In the light of my coming of
(very old) age, I did think it was a point where I could try to do some charity
fundraising again. It is five years since I last tried to help the remarkable
Chestnut Tree House, when the challenge that I dreamt up was to do a mini
triathlon every day for the 75 days approaching my three quarter of a century
mark my 75th birthday. That was a lot of fun apart from the few days
when it rained.
So my 80th will
be four fifths of the century. Now even I can’t believe that. How did that
happen? Well anyway, this year I will devote my entire triathlon season to
trying to raise as much as last times effort when we hit a sum well over £6,000.00.
I hope to double that at least this year.
My great age and the fact
that I am still fit enough to get round a triathlon course has caused a bit of
a stir and there have been a few articles in the newspapers. The ETC Magazine
named me in the top 100 most inspirational people known to West
Sussex, along with my hero, spaceman Tim Peake, and Olympian gold medallist
Sally Gunnell, and a host of well known folk. That was very nice indeed and I
loved that honour.
Recently The Argus was given
information about me by the office of the fun Brighton
event Run2Music on May 11th when I will be doing the 10 km; it also
has a 5km and a half marathon, all very noisy, dancing, singing, music blaring everywhere. It was a
motivational piece and worked well as such.
I usually submit my own stories to
local newspapers and that makes sure all the facts are correct. Most people
will not even notice a few little mistakes, it is the heart of the story that
matters I suppose. I am a bit of a worrier if things are not totally correct. I
was interviewed but still…..
I was promised that a link
to the charity would be included and that credit would be given for the photo,
taken by my professional photographer daughter. These were not included.
That story
was taken on by my home town weekly, naturally enough, that is how news works,
and they popped me the front page. That was nice, very nice indeed and the
newspaper added an extra honour by changing their Facebook profile photo to
include the front page this week with me and my bike there large as life in the
photo taken by Jacqueline Rackham. They used the story as it stood and nobody
rang to check, in fact, the first I knew about it was when my hairdresser Helen
come to cut and colour my hair when she burst in saying “You are on the front
page of the Littlehampton Gazette”. Of course there was no credit for the photo
or a link to the charity because they had no knowledge of that one condition.
Even so my darling daughter
has said that she will do an action shoot when she gets back from her
photographic holiday in Scotland.
She thought we should do that to keep the photos fresh and up to date. How kind and thoughtful of her.
This thought now to conclude
this bit of blathering. I was contacted in December by Einar Tho who is editor
of the Haugesunds Avis Newspaper in Norway. This is because I had entered
The Ironman 70.3 Haugesund and would more than likely be the oldest woman in
the event. That will be my main race this summer on June 30th. I
look forward to that tremendously. Einar sent an email with an introduction of
himself and followed with nine sensible questions then followed that up with
more questions and some clarification.
In the fullness of time he
sent me the article to see and who knows what it says because it is of course
in Norwegian. I posted it on Instagram and one of my Scandinavian friends told
me it said really nice things and not to worry. There was a ripple of new Norwegian
follower friends and that is really good I am tickled pink about that. I hope
they will come to the race and shout loudly at me, the more the merrier because
that is the only down side of races abroad, nobody knows you.
Any publicity is good
publicity eh?
To Donate: www.justgiving.com/fundraising/Daphne-Belt
If you prefer there is also a link to AgeUK if you google Justgiving.com/DaphneBeltAgeUK
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