My Story

So how did I get here? Because if you've known me for some time, this is not the sort of thing you'd expect from me.............................

At the back end of 2009 after a couple of glasses of wine, I agreed to help a good friend Jeannie, pursue her dream of joining a choir. I'd always liked singing when I was younger & still blasted out the odd tune in the shower. It might just be good fun. To cut a long story short, I went along to hold Jeannie's hand and to give her some moral support. It turned out, the choir wasn't for her, but I found a passion I had no idea had been lurking for all  this time. I became a member of FUNdamentally Gospel, a community choir based in Beckenham. We sing a mixture of gospel, pop & world music and we're 35 strong. We rehearse every Wednesday & I wouldn't miss it for the world. I never realised when I pitched up (no pun intended) to "give it a try" just over a year ago, that it would have such an impact on my life.

My first public appearance with the choir was 6 weeks after that first rehearsal. I was both petrified & horrified in equal measures to find myself on the front row! Unsure of the words to the songs, and even more unsure of myself, it was one of the most nerve-racking experiences of my life. Had I not felt so self conscious about my weight, I probably would have really enjoyed it.  So I decided that if I was going to continue this pastime that, in a short space of time, I had grown to love so so much, I would need to get more comfortable with myself.  The only way to do that, was to lose some weight & start to feel better about myself. I was going to be 40 in 2011 & I definitely did not want to be fat at 40. I had two great incentives to lose weight. I was determined, and with this in mind, took myself off to Weightwatchers.

An important part of my new regime & healthy lifestyle had to involve exercise. Over the years I've been to numerous classes, joined several gyms, tried more new fads than I care to remember, but I've never found anything that I was passionate enough about to stick at. I decided to try a new approach. In our garden shed, was a very old Muddy Fox mountain bike that a friend had given me when she moved to Australia (thanks Jenny) which had been gathering dust under the lawn mower for about a year or so. If I used this to go to the shops and back at the weekends, perhaps I could get fit without even trying and without shelling out for yet another gym membership. My first few rides were agony.....then they started to get easier.....and more enjoyable. Well I never, who knew?.....another passion was born!

At a rehearsal in August 2011, our musical director Fiona Bolton, shared with us a vision that she had for the choir to form our own charity.We'd already raised more than £1,000 for charities close to our hearts. Seeing how a collective purpose was having a positive effect on our own lives, we began to formulate a plan as to how the benefits we had gained from singing as a community could be passed back—the idea of Community Music In Action was born.

So at our Winter Concert, I proudly stood at the front of the stage, weighing 2 stone less than I had the previous year and really enjoyed myself properly for the first time. We showed our audience footage of our first project at Marjorie McClure. In the audience was my friend Ed.  It was the first time he'd seen the choir, and he was very impressed with everything I'd achieved in the last year. It was so lovely that an old friend was so proud of my achievements. Over a long Sunday lunch (and another couple of glasses of wine) I was flattered when he told me I'd inspired him to raise money for charity himself in the new year. Little did I know that I was also part of this particular piece of divine inspiration. And so, the rest, as they say is history, in June 2012, after 6 months training through the cold & bitter UK winter, myself and Ed rode from London to Paris, him raising money for Help for Heroes, me raising money for Community Music in Action. Thanks to friends and supporters of this blog I raised over £2,500 & the money has been used to help fund some really brilliant & inspiring projects.

I thought that Paris would be the end of it, little did I know it was only the beginning, the experience was one of the best in my life, I met some incredible people, all of whose stories were different, but all as touching & inspiring as the next. We started out on a journey together, which was all about endurance, over 300 miles in 3 days, we'd all trained & we all knew the challenge that lay ahead, little did I know that was only the half of it. I hoped that I might make a few new friends from it, what I hadn't expected was the camaraderie & the bond that was formed amongst us all, I know I've come away with friends for life.

If you want to get a glimpse of what L2P was like, click on the links below, but don't blink, or you'll miss me (yes I do appear in both...fleetingly!). I'm sure they won't have the same effect on you, but I still cry every time I watch these, I don't think I'll ever not.

Long Version
Short Version

I returned from Paris, bought a road bike, went back to Paris to see Bradley Wiggins lead out Mark Cavendish along the Champs Elysee & ride the circuit myself the morning before Team Sky rode into the city. A week later I watched my new found hero get gold at the time trial at the Olympics around the roads that I had trained. I realised then, that a new obsession had been born and that I just couldn't stop there......could I? So having started this journey, I'm continuing on, please join me on my journey, goodness knows where this one will end!