Sunday 15 September 2013

On the top of the world.

About 8 months ago, on a spur of the moment impulse, I signed up to climb up Mt Toubkal in Morocco in aid of Parkinson's UK. As I've mentioned on previous blogs, I really don't do physical activity - but the past 8 months have seen runs with crazy Irish people (well...one crazy Irish person), joint Welling-Browne very very (very) long walks, a few living room workouts (with curtains firmly drawn) and in the past month, daily 2 mile runs. Fundraising also began, taking the form of gospel concerts, acoustic nights, boot fairs, begging, borrowing (no stealing though!) and finally, a bungee jump. 

And, about a week ago, all the training and fundraising was bought to a culmination in the form of the trek itself! 

I wasn't sure what exactly to expect. To be honest, I had quite an idyllic picture of the team wandering leisurely up a slightly larger than average hill, pausing for tea and cake at sun drenched stopping points. However, after having purchased bandages, ridiculously practical walking shoes, a camel pack and immodium (I was equipped for every eventuality!) - I began to realise that it perhaps wasn't quite going to be the lazy stroll I had hoped for. My parents dropped me off at the airport, I met the rest of the team - and we were off! 


Pre-Mountain.
We started trekking from the small town of Imil. Before we got to Toubkal itself we had to go 6 miles over rocky terrain to the refuge. As we started off, my thighs began to scream. 'AHHH YOU CAN'T DO THIS, WHYYYYY, PAAAAAAIIIIIN!!" I told them to be quiet, and that I would continue regardless of their moaning. 

And after a short while, they did.

Afore mentioned rocky terrain.




Obligatory Mountain Selfie

Approaching the refuge, dusk drew in, and we set up camp for the night - the next morning we were to climb the mountain!  

An early morning start saw 12 keen (and slightly blurry eyed), bobble-hatted amateurs, accompanied by four experienced mountain trekkers, venture up Mt Toubkal, the highest mountain in North Africa. As time twisted onwards, we trekked and trekked, ate copious amounts of snack bars, stubbed our toes, got burnt by the sun (resulting in some seriously streaky sunburn!), drank lots of water from our camel packs, looked practical, shamelessly went to the toilet in some beautiful nature spots (watched only by mountain goats) and shared many of our own stories and experiences.  I was struck by how the fact that how because we were linked by one common factor, Parkinson's, all our stories were intertwined, as were many of our experiences. We had only just met each other, but we shared something. Not something any of us wanted to share, but it meant that we could relate and understand and support one another. 

Anyway, I digress .Despite clambering most of the way up the mountain, concentrating purely on where my next step would be and sliding most of the way down - we all managed to survive it and get back in one piece!  It was definitely a challenge, both physically and mentally - but the feeling of great achievement when we all reached the top was second to none! 


Some serious trekkers.

The views were breathtaking! Psalm 121 was running through my head the whole time! 

Wow.

'Chillin. (Check out the practical shoes!)

Super excited to be on the top of the mountain! 

We did it! £20K for Parkinson's UK raised! :D 

So, I guess all that's left to be said is a massive thank you to everyone who has been a part of this journey! I've been really touched by the incredible support from so many people in all sorts of ways, it has meant a lot, both to me and to Parkinson's UK.

The trek lasted 5 days, my painful toes 3. But the money raised and the impact that it will make will last much much longer than this. I truly believe that it will go towards changing lives,both in this generation and the next, and that one day, we will find a cure, and beat Parkinson's once and for all! 

If you would still like to support, click here to donate. :) 

Sunday 30 June 2013

Write me?


Dear Reader, 

I rather like writing letters. And I also rather like receiving them. I enjoy running to the hallway when you know that one might be coming, and expectantly shuffling papers,eyes running over addresses and handwriting, searching for familiar pen strokes. I like to write reams and reams of thoughts, impromptu haikus and little drawings onto cream paper, and to slip them inside an envelope, safely sealed until new fingers prize it open. 

You see, the thing about letters is they’re so personal. What’s inside is for you, and for you alone. Someone has taken the time to sit down, put pen to paper, and to write in that glorious old fashioned way. In a society where everything moves to the sound of tapping keyboards, this can’t help but be something special.  



A little while back I stumbled across something called the ‘Hand Written Letter Project’. It stemmed from a conversation between Craig Oldham (the guy who started it) and a friend, as they discussed how the art of letter writing shouldn’t be forgotten, especially in an age of instant communication. The essence of the project is that people could write in on their own stationary, telling him, in their own handwriting, what they thought about letter writing, and he would then publish them. He says that 

'the project offers much more than that voyeuristic insight into the creative minds of those we revere, more that it represents a visual narrative on the cultural transition in which we find ourselves.'


'Writing letters is a bit like thatching the roof of a cottage. Not many people do it anymore"

At around the same time (coincidence?) I also saw an article which had picked 12 hand written love letters from famous people, and published them online.  

This one was my particular favourite. It’s from the jazz musician Charlie Parker (whose ‘Yardbird Suite’ is just something else!) to his long term girlfriend. 


"To you;

The way I thought was wrong, having not known, it was right. Here is the proof of my feelings, Don’t hate me, love me forever: — — — —

Beautiful is the world, slow is one to take advantage. Wind up the world the other way. And at the start of the turning of the earth, lie my feelings for thou.

To you
Shame on me.
I love you."

Could you say this words out loud? (Or more importantly, would you?). What if they were said in an email? A Tweet? A Facebook message?  Would they have they same simple beauty? The same resonance as pencil on partially torn paper? I don't think so. 

Not only this, but letters last. Letters have power. Letters change things. One of my favourite letters is that of a man named Paul, who was writing to the Corinthians in around AD 55. He was writing to a troubled Church, a Church that had lost sight of the crucified Christ. In Chapter 15 vs 1, he says to them 'I want to remind you, brothers, of the gospel I preached to you'. Now why does Paul use a letter to remind them?  Correspondence of the day? Yes, of course. Most practical way to get a message to the Corinthian Church? Most certainly.  But I'd also like to think that Paul knew that what he wanted to say to the Corinthians could be best said in the form of a letter.

More importantly, what is it that Paul says that he thinks is so important? That 'Christ died for our sins in accordance with the scriptures.' (1 Corinthians 15:3). 

Paul decided to put the most important news ever...the news of the Resurrected Christ... in a letter. Does this diminish spoken words or speeches? No. But it does display the power of the written word. 

This year, I'm challenged to write more. So don't be surprised if you get a letter. 

Yours faithfully and with a whole lot of love,

Alex 

xx







Monday 25 March 2013

Gospel Concerts and Bungee jumps.

HEY THERE BLOG. It's been a while. Having been occupied down by deadlines, lack of sleep, twisted ankles, trips to York and Frosterley and a whole other load of fun stuff, blogging has taken a bit of a backseat...

...but now it's taken the front seat (well, the passenger one...or at least the middle...anyway...).

So, here's some updates on fundraising efforts! 
(I've organised them into neat little bullet points, because I am both super cool and super organised). 

[Fundraising Update 1] 

Had a lovely acoustic night fundraising for  at the beginning of term in Hild-Bede. That was fun. We managed to raise around £70. THANKS to people who played/organised/came. You are all lovely and very talented.

I didn't take any pictures of the actual event, but one of the people who played was my wonderful housemate Harri Endersby. If you haven’t heard her music yet, you’re definitely missing out, and I think you should check out her sweet melodies. So there. 

She’s on the youchoob. (and this is the link to the youchoob). 

[Fundraising Update 2]

Last Saturday, we had a gospel concert at Church. It was wonderful to see God glorified through poetry and song, and we raised £200 for Parkinsons’ UK,which is just SO exciting! All the money raised really will make a difference, I can't emphasise it enough. It was also very exciting and a real privilege to be able to get up and say a little bit about Parkinson's  as a disease. Despite the fact that around 1 in 500 people have Parkinson's, little seems to be known about it by the general public. To be honest, I didn't know much about it until it pushed its way into my life. Perhaps that was better. But I've come to realise that awareness is actually really important, as awareness can aid our tolerance and strengthen our kindness. One thing that those who have Parkinson's are advised to do is to carry around a 'Parkinson's alert card', which states that a) they have Parkinson's and b) might be prone to freezing, slowness of movement or unsteadiness, a tremor, and delayed speech.  I actually find these cards rather amusing, kind-of like flashing some kind of weird special agent ID.  But the reason they're needed is because of a prevelent lack of knowledge. I've seen and heard of many times when people have been unnecessarily intolerant of sufferers of Parkinson's as they shuffle up to the checkout in ASDA or freeze momentarily in the street. It's easy to understand how it's just not practical for someone with Parkinson's to whip out their card every time someone gives them a black look for blocking the can of beans that they want, or for not moving quickly enough in the bustling crowd. I find it heartbreaking that this attitude is often simply down to ignorance, and ignorance is something that can so easily be fought against! 

Anyway, enough from me. Here's a selection of photos of some wonderful and very talented people. (and I dropped one of me in there as well:P). 

(And if you would like to donate, click here



Matthew Lombart 

Praise Team :) 

He decided to get off the stage and dance in the aisle. That was amusing.  
Check his poetry out in the link below.


This guy told his testimony in poetry. It was powerful.  

Me singing.


Jokes. I most definitely didn't sing. 





The last song they sang was SO GOOD.

HALLELUJAH! HALLELUJAH! (I was singing it for a while afterwards). 

However, I have to say that the best moment of the night came from an unlikely duo, namely Freddy and Javen, two of the hosts for the evening, when they took the stage to introduce Roy Crisp.

Freddy: 'What's your favourite flavour of crisps Javen?'

Javen: 'Interesting question Freddy, I quite like ready salted. What about you?'

Freddy: 'I like salt and vinegar'

...

...

Javen: Do you know who I really love?  I really love Roy.

[Silence]

...Roy Crisp?

OH MAN. IT WAS SO FUNNY. (But let's just say they very much avoided Roy after the concert:P). 

Another hearty thanks goes to everyone who organised the acts, were the acts, took photos, hosted, made food (oh the food), did the tech and everything else. You are all brilliant. Praise God for such a blessed evening! 

[Final Fundraising Update] 

In a moment of end of term delirium, I notice in an email that DUCK (The Durham University Charities Committee) were advertising their annual Bungee jump off a huge crane on Palace Green. Now, normally, I'd bypass anything this extreme (or indeed, anything that involved the words bungee and jump), but being in serious need of money for the trek itself, my eyes were drawn to the picture of the 170ft crane. It was all over in a flash. In about 5 minutes, I'd signed up and vowed that I'd do it. WA! 

However, I don’t want to throw myself off a massive crane without raising a good amount of money! I’d really like to raise at least £200 before doing it - so if you can help please do get in touch! The money I'm trying to raise for this will go towards my actual trek, so I will be wandering round with sponsorship forms, but if I'm not going to see you and you'd like to donate , just drop me an email (alexbrowne05@hotmail.co.uk) and we can work something out:) 


This.looks.terrifying. 
So if you've ever thought to yourself  'I'd really love to see Alex throw herself off a crane with only a thread of elastic to break her fall', head on down to Palace Green on a certain afternoon in May. (Date will follow).  And even if you've never thought that, I can promise it'll be a lovely break from revision...for you anyway. :P 

Sunday 24 March 2013

I'm not much of a dancer.


A while ago,  I went to see ‘Rob Heron and the Tea Pad Orchestra’ with a couple of friends. It was held in a launderette in Gilesgate (one of the benefits of the living in the depths of Durham!:P)  and was just brilliant. So I wrote a poem about it. 



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UzOXy5XT0rU


Passe-moi la limonade
he sang,
as I sipped my steaming tea and 
listened. 
Thimbled fingers ran over an aging washboard. 
Checkered ties and yellow socks. 
Braces and a kettle full of daffodils. 
We stepped back into the twenties with the smell of 
cold cigarette smoke,
brought in from the 21st century air outside. 
On the dance floor dictated by washing machines
we twirled and spun and clapped our hands
(well, they did.)
I’m not much of a dancer,
I said to the old man beside me,
his own feet itching to jump up and stomp rhythmically with the rest. 
Passe moi la limonade
he sang, 
But I’m not much of a dancer. 
I said. 

Tuesday 29 January 2013

It's always best to say thank you in rhyme.

Dear marvellous people (that's you),
There's something I'd quite like to do,
So, Vielen Dank and Merci, 
Ta, and thank ye,
You really are lovely through and through. 


Thank you so much to all who have donated. £393.88 so far! :D 





Sunday 20 January 2013

A run, a fallen tree and a lot of snow.

So, today I went on my first run in training to climb Mt Toubkal for Parkinsons' UK.  It went...err...well, let me tell you about it, I think that's the best way to do it.

My friend Simon has wonderfully agreed to help me get fit for this humongous climb. After trying to arrange a few runs, but having been stopped due to heavy snowfall and fear of freezing alive, finally, this Sunday morning, we decided to brave the cold and to go for a 5K run. Yes, 5K. You have read that correctly.

The reason for postponed runs. 


It didn't get off to a good start. We were meant to meet at 9. I had told Simon that the way to recognise our house was due to the  MASSIVE TREE outside the front. (If you've ever been, it's really not hard to miss:P). However, at 9, there was no sign of Simon. Glancing out of my window, I watched him sprint past the house without a second glance. Despite finding this incredibly amusing, I was then bemused to open the front door and see no sign. He had vanished, sprinting off like a sprightly gazelle into deepest, darkest Gilesgate. After about 10 minutes of Simon running everywhere but our house, looking at every tree but our tree, he finally found it and we ran off.

And the run itself? Well, the less said the better:P  Let's just say that this is very much what I would have liked to have looked like.



But in reality, I felt much more like this.

I'm the one in the blue jumper. 

However, it's all baby steps!(The official story is, however, that I was super fast and beat Simon home.)

So here's to more runs, to getting fit and to climbing that mountain! :D

Challenge Accepted. 


p.s. A SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to you, you crazy Irish man who was quite happy to get up at 9am on a Sunday to go for a run in the snow. I thank ye.


Thursday 10 January 2013

This is an important T-Shirt.


So today I got my 'Trek Toubkal for Parkinson's' Pack through the post. I was super excited and immediately ran out into the garden to take pictures in the t-shirt. They then turned into jumping pictures. To be fair, I think this is actually a good and gentle start on the exercise that I'm going to be doing in the next few months. (First run on Wednesday (Yay Simon!) - Blog post will follow - depending on physical state after!).

In the pack there were a few stats that I found quite interesting, and those of you who have donated (THANK YOU SO MUCH - completely overwhelmed at people's generosity, it really means a lot!), this is the kind of stuff your money can be going towards.

£2 : Enough to pay for the DVD 'Being There' to be sent to someone recently diagnosed with Parkinson's. 
£26 : Could pay for a Parkinson's Nurse to answer calls on the Parkinson's Helpline for an hour.
£150 : Enough to fund a Parkinson's Nurse for a day - meaning that specialist care can be provided for people with the condition.
£1000 : Could fund a cutting edge research project for a week. 




So, if you see me running round Durham in this t-shirt, please shout hi and something motivational, you can even run with me if you want, I won't be going fast. Ta. 

Sunday 6 January 2013

Ain't no mountain high enough?

"Your challenge is to trek steep, rocky terrain over 3 days, to reach the summit of Mount Toubkal, at a height of 4,167m."

Oh man. 

For those who know me well (or indeed, at all), you'll know that sports (and when I say sports I'm talking any sort of physical activity) are not really my thing. To tell you the truth, I spent most of my Sixth form PE sessions eating a cookie in the squash courts.

... and now I'm going to trek up a mountain that 4,167m! 

I was trying to envisage how high that actually is, which proved difficult. As well as sports not really being my forte...neither is maths. Apparently 4,167m is about 2.6 miles...upwards. And by my calculations (or Googles) , that's pretty high! 


Mt Toubkal. SUCH A BIG MOUNTAIN. 

But this means a lot more than just climbing a mountain. (It's got to...I wouldn't just be climbing a mountain for fun! ). In August 2009, my dad was diagnosed with Parkinson's.  As a result, it is  something that it now very prevalent in mine and my family's life, and as they mean such an immense amount to me, this is something I would like to do for them, and particularly for my Dad, as well as others I know who suffer with Parkinson's disease. 

I love my Dad a lot, and I'm really proud of the way that he's coping with this. Despite the fact that we have nicknamed him 'the shuffler', he still manages to run his own business, work 5 days a week and have dinner on the table at the end of the day! (Though due to slightly shorter working days, a small baking obsession has ensued and we now slowly have a small mountain of scones building up on the kitchen table!). He is a strong man, and can still open the lids of jars when I can't, he can still overpower me in a tickling match and though yes, he is slower, and yes, he has a tremor, he is still, and will always be my Dad. 


Where did I get my craziness from? Look no further. 

I love my Papi. 



I am taller...Mwahahaha. 

Parkinson's Disease is a progressive neurological condition. People with Parkinson's don't have enough of a chemical called dopamine, which means that some of the nerve cells in their brain will die. If you put this in everyday terms (which is much easier than all this science language!), this means that normal movements that seem like second nature to you and I, become increasingly more difficult. Putting on a sock. Buttering a piece of toast. Walking. Everything gets slower and much more arduous.  The thing that is so vicious about Parkinson's is that it's not a lifestyle disease. It's not hereditary. You can't catch it. It's just random. You can't do anything about not getting it, and once you have it, you can't do anything to get rid of it. And at the moment, Parkinson's has no cure. The money that I hope to raise through doing this trek will go towards vital research that will help to find one. Not only this, but through this, I really hope to raise awareness of Parkinson's. Too few people seem to know and understand the symptoms of Parkinson's. In a recent survey, it was shown that because it is so poorly understood, many people who have it are often on the receiving end of worried and uncomfortable looks due to clearly identifiable symptoms, such as a tremor or shuffling walk. 


Part of a recent campaign in Parkinson's Awareness Month

I need to raise £975  to do the trek itself (which will hopefully be done through a series of bake sales, acoustic nights, concerts and various other exciting things!), but on top of that, I'd really like to raise £1000 for Parkinson's UK. I've set up a JustGiving Page (www.justgiving.com/Alex-Browne1 ) where it would be amazing and would mean a lot if you could donate something, as money given there goes directly to the Parkinson's UK Charity. 

So, let the intensive (*ahmen*) training routine begin!