated by my books published by Fantastic Books Publishing. It’s part of the contract with this company that this amount is donated to a charity of the author’s choice, you see.

As a result of the improvement in health, I’ve decided to regain fitness after so many unavoidably sedentary years. I’ve started training for a half marathon. At present, I can’t say which one this will be, as I’m not yet able to register for it, but I’ve registered an interest and await the announcement of the date on which entries can be made. For that run, I also intend to collect money for Action for ME.

The purpose of this post is to let my readers know my intentions. In future, I’ll make weekly reports of my training progress. As a 66 year old who last ran a half marathon in the early 1980s, that time to raise funds for a local hospice in Colchester, I’ve a good deal of catching up to do.

I began training 3 weeks ago, using a programme suggested by the Great Run website. Today, I performed my first real run. It was only for 5 minutes, followed by 2 minutes walking and then 4 sessions each of 1 minute running and 1 minute walking, but it was the first time I’ve spent that amount of time actually running without a pause for many years. I felt that if I could manage this challenge, then I’ve a good chance of completing the first stage of training, which aims to get me running for 20 minutes by the end of the 8 week period.

So, watch this space. Maybe join me in the effort, if you feel so inclined. Some time in the future, I’ll place a link here to enable people to sponsor me for the actual run. But that won’t come until I’m actually registered for a specific half marathon, which may be some months hence.

Sorry for the lengthy post, but I want to ensure that regular readers understand why I’ve decided to do this and why I’m placing the record on this blog. I’ve made a start on the training, and I’ve also made a start on the book, by obtaining copies of my medical records for the period concerned – interesting reading! As my publisher, Dan Grubb of Fantastic Books Publishing, would say, ‘Onward!’

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25 Random Facts About me that You May Not Know.

I was recently invited to take part in a ‘chain’ event on Facebook. It looked harmless enough, except to the paranoid types. Basically, the idea was to list 25 random facts about yourself; things that people wouldn’t necessarily know. A bit of fun, provided the subjects don’t provide info of use to those intent on identity fraud, of course.

Trouble was, in order to partake, it was necessary to take a particular route through the FB labyrinth. And it turned out that, for reasons known only to FB, my route wasn’t so much blocked as lacking a starting point. So, unwilling to be defeated, and being pressed for some participation, I thought I’d do it here instead and provide a link to the post on FB.

So, here goes.

25 Things you probably don’t know about me (and, just as likely, didn’t want to!):

1.     I was once told off by the Queen Mother, via her Aide de Camp, a General.

2.     I didn’t learn to swim until I was 16 and in the RAF.

3.     Jake Thackray, the folk singer, once bought me a beer in The Red Lion, Colchester.

4.     I had to be escorted from a factory via the back way after delivering unwanted news to a large bunch of

5.     On a school trip, I had to run back 3 miles to retrieve a piece of photographic equipment I’d left on rock on the North York Moors.

6.     My real father died 3 weeks before I was born.

7.     I was chased off the racetrack at Brands Hatch by stewards when they discovered I had no press pass.

8.     My first published photograph was a front cover on the professional British Journal of Photography.

9.     I had to be stomach pumped at the age of 17 after a particularly heavy pre-Xmas drinking bout with my brother, Barry.

10.  I fell into the boating lake at East Park in Hull when I was 5, watching a water ride.

11.  I spent some of my childhood living in a converted railway wagon, still on its wheels, on the cliff top near Hornsea.

12.  I photographed my first wedding during a blizzard at a church in Leconfield when I was 19.

13.  Tom Stoppard described my radio play as picaresque during an interview at the BBC and I had no idea what he meant.

14.  Striking dockers threatened to chuck me in the River Crouch at Colchester after a slight misunderstanding.

15.  A colleague and I were chased through the streets of Armagh in Northern Ireland after we took photographs at an ‘anti internment’ meeting.

16.  Riding round the wall of the boating lake in Pearson Park in Hull, I fell into the water and had to be dried by the fire in the first aid hut.

17.  Asked to take a bird into school to mount its skeleton for a biology lesson, I was refused my request to take a dead swan I’d found on the banks of the River Humber.

18.  Morecombe and Wise posed for photographs for me on 4 occasions.

19.  I caused our French teacher to burst into tears and upset the boys in the class as she was very pretty and we were then taught by a stern German man instead.

20.  I enjoy listening to Shirley Bassey.

21.  Rod Stewart once bowed and raised his multi-coloured top hat at me backstage at a pop festival and I failed to take a photograph of him as I didn’t know who he was!

22.  I read every book in the camp library at RAF Lyneham.

23.  I was once given a lift by 3 nuns.

24.  I once stole a keyring with a tiny penknife attached but felt so bad I had to go back and replace it. I was about 12.

25.  The Railway Children, with Jenny Agutter as Bobbie, always makes me cry when she meets her father at the station.

So, there you have it. A few things to reinforce your opinion that I’m…well, whatever you thought I was before you read this lot.

I hope I’ve entertained you with this absolutely factual list. Please feel free to comment.