It was 2013 on New Year’s Day that I told myself it was time to eat the fear and agoraphobia of wide open water swimming. I’d learnt about that anxiety the hard way, during a leash-break incident on a surf trip to Morocco while somewhat ‘out at sea’ on a reef break. I was dead scared without my board attached to me out in the open ocean, and the long swim in to shore felt edgy…
And too, I’d always admired people that do a race to raise money for a good cause.
So when I learnt of the Brain Aneurysm Foundation’s participation in this iconic triathlon that unfolds down the end of my road in San Francisco, I thought of my high school friend Warren, who’d lost his life one evening as we arrived back at school in September 1993, myself and another friend finding Warren lying on the floor having suffered a massive brain haemhorrage.
Those confusing days gave me as a young man a shocking realization to how precious our lives are, and how slim is the thread that separates good luck and bad luck in health. For some reason, for years and years afterwards, Warren would come to mind in the pain of long runs, where my eyes would often well up for a moment in thinking about how lucky I am to still have fully functioning arms and legs, and a cardio and brain and nervous system that all allows you to glide along a beautiful trail in the California dawn light.
And, Grandad on Mum’s side was suspected of dying of an aneurysm, a fear of Mum’s.
So, I want to run this last one in memory of Mum too, who we lost over four heartbreaking months to colon cancer in October 2019.
And there’s one more reason…
During my eleven years thus far in San Francisco, six of those April-May spring periods have been training side-by-side with Simon Longbottom, who is at the end of this year moving back to the UK.
You get to know each other well in the hours and hours of conversation, it’s beautiful, and for Si and I the respect of quiet hard work and pushing each other all started on the Epsom College 1st XV rugby squad in 1993, when Simon too played for England U18.
And in two past Alcatrazes it’s been fun – and an inspiration – to race (literally, on the day!) against post-50 brain aneurysm survivor, Andrew Westergren, who always overtakes me on the bike and I’ve had to work hard to catch and stay ahead of in the run. Andrew is a fine man and athlete for his age, with a charming sense of humor.
So, to Mum, to Warren, to Simon, to Andrew and to the endless gratitude I feel for good health, please support me in this one last Alcatraz next Sunday 5 June. I have to preserve my joints for carving waves when I’m 83!, it’s an official goal…!.
If you would like to contribute, please do so here via my TeamCindy Brain Aneurysm Foundation fundraising page.
I’m a past Board Member of the BAF, and have seen first hand the research that gets funded by the TeamCindy Alcatraz research chair. The first Research Grant that many of you helped fund is a nice example of what these funds can do. It went towards Research Professor Vince Tutino’s, University of Buffalo, research on diagnosing unruptured brain aneurysms with a blood test (more here). Today, the test is in commercialization and Vince is CEO of Neurovascular Diagnostics (more here).
And…in memory of Mum, this year I am making a personal match of every single dollar you donate to go to a small Donegal-local organization, The Solace Donegal Cancer Support Center.
In Mum’s dying months, the work of this local organization and its people touched Mum. No doubt she had driven past it just months before and thought it would hopefully never be a centre that she’d be going into. What Mum went through still breaks our hearts, for Dad, Pete, Keara and I. But too there are people still going through this misfortune and grim challenge every day in Donegal and globally, and they deserve the very deepest human support and care in their battles and last months.
When the dust has settled, I’ll post a confirmation on my final person donation to The Solace Donegal Cancer Support Center, and photo of me presenting the cheque/check to The Solace team in Donegal.
Thank you.
