Saturday, June 9, 2012

Please help by donating what you can!!

On the 11th October 2011 God, the universe or whatever you would like to call the cosmic sentence, took pity on my Dad after his long battle with cancer and gently leaned over and blew out the flame containing his life. I can remember sitting in the small room at Calvary, which seemed unseasonably cold and grey, as we waited and waited for Dad to finally let go and move on.

It was horrible to see what this disease had done to my Dad’s once strong body. A body which brought me life. A body which had clutched me to its hairy chest. A body which had hauled me clear from waves when near drowning. A body which had cared for me when I was ill. A body which was now a shell of it’s former self - frail and emaciated. A body only tethered to this life by the strong spirit of the man within. With every laboured breath, the murky greyness in the room seemed to increase as we all sat in silence, wondering if that breath was the last one.

Eventually it was.

I can distinctly remember the surrealness of emerging from the grey room and looking out into a spectacular sunset, the sun’s golden rays spreading out over Botany Bay as though they were arms welcoming back Dad’s spirit and realising that greyness in the room was nothing more than my imagination. A reflection of the collective grief welling up within us all.

During Dad's battle I can remember the worst part, for me, was being unable to do anything to make him better. I felt completely impotent. It made me feel a little worthless. Here was this man, my Dad, who had given me life and done so much for me and when he needed it most there was nothing I could do. Of course I could be there for him and let him know I loved him. These things would help him and support him but they wouldn’t make him better. I’m ashamed to admit that these feelings of inadequacy did lead to me probably not doing as much as I could, as seeing him brought these feelings on. I mean I was there for him but I could have done more. I even found a little solace in the bottle at times. Selfish I know - it’s as though I was making his illness about me - but these were the feelings that it conjured up. My stepmum Kim was a rock of support for him.

Two days after the first anniversary of Dad’s death (the 13-14th October 2012 which coincidently falls on what would have been Dad’s 62nd birthday) my sisters and I are embarking on a 200km ride over the two days as part of SunSuper’s ride to conquer cancer. We are raising funds for the Dr Chris O’Brien Lifehouse which is a leading cancer research and treatment clinic who will hopefully produce a cure for this insidious disease soon, so no one else will have to watch it eat away at their loved one’s.

My sister Jodi has recently had her own bout with Cancer. She is still recovering well from her radical hysterectomy which she had a couple of weeks ago and is going to do this ride with me. Strong woman!

This is where all you guys come in.

 This ride is about raising funds to allow for continued research into beating this disease. We were lucky, Dad didn’t suffer a great deal compared to some people. Everyone out there will know someone that has been affected by this disease and chances are someone very close to you will be affected soon too, unless we can stamp it out of existence. Mothers, children, wives, girlfriends, fathers, brothers, sisters, young, old no one is immune. For me personally I see this as my opportunity to offer something that I couldn’t when Dad was ill, assistance in making other people better.

 The minimum expected amount of funds each rider is expected to earn is $2,500 We are aiming to get to double that each so $5,000 for each of us three meaning a total of $15,000. This is not going to happen without all your support. Please please give generously and help us, Team Bailey, achieve the fundraising goals we have set for ourselves.

Please show your support by donating and sharing this story and this page on your facebook walls or amongst your friends. You can donate through here - http://cfrau.convio.net/site/TR/Events/Sydney2012?px=1149766&pg=personal&fr_id=1070

We will also be conducting some raffles and possibly an event prior to the ride too for funds so please all of you who have a business out there and can contribute something to be raffled off or put into a prize pool please do so.

Anyone who feels they are up to the challenge and wishes to join me for the ride get in there - the more the merrier - the rego is $50. Bear in mind though that everyone is expected to do fundraising to hit the minimum individual rider amount of $2,500.00 (don’t worry we will be fundraising together and splitting proceeds between each other evenly for raffle proceeds and events its just that SunSuper needs every rider to hit that minimum). Join through this website - join as a team member of “Team Bailey!” using the password “bails” and join us on this challenege!!!

Thanks so much to everyone who helps out, it really means a lot to us.

Team Bailey-
John
Cassie
Jodi
You????