Well, that’s another Christmas past. I hope it was a good one for you? Is certainly was a good one for me. Interestingly, Santa brought me a pair of oven gloves. These, coupled with soap, shower gel and a new razor lead me to believe (albeit briefly) that I may be looked upon as a bit stinky and needing to probably cook more. I’m sure the latter is true and I can distinctly say that the former is false.

I thought I would take a moment to mention what I think is something usually overlooked; especially by those who suffer from chronic neurological disorders. What am I talking about? I’m talking about the power of positive thought. I’m not looking to start a new cult and I’m certainly not talking about jumping up and down waving one’s arms about. What I am talking about is making a choice every day to have a good day no matter what. My belief in choosing to have a good day seems to be working and, for what it’s worth, this certainly helped me through some difficult times.

The decision of choosing to have a good day came about some years ago when I was surfing through YouTube and came across a short film regarding an young man who was working in the local fish market. Now his job was pretty disgusting. Fingers in fish guts all day, throwing fish around, and the smell were, to him, pretty crappy conditions to work in. To his credit, he admitted as much but still looked into the camera and said that even though he didn’t like his job every day he would choose to have a good day.

Try as I might, I have never been able to find that film again. Nonetheless, that one piece of film has stuck in my mind. It’s really surprising how a second or two of film can change a whole outlook on life. There are times, and I’m sure you would not be surprised for me to tell you, when my medication doesn’t work, when my hand and arm just don’t stop flapping, when my leg just refuses to run, when my handwriting goes to hell, and when I just want to hide are not present my symptoms to the general public. I could hide. I could stay at home. I could even get angry but what would that serve? No, each time that my disease raises its ugly head, I tried to think positively about what my disease brought me. Clearly, I would really not want this disease for love nor money but I have it. What I also have his determination, clarity of where I want to go, what I want to do, and what I want to achieve. A focus on how I can improve the lives of my loved ones, friends and maybe other people with Parkinson’s along the way certainly galvanises my spirit to make change happen. The end result? A positive frame of mind and even, occasionally (and increasingly so) the smile.

This is something that works for me. It’s not fool proof and certainly sometimes I wish it would work better. However, more often than not my positive frame of mind allows me to look forward to the future. Maybe choosing to have a good day, no matter what, could work for you too? At least it’s worth a try. Why not give it a go in 2011?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FKN7aWTUrIU

With that in mind I’d like to say thank you for your support and friendship this past year, and thanks too to my sponsors for their help and assistance. 2010 certainly brought me some incredible achievements and raised in excess of £7500 for the 10MillionMetres challenge! Looking forward, I’m sure that the forthcoming year and onwards will realise new adventures, new opportunities and triumphs for all of us, and I hope you feel the same way too.

Have a fantastic, happy and safe New Year. All the very best for 2011.

Keep moving!

Dear All,

Huge apologies but the Charity premier event scheduled for the 28 December 2010 has had to be temporarily postponed due to forces outside our control. However, it’s planned to be rescheduled for early 2011, so what this space!!!

Keep moving!

Alex

So, who wants to come to a charity gala event at Cineworld on Broad Street in Birmingham? I have managed to get 20th Century Fox to release Love and Other Drugs a day early just for 10MillionMetres and I am putting on a red carpet, black tie, champagne reception, charity event to raise money in support of my Parkinson’s cause 10MillionMetres. To book your ticket visit www.cineworld.co.uk and choose Broad Street

Yesterday was a really great day…

Started early with a swim with Russ Cox. Russ is a talented triathlete and coach who recently completed in the Kona World Ironman Championships. As per usual, Russ was exceedingly patient with the fact that I still have my fear of water. However, over the last month of Russ coaching me, my swimming has improved. The legs are no longer flinging wide and sideways, upsetting my balance in the water and dragging me backwards instead of forwards. I never realised there was so much to know about swimming and body position!! Why being flatter the water is better than my habitual swimming like a brick and realising the necessity of swim drills, which that have seemingly passed me by. These having been pointed out to me in particular clarity,  I’m grateful for his attention to detail! Cheers mate!!

In addition to the swimming I was visited yesterday by the two Phils www.Pjpvideo.com ( soon to be rebranded) is a vehicle for both Phil and Phil to exercise their creative skills as photographer and filmmaker, respectively. Both of them rocked up with a major amount of kit. The explanation to which is that you never know what you will need.  It was a bit of a bizarre experience watching box after box and bag after bag of materials and equipment being shoved through the door of my small house. It was decided that the kitchen was the most apposite place to shoot me for a promo film that may hopefully realise sponsorship towards my 10MillionMetre challenge. The plan is that they will film the entirety of the challenge which I hope will have me running across the world via the UK, Dubai, across Europe, and traversing the USA. It should be quite some event and I’m excited that they’re both on board. The end of the shoot was spent by the Thames. I ran up and down the tow path and was even filmed in slow motion (not me the camera) while passing by bemused people out walking their dogs. The hounds were ignoring the runner with the funny leg and  more interested in scaring the birds off the river path. It was cold but extremely fun. I am told that the draft edit will be ready by Thursday next week. Keep your attention  here and I’ll update you as soon as.

Notwithstanding the continual advancement of my Parkinson’s, I have been lucky enough to be asked to participate in a Europe-wide selection process to select 20 people across Europe to have stem cell therapy in a new clinical trial. I have to state that this therapy is not a given and I may be one of those who don’t get the chance, but to have the opportunity is a real boost!!! In fact the first meeting where I was asked loads and loads of questions was conducted by two very beautiful and charming women. Tricky to answer some questions I can tell you. Nonetheless, answer I did and hopefully (ignoring the embarrassment factor on my part – yeah, really!!) I believe that I did well as I have been asked back. The selection process will continue through 2011 and I will post me progress here… I am a bit nervous to be truly honest. Keep your fingers crossed.

Life with a new job is settling into the familiar routine of trying to find the appropriate time and space to fit in family, the work, and also training. With that I’m heading out the door, first to buy a Christmas tree and second to get myself down the gym. I think today is a rowing day with a run afterwards. A run in the cold air to clear my head and get my thoughts together for the Dubai marathon which looms ahead in January 2011.Anyone else running Dubai? Let me know…

Keep moving and have a great weekend.