Why ride a bike across South Australia?
October 5th 2008 01:09
Is this the result of a mid-life panic? The sudden urge to haul 90 kilo on a 5 kilo bike, with a seat that becomes more of a moulded g-string, than a place of comfort for 730 k.
5Towns came of the result from talking with the Leukemia Foundation (I knew the former State Manager) and then the cogs in my head go firing. You see the issue is, if you are out in the sticks and you get what has to be at the top of most people's list of worst things to hear - the news you have a blood cancer - life is turned upside down, in every sense.
Aside from dealing with the sudden confrontation of your mortality, you are also saying goodbye to family, friends, your business, school, everything that is renowned for a semblance of normality.
As luck would have it, the Leukemia Foundation had plans for building a village, which would help eliminate a massive concern for people in rural areas - where will I stay and how can someone support me during treatment.
The idea had only just been hatched, when I got a call, you don't want to get. You see, I moved to Sweden and stayed for 9 years. During that time I lost touch with a very, very close friend, Jon. Boys being boys, we lost touch and life moved on. When I came back to Australia, we took contact again, but 9 years is a long time and, it was naturally not the same.
In any case, I get a call from Jon, who says he read about my idea in LF's newsletter. I ask why are you reading a newsletter from LF - surely the world of publishing has more to offer than charity newsletters.
And then it all hit me. The years of friendship, the lost years in-between, the future that might never materialize - Jon had been through Leukemia. Big strong Jon, who I spent many a day watching cricket with, drinking beer on a hot summer day in our undies (no AC) and the only way I beat the dude in play wrestle, was to fight dirty.
Whoa! Can't be true. But it was, the photos he showed me, the scars, the look in his eye. Damn, this disease just went through everything. And then I got mad as hell, and then I thought about what we had hatched with LF and what 5Towns really was about and then everything just happened.
What started as a "good idea" to "help out" a local charity and for a balding 38 year old to have a bit of "adventure" became very personal. And as the project took shape, and as I got to speak with the local people in the towns I'm going through, each conversation was a golden moment to remind me what fiercely determined, wonderfully spirited people are out there.
I can't wait to meet them all.
5Towns came of the result from talking with the Leukemia Foundation (I knew the former State Manager) and then the cogs in my head go firing. You see the issue is, if you are out in the sticks and you get what has to be at the top of most people's list of worst things to hear - the news you have a blood cancer - life is turned upside down, in every sense.
Aside from dealing with the sudden confrontation of your mortality, you are also saying goodbye to family, friends, your business, school, everything that is renowned for a semblance of normality.
As luck would have it, the Leukemia Foundation had plans for building a village, which would help eliminate a massive concern for people in rural areas - where will I stay and how can someone support me during treatment.
The idea had only just been hatched, when I got a call, you don't want to get. You see, I moved to Sweden and stayed for 9 years. During that time I lost touch with a very, very close friend, Jon. Boys being boys, we lost touch and life moved on. When I came back to Australia, we took contact again, but 9 years is a long time and, it was naturally not the same.
In any case, I get a call from Jon, who says he read about my idea in LF's newsletter. I ask why are you reading a newsletter from LF - surely the world of publishing has more to offer than charity newsletters.
And then it all hit me. The years of friendship, the lost years in-between, the future that might never materialize - Jon had been through Leukemia. Big strong Jon, who I spent many a day watching cricket with, drinking beer on a hot summer day in our undies (no AC) and the only way I beat the dude in play wrestle, was to fight dirty.
Whoa! Can't be true. But it was, the photos he showed me, the scars, the look in his eye. Damn, this disease just went through everything. And then I got mad as hell, and then I thought about what we had hatched with LF and what 5Towns really was about and then everything just happened.
What started as a "good idea" to "help out" a local charity and for a balding 38 year old to have a bit of "adventure" became very personal. And as the project took shape, and as I got to speak with the local people in the towns I'm going through, each conversation was a golden moment to remind me what fiercely determined, wonderfully spirited people are out there.
I can't wait to meet them all.
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