Doing the Bridgathon

Today was the Bridgathon. The weather forecast was for wind and rain, so we donned our waterproofs and headed off to London in the car. In the backpack we had cheese rolls, water and rather optimistically an umbrella (it proved to be far too windy to use it).

We arrived at the meeting place on time, and got our tee-shirts. For maximum publicity we wore these over the top of our coats. Here we are at the start, still dry!

The walk was officially started by the charity's patron Julian Rhind-Tutt, a British TV actor. Here he is with Rose:

Julian told us that in a few days time it would be 20 years since he had his bone marrow transplant!

The walk started at the London Eye, and we set off toward Westminster bridge with the Houses of Parliament looking rather grand as the backdrop:

 

 

We then crossed Westminster bridge, and continued walking along the riverside and crossing various bridges along the way. The walk passes lots of great landmarks along the Thames, but sadly the weather forecast was very accurate, and it got wetter and windier as the walk wore on, which made it harder to enjoy them. Here we are in front of the Golden Hind

 

 

We crossed over London's famous Tower Bridge at the furthest point of the walk, and by a coincidence it was raised to let a rather tall masted ship pass through.

 

 

 

We had our cheese rolls whilst waiting for the bridge to be reopened (just a few minutes), and then headed on towards the finish. The weather had become really bad by now - driving rain and wind - although there were still a decent number of tourists out and about!

 

As we were walking around, I did feel very proud of London, surely the greatest city on Earth. Nowehere else can you find such a fabulous mix of history, culture and stunning archictecture, both old and new. Here is the brand new London Shard:

 

 

 

 

We finally arrived at the finish after two and a quarter hours, tired and rather wet.

 

 

 

I also seem to have picked up a rather painful blister! The walk was just over 7 miles, and over 200 people took part, so despite the weather I think the day was a success. This is the route that we took:

 

 

 

Many thanks again to all of you who donated.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Bridgathon

This week at the clinic was fairly run of the mill. My counts are strong, even my haemoglobin is back to where it was before I got leukaemia. My blood pressure is also back to its former glory (110/60), and I even lost a little weight! I have had absolutely no GVH after the DLI in July, but I still hope that the cells are doing their work and killing off the last of my host lymphocytes. At the next clinic in October they will do another chimerism test, and I will find out.

On Sunday we are doing the "Bridgathon" - a walk over some of the bridges in London, in support of the  leukaemia and lymphoma unit at UCH. Many thanks to all of you who donated to the charity,  I know that they will use the money wisely.