Walkathon – Best Day Ever!!!

What an incredible day!! 1st September, a day I won’t ever forget! I will admit, I was so incredibly worried about the day and more, how my body would feel afterwards!

I hadn’t had the best sleep the night before and the last two days were a bit worrying in terms of my energy. I had heavy belly bloating weighing me down and was very tired. Arrived at the stadium at 8.50am and greeted by loads of friends!!! I was immediately thrilled that we weren’t doing lap 1 by ourselves!!

About 20 of us took to the track at 9am on the dot!!! Such a beautiful day. We couldn’t have asked for any more! I would not have managed any wind or cold! The sun just beamed down on us the entire day!! Rain held off for the entire day!! The God’s were looking down on us all day!!

We just hit over 150 people attending throughout the day, age ranging from 2months to 74 years…..

But this guy though 💞💞💞!

Our full 12 hour supporters….

My good friend Jazz who was responsible for all the wonderful Tshirts and bags and my leggings!! Also arranged the pakoras and samosas!!! Cheers Jazz!!! Little Muskan, who did a fab day selling merch for me all day!

My best mate Bobbie who was a woman on a mission hitting 17 miles and 42000 steps completing her own half marathon on the track! Beside me every step of the way!

My sister Deb, on the right and my DJ brother in law Dev who did an amazing job of keeping us tuned up all day along with my nephew and 2 nieces!!

DJ Dev had proper skills !!! Our last few tracks to get us through to 9pm included:

You’ll never walk alone

Titanium

We are the champions

Purple Rain

And of course Rail Gaddi (The train song!!)

Proper smashed the tunes!!!!

Three cheers for the 12 hr support, not only for us but cousins that kept the kids going all day!

My sister Anita and Manmeet Bro in law and kids arrived at 9am…. went off to get suited and booted to attend a family engagement and arrived back in time for the last few hours!!!

My dear friend, Sarah, who had just completed yet another half marathon in Maidenhead and then joined us on the track for her cool down!!!

There were so many of you to mention and I really don’t want to miss anyone out. I was so touched by everyone and was fighting back the tears by 6.30pm when it got a little quiet and then everyone just came flooding back in….. was just incredible the amount of support I got that day! The last 2 hours was very well attended!!

We even had cakes made from a dear friend who’s family unfortunately had also been touched by cholangiocarcinoma.

I had a few surprise visitors including a very old friend Dawn who I had worked with around 2001. We keep in touch on facebook. Dawn has been facing her own health challenges for years and melted me when I saw her just appear in the stands!

Our uni friends Kiren and Sukh made a surprise visit all the way from Gravesend, my dear friend Will drove 50 miles from Horsham to reach us early for the first few laps and some of Suraj’s class friends attended from High Barnet despite the fact that I only managed to drop a message to them the day before!

I had a good show from my pharma friends who I had a good natter with! It is amazing how time just flies. With social media the way it is, you can go years with not actually seeing people in person. This day brought everyone together which was lovely. It seems that I am also a bit closer to getting my next line of treatment now!! All contacts at the ready should there be any hiccups !!

So here we are, work friends, yoga friends, teachers, head-teachers, mum friends, uni friends, friends who I have met on my cancer journey pulling each other along every step of the way. It just shows, when you need the support, everyone comes shining through.

I think I almost got a lap in with most people and managed to have a good catch up with everyone that came! The kids kept themselves entertained all day, it was a lot for them but they came, they walked and we achieved! I am sorry if I missed anyone in pictures, your support meant the world to me.

I was going to bring you this blog yesterday and say a massive THANK YOU to everyone but I needed a bit of sleep!!! After the walkathon came the sleepathon!!! Monday was a proper wash out which was expected!!!

I pretty much slept for 24 hrs and did little in between! So whilst everyone was getting stuff ready for back to school and sorting kids and uniform etc, I have been sleeping!

I cracked a tooth in half also after the walk….. on a piece of toast so been to the dentist today for a filling with a local anastethicteic!!!! My dentist knows ‘the drill’ and didnt push me to get the tooth out as noone wants to cause any further pain or discomfort for Sal right now !!!

So, still a bit knackered but getting there! I estimated 3 days recovery so will allow myself the time I need!

We had over 150 people attend the walk and raised over £5500 and still donations coming in!

https://www.justgiving.com/fundraising/gurmeet-cheema12

Heart scan tomorrow!!! The adventure continues!!!

Pretty much now, in my close community at least, there are many more people who are now aware about Bile Duct Cancer and the AMMF charity x