Opening up at Malkin's Bank - In the name of Thiago - Day 56


This evening I returned to the scene of the flooding I experienced on yesterday’s epic walk to work, which briefly threatened to derail my heroic efforts.



Well sort of at least. To be precise, I was a guest speaker at Malkin’s Bank Golf Club near Sandbach. It’s a lovely little club which welcomed Angelica and I this evening with open arms. It’s also the first time that Angelica and I have been out together for far too long. Yes I know that there were a ton of other people there as well but just getting out together is a good thing.

I met a couple of other folk as well who had lost a son, so there were plenty of tears and a couple of donations as well to go in the charity coffers. I had a lovely evening and so did Angelica.

(I also got to have a bit of nosebag with the outgoing golf club captains and partners before) 

I’ve also been working on a podcast today with a really good bloke called Flav, who is putting together a series of podcasts focussed on promoting better understanding of mental health.

We had a good 40 minutes today where we both ended up being really emotional. Flav has experienced loss as well so I think some of the shit I’m going through at the moment struck a chord with him too. We’re all in this together folks.

We’re due to meet each other in person next weekend at my sister’s house in Wiltshire for a proper face to face interview. The podcast when it is broadcast later in the year will go out under the banner of ‘the fighting cock’ – a reference to the connections with the mighty Tottenham Hotspur Football Club.

Okay folks I’m sorry this is a bit of a cop out, but it’s half ten, I’m half cut and there’s a wonderful lady in my life who hasn’t been getting enough attention of late, so I’m going to put that right. Now. To be fair she might already be asleep. Crack on Gibbs.

Keep that fundraising locomotive going folks. Every penny is absolutely vital.









Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Getting through the pain - In the name of Thiago - Day 1

Image
You know how it is. The kids are going back to school, work has reared its ugly bastard head and you start to think what am I doing? Well if there’s one thing that the death of your child does: it’s focus the mind. My name is Chris, I’m married to a wonderful lady called Angelica and have a beautiful daughter called Elisa, who has just turned 11. But I’m also fat and worse than being fat, I’m feeling fat and frankly I’ve been doing very little to alleviate the weight gain for quite a while. But you know what, I’m going to give myself a break because my beautiful boy Thiago (the gorgeous lad in the picture) died at the end of November and we only buried him a week before Christmas. He was a week shy of being ten months old when he checked out and ever since, I’ve been an absolute fucking mess. Every day is racked with emotional pain. I start the day crying, I end it crying and in between well you can probably work it out. So I thought to myself, what can I constructively
Read more

I have no words (Stone to Royal Stoke University Hospital) - In the name of Thiago - Day 286

Image
  I'm going to level with you here straight up. I truly have nothing left in the tank to offer you tonight. I have been completely blown away by everything that's happened. I cannot even offer you the now well established line of sarcasm. I barely have the energy to fucking swear. The well has run dry. And this is why. I walked up towards the children's hospital entrance at the Royal Stoke today and I was greeted by this sight. People lining the streets to greet me. But they weren't just lining the streets, they were applauding. Loudly. I will probably never experience anything like this again but you know what, I'll have this memory for the rest of my life. I was completely overwhelmed. As many of you will know, it is not a common thing for me to be lost for words - it's not a terribly helpful trait for a broadcaster - but today I was truly gobsmacked. These people in their scrubs are the real heroes: the heroes of our NHS - probably the greatest organisation t
Read more

Thank you and good night - In the name of Thiago - Day 330

Image
  For the 330th and final time - at least in its daily format - I will collate my thoughts and feelings of being a grieving father.  When I think back to early January,  I really had no idea how this was going to pan out. But today, nigh on a year's worth of blogs later, I'm allowing myself a smile. On the 8th January when I decided that if I was going to do this blogging thing seriously that I had to commit to doing it daily, I knew that it would be tough but then I also knew that walking 350 miles (which I thought would 'only' be 280 miles at the time doh!) would be a very tough challenge too.  The two challenges have run parallel to each other all year and it is with a heavy heart that I say that the time has come to call it a day for the time being. But it's the little man in the picture there that we all have to thank for the existence of this blog, the fundraising I've done, the rediscovery of my joy of writing. All that walking for quite a fat lad like me
Read more