As some of you will have seen from my recent Insta posts a couple of weekends ago I spent Saturday very differently to my usual routine of CBeebies-Breakfast-CBeebies-Park-Lunch-Nap (SHED)-Reading (same book over and over again)- Dinner prep – CBeebies Bedtime Hour- Dinner- In the Night Garden- Bathtime- Bedtime.
Instead I was up at 7:30 leaving my two favourite people cuddling in bed (watching CBeebies) and out the door in less than an hour, wearing the unfamiliar attire of running gear and trainers (I bought them in 2015 and wore them 3 times before deciding cardio just wasn’t my thing!).
It was the day of Mikey’s Magic March! Mikey Harney is a beautiful little boy, full of life and joy who, at 20 months, was diagnosed with stage 4, high-risk neuroblastoma. His parents, Caroline and Paddy, discovered a lump in Mikey’s tummy while Caroline was in then later stages of pregnancy with his little brother Bobby. Whilst Mikey has responded really well to treatment and is currently undergoing a round of immunotherapy, the next stage of treatment is not funded on the NHS. Therefore they face having to find treatment in the US or Europe or clinical trials, and that requires a lot of funding. So we are walking to try and raise as much money as possible towards their target of £200,000. I haven’t seen my friend Caroline since I left to go on maternity. Our grand plans of meeting up with our little ones were thrown in the air with Mikey’s diagnosis. Although the reasons for our walk were very serious, I was really looking forward to seeing her, and being part of her opportunity to have some time out. Her life since leaving on maternity to have Bobby has been a whirlwind I cannot even comprehend and Mikey being under treatment for over a year has meant being confined to the house or hospital because of his low immune system. Today was a rare chance to be out in the air, to spend time with friends, and put collective positive energy to the most worthwhile cause. I have included the link to Caroline’s JustGiving page for anyone who wants to support Mikey’s cause.
We started our walk at the Royal Marsden Hospital in Sutton, where Mikey receives treatment before taking on the long walk to town and the river! The first stage of the walk was more about getting to know everyone in the group than the scenery. Some were girls I knew from work, others were former colleagues of Caroline and there were also some friends of friends who were keen to walk alongside us and support Mikey. There was a lot of sharing experiences of motherhood, tips for childcare vouchers and clothes to fit children with large head, all of which drove away my fear of a blister which surfaced at around 5k (not good when you consider the remaining distance). We were lucky to have relatively benign weather and we made very good progress thanks to the frankly awesome pace Caroline was setting out in front! For a woman who had admitted to have not walked more than a kilometre outside of the house in the last 15 months she was really attacking the challenge.
We had a brief photo stop at Morden to prove we hadn’t just jumped on the bus, before continuing on the (marginally) uphill route to the river. I should at this point acknowledge we were checking the mileage count frequently (reminding me of the constant checking of the word count when writing my university dissertation) for reassurance that we were making steady progress, and to mitigate the couple of wrong turns.
Just ahead of reaching Wandsworth we were greeted with the magical news we’d made the 10 mile mark!!! This felt like making the 3km split when I made a rare appearance at Park Run many years ago (which incidentally is why I owned running trainers!). Celebrations were had when we reached Earlsfield with coffee from Gail’s, a toilet stop and the breaking out of snacks and sweets! We were all feeling a bit a of a burn but we remained in high spirits! So far it hadn’t rained, everyone had kept a decent pace, and no one had got lost! That said my splinter group were accosted by a rather opinionated old man on the correct way to cross a road which was mildly irritating when he started his rant with “Do you speak English?” and we were dealing with a blind corner where 2 of us went to check the traffic from one direction, whilst 2 others went to check the other and we all crossed safely. Harumph!
I digress… so we headed on towards Chelsea, passing Stamford Bridge (thankfully the game that week was on the Sunday), and a fabulous house with the most elaborate party balloons I have ever seen (naturally I have saved this photo to my Pinterest Board for Small’s next birthday party). And before we knew it we’d made it to our second key milestone – Chelsea Westminster Hospital, where Mikey (and little brother Bobby) were born, and Mikey was diagnosed.
Time to turn southwards again and make our way back across the river to our final destination and finish, Mikey’s home: Clapham. It was a merry bunch of girls that crossed Battersea bridge on the downhill. High spirits were slightly dashed when south of the river the wind started to hit us with the threat of the rain that had so far held off, and suddenly we were faced with an incline that we hadn’t expected! But we were so close and nothing would stop us now!! So up we marched!! Upon reaching the top we happily discovered ourselves on the approach to Clapham Common! We had done it!!!
The final mile count was just shy of 18 miles, 3 more than the 15 Caroline had planned and 5 more than I had expected. What a super achievement. All finished in 5hrs 43 mins!
I left the girls heading to Caroline’s for a celebratory prosecco. As Small is a walking plague of nursery germs I didn’t want to run the risk of passing something on to Mikey, who’s treatment had left him with a low immune system and the threat of infection could delay further treatments. I was heading home for a long soak and cuddle with my favourite people and the hope that we’d be blessed with a decent night’s sleep.
The walk was a greater achievement than I ever thought I would undertake (being a typically lazy person who has always used the creativity to relax than exercise). I have nightmarish memories of the Duke of Edinburgh Award trek, and a constant fear of shin splints which have plagued me since I my teens. But I cannot begin to explain the sense of joy this experience gave me, matched only by the fundraising Caroline has achieved. But for all the joy the walk gave me it is always sobering to remember why we were walking. I experienced the trauma of having a very sick baby when Small was just a day old, but our trauma was very short lived. What Mikey and his family are dealing with is on a whole other level that I cannot begin to imagine. And yet to see Caroline so strong, so resolute and so grounded fills me with pride that she is my friend. My love and wishes are with her and her gorgeous little boy, that he may continue to be a perfect little boy full of life and mischief!
