Thanks!

Today my fundraising reached the £1,200 marker - a third of the way there. I have to asy a massive "THANK YOU" to everyone who's donated so far.
Some of them are people I haven't seen for years - I haven't even sent Christmas cards to, but just about managed to stay in touch through LinkedIn. It's been lovely to have so many good wishes and blasts from the past!

Support has come from far and wide too. I think the battle for furthest away is between Japan (thanks Sasaki san) and Hawaii (thanks Em) - perhaps I should do the swim there, the water would be much warmer! So if you're wondering why some of the donations don't carry gift aid, it's because there are a lot of non-UK taxpayers on the list!

It's also been lovely to recieve so many messages of support for the cause - it's surprised me how many other people have been touched by Alzheimer's and dementia. I'm sure that the funds I'm raising will make a huge difference into research, and into caring for those with or affected by the condition.

So, thanks again, your donations are much appreciated!

Totaliser

Cold, but not wet yet

Training isn't going well this week - I'm full of a cold, so haven't done anything since Monday :-(


The fundraising is going well though - I'm almost a third of the way to my target, with £1150 raised so far - so a massive "Thank You" to everyone who's contributed so far.


I've also had many lovely messages of support - and I've been surprised at how many other people have been affected by Alzheimer's and dementia in their family. It's touched me greatly that so many people have shared their stories with me.


It's also been very heartening that I've had support from people I haven't seen for years, or only met once or twice - clearly, having the brass neck to ask is paying off.


I've also been very impressed with lots of the fundraising tips from JustGiving - I get emails with suggestions on - many of which I've taken up, including ordering some mini-moo cards - see http://uk.moo.com/en/ideas/justgiving - now, if only the post office could find them and deliver them!

Lovely People

I officially joined The Alzheimer's Society today. I just called them and asked to join - the lady on the other end of the phone was lovely. So, I'm all signed up and I'm looking forward to getting the monthly magazine, Living with Dementia. I'm hoping it will help us cope with some of the things we have to deal with, such as the irrational ideas, which are very fixed, and can't be changed.

My Mother-in-Law was diagnosed with vascular dementia about a year ago, maybe less, after spending almost 6 months in a geriatric assessment unit. Although her behaviour has changed over this time, and the medication seems to be helping with some of the worst symptoms, there are some things which we find very difficult.

Every week we have the same discussions. One of the main ones is about rubbish - Mum is convinced that there isn't enough room in their bin, and always wants us to take some of their rubbish home to put in our bin. I think, at most, they half fill 2 bin bags before the bins are emptied, so there is plenty of room.

This spills over into "don't bring me anything, how will I get rid of it" - when we gave her some hyacinths for Mother's day, they were met with immediate panic about getting rid of them. We had to promise to take them away when they stopped flowering.

So I'm looking forward to any advice we can get - or at least to get a feeling that it's not just us who are going through this, and that we're not alone.

Swim, Swim, Walk

Training is going well - I swam 1/2 a mile on Thursday (32 lengths) and over 1/2 mile on Friday (40 lengths). My arms felt like lead on Sunday morning though, so instead of swimming I went for a walk. It was such a lovely day, and I thought my legs could do with a bit more of a workout.

When I swim I do breast-stoke, but I have a terrible screw kick - it looks as though my right leg knows what's going on, and does a nice frog-like kick, but my left leg thinks we're doing crawl, and refuses to go out - it just goes up and down! I'm sure this slows me down, but even if I concentrate really hard, I can't make it do the right kick! It must look really bizare - like swimming with a limp.

I would like to put this down to an old injury - I dislocated my left knee when I was 17, spent 8 weeks on crutches and it's never been the same since. I say I'd like to put it down to this, but I have such strong memories of one particular swimming lesson at school.

The gym mistress (yes, it was that kind of school) asked everyone else to get out of the pool and then asked me to swim 1 length breast-stroke. Feeling proud to be singled out, I did my finest length - going as fast and as elegantly as I could. Imagine my horror when she then turned to the rest of the class and said "and that's how you don't do it - what a terrible screw kick!" She never did help me fix it, and so here I am, decades later, still limping through the water like a half-frog/half-fish creature.

I must see if I can find her and get her to sponsor me - it must be worth £1 at least!

Here we go

So, I've set myself a challenge, set up a "JustGiving" page and now I'm ready to blog. So this is for all the kind people who've sponsored me so far, all the people who will and all the people who just like to read about other people's lives. You are all welcome!

I've entered the Great North Swim, and I'll be swimming on Sept 5th, at 3pm, in a cold and murky Windermere. I've never done anything like this before, and it's quite daunting. Although I love swimming, I'd never swum this far until a month after I'd signed up for the event.

If you're reading this and haven't sponsored me but would like to, then visit www.justgiving.com/dawn-holmes - it's really easy!

Thanks
Dawn