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So, I have a friend up in Shropshire who is fifty years old and has never ridden a bike before. He's an academic type and always thought he would be too awkward and clumsy to be able to stay upright on a bike, so for years he's told himself he'd never possibly manage it.

He really liked the thought of cycling to work (8 miles each way) and saving on petrol whilst getting fit though, and two years ago I borrowed Bluequinn's Brompton and took it up to Shropshire where we got absolutely nowhere whilst he panicked and fell off it several times. But earlier this summer, he heard that his local council offered free cycle training for adults, so he booked himself a lesson. He had a three hour lesson in the local leisure centre carpark this morning, then I got the following two texts:

"OMG CYCLING AMAZZZZZZZING"

and

"I CAN DO IT!!! MY MUSE HAS RETURNED!!"

This cycle trainer chap must have been amazing because my friend is now brimming with confidence and can't wait to get an old bike to practice on, and when he feels he'll be safe enough to cycle to work he's hoping to get himself a big solid Pashley. The guy started him on a balance bike, getting him to run and do bunny hops, and then added one pedal after an hour, and added the second pedal after another hour.

So here's to all the cycle trainers of the world who can turn nervous 50 year olds, who have lived a life convinced they cannot ride a bike, into cycle fanatics (cos that's most definitely what's going to happen now!) :D

Thanks SO much, everyone! I have had tons of support from the chaps here so I had to come and thank you in person. Every little helps, and every pound is much appreciated! Thanks for being ace x

Oh yes please!! I would be so grateful. I am a huge saddo and am a massive Tolkien fan. I'd have loved to have come to Rollapaluza this evening but I'm recovering from a cancer scan this afternoon, and am knackkered. If there is anyone there who wouldn't mind embarrassing themselves in asking him for me, I would be super-grateful!

ETA my name's Toni :-)

Hi everyone,

I hope you don't mind me posting this here as I don't post very much, though I do enjoy meeting LFGSSers at Easts and Bluequinn says that many of you very kindly ask after me :) The following is a letter that I am sending to my former Oncologist next week; I'm sharing it around in the hope that it might bring some positivity/hope to anyone else who is currently affected by cancer. Please do feel free to pass it on if you think it might help someone! I don't want publicity for myself but really do want to spread this message and help other people to not give up hope.

Thanks tons,
Bobbinbird/MrsQuinn x

---

Dear Dr K,

Greetings, I hope that you are well! I am a former patient of yours, and am very well myself.

On January 26th 2011, I was seen at your clinic and I'm afraid that you had bad news to give me; the breast cancer that I had only recently been diagnosed with had already metastasised to my liver. You told me this - and I felt so badly for you having to deliver such horrible news - and then told me that I now had "18-24 months, maximum" left to live. You followed this up with a letter to my GP, so it is clear in all my medical records: "I have told her that she has life expectancy of a maximum of 24 months".

Dear Dr K, that was two years and one day ago. I am currently so well that my last PET/CT scans were completely clear, and my current oncologist feels that I may not even need another set of scans for six months! I take the drug Letrazole, and have the Zoladex implant, so the side-effects of these two treatments can be uncomfortable BUT in the past year alone I have gone on a walking tour of Rome, visited the archaelogical sites at Pompeii, driven a speedboat across Lake Como, climbed many hills along the Welsh Marches and attended the Olympics, where I cheered our inspirational athletes as they won their golds (something that, following your news, wasn't sure I would live to see). I've explored Guernsey's secret underground tunnels and meditated at the most remote church in Wales and have walked the Monsal Trail in Derbyshire, stopping off at the well in Eyam, the Plague Village. In the face of hell, those villagers didn't give up either.

I'm writing this letter to implore you, next time you have to break the news of advanced disease to someone - especially someone young - please tell them "well, statistically you are likely to live for x amount of months, but people DO outlive the statistics all the time, and one of my former patients has just done that". It is not fair to put an absolute limit on someone's life; there is always hope, however tiny a spark it seems at the time.

I would also ask you to do your best to ensure that your colleagues at the Breast Service are extremely careful and do not cut corners when testing the women who attend ther clinics. Six months before I saw you I was misdiagnosed by one of your colleagues, who noted that I had two breast lumps "but we ony need to test one of them, we're not worried about the other". Big, big mistake. Since then I have had many people tell me to "sue for damages", and whilst that would be the right course of action for some people, it is not how I would want to spend my now-limited life. You and your colleagues save countless lives every day, you are the reason families still have their mothers and their daughters, the reason that people can grow old with their lifelong partners. You cannot get it right 100% of the time and sadly for me, your colleague was very wrong. So, without bitterness, I implore you and your team to make those extra checks in future.

Here's to the next two years!

Yours sincerely,
......

PS my hair grew back, and it came back blonde again :-)

BlueQuinn gave me a copy of this to read last night. I couldn't put it down, it's properly excellent. Just had to log in here to add my approval.

Hello! I hope to come along to Easts soon, but I just wanted to thank Betty for the gorgeous cake which Bluequinn brought back for me last night. Mmmmmmm, cake. It was dead tasty, thanks tons xx

Hiya chaps! I'm looking for someone to make something for me and I thought I'd ask here on the offchance that I can give someone a bit of business.

It's a pretty simple item - a wooden stand for my recorders (ie the squeaky musical instrument). It just needs to consist of a stable base with dowelling rods in. This page has pictures of some that can be bought, but I'd like one made to fit my own collection:

http://www.earlymusicshop.com/Browse.aspx/en-GB/medium1_format83/1/

If anyone can help, please let me know!

Thanks tons

Toni (mrs bluequinn) xx

Sounds brilliant! I'm currently having issues getting into the game, I registered my pre-order code last week but it wants me to enter a product code and I don't think I've been sent one. I've contacted support so hopefully it wont take too long to sort out. Hopefully see you in game soon!

Hi Kirth, it would be great to join you in SW:TOR as I don't know anyone else playing. I'm going to give it a go today, if I can get in. Will hopefully be in touch!

Not really, I just hate anyone thinking I'm a wimp :D

The Skyride is about the limit. Tweed run was too much. Round the park is the normal amount. Riding on the road in traffic is right out. :-(

The Skyride was about the limit, two months after major spinal surgery. The Tweed Run was a bit much, less than a year after spinal surgery and suffering from a benign brain tumour and undiagnosed cancer at the time. Round the park is the normal amount, whilst on chemotherapy. Riding in traffic is right out, in the middle of London due to all of the above - but I'm fine in other towns and out in the countryside.

Honestly Niall, you make me sound like I need to HTFU or something!!!

A search for that registration number and make of car on the DVLA Vehicle Check page shows that the reg number indeed belongs to a silver Ford.

That's quite a coincidence but surely the Police have checked it out? Maybe the people in this car noted down the reg when they saw a car that was the same make/model as theirs, and had fake plates made up, and the genuine owner has a cast iron alibi for where their car was on the day. Or maybe the genuine car is simply same make, same colour, different model to this one.

An interesting aside is that the genuine owner is behind with their car tax, which was due on 1st May. The genuine car could be SORNed because it's not driveable, which would be another cast iron alibi for them.

I love the courtyard behind St Ethelburga's - for those who aren't familar with it, that's a Mongolian yurt that you can see through the doorway. It's there for anyone to use if they want to meditate or just sit somewhere quiet, so it's a nice place to know about right in the middle of the City.

Ooooh I know this one! Yay for Geocaching. Shame I am in Shropshire right now....

You're doing it wrong.

Bobbinbird is allowed as many handbags and shoes as she wants and in return I am allowed as many watches and bikes as I want.

You've got to have a system. And no children.

And of course, I have about five bikes of my own....

Hey Aroogah, that's an excellent write-up. Most of my own back issues are pretty specific as I was born with a quit rare condition and my history won't be relevant to most people here, but I had a bunch of spinal fusions/surgery which meant that I was fused down to L3 and eventually that causes similar problems to yous. Due to the pressure of my spine on the three remaining discs in my back, I ended up with the L3-L4 disc completely worn away (it herniated then degenerated away over time), the facet joint at the back broke and the entire fused spine slipped backwards off L4, causing a form of spondylolisthesis.

I had an XLIF procedure which is basically the same as your PLIF only done as a minimally invasive surgery going through an existing anterior surgical scar on my side in order to get the disc spacer in to restore vertebral height. They then went in through the midline of my spine (again, using an existing scar) to place the pedicle screws and rods. This extended my fusion down to L4, pulled my spinal column upright again (I'd been leaning backwards) and restored my posture as well as decompressing the nerves that had been getting squashed due to the lack of vertebral height. When I woke up from the surgery I was in far less pain that I had been right before it, it was amazing.

I have photos of them doing the surgery - I asked for these because I love stuff like this and wish there was more detail on them but they're quite cool anyway (plus bonus BQ with bedpans on his head, for your delectation):

I'm amazed by the amputee cyclists. It's massively impressive how they adapt so well. Prancer too! Keep at it sir.

I don't get to cycle as much as I'd like because of the back condition/surgeries that I've had - I only even learned to ride about 3 years ago as I wasn't allowed to as a "disabled" child. I was told it wouldn't be possible for me. What a load of crap! Bluequinn bought me a little Moulton Midi and I learnt to ride in Vicky Park and did a couple of Skyrides on it.

My main issue now is that I've had a spinal fusion from T1-L4 so I only have L5 (the bottom lumbar vertebra) left that can still move and the two remaining discs either side of it take all the stress so cycling for any sort of distance pummels the hell out of them, causes them to squash down, trap nerves and cause numbness/pain/temporary foot drop in one or both legs. Annoyingly this happened on the Tweed Run last year and eventually caused me to have to stop and push the bike just a mile from the end. I think I could probably help prevent this from happening so quickly by building my core stability muscles up so they act as a sort of "internal corset" and support things more.

Another issue is that I have a conective tissue disorder that causes joint hypermobility, and riding leaning on my wrists bloody kills after a while. I may see if I can get wrist braces made specially to help with this; I've already had some made to specifically help with painting and playing musical instruments, so I don't see why not.

The combination of these probs means that it's much more comfortable to ride sitting bolt upright on my Dutch bike (the Bobbin), but that's sooooo heavy and I struggle with the weight when I have to keep stopping and starting quickly, as in traffic. BQ has built me a fab single speed which is a lot lighter and I feel so much more in control of, even though my weight is on my wrists.

EEI you're a star, and massive massive thanks to everyone who joined us and helped make it such a happy day! It was pure joy from start to finish, just wonderful. I'm so glad that everyone else enjoyed it too! Hopefully I can spend more time with you all at Easts/other gatherings when I'm able to get down to London again, cos you're a such fab bunch of people xxx

Thanks everyone!! We had such a lovely day, and I'm glad that the weather was great for the tweed run as well.

EEI, thanks ever so much for this photo! xxx

I've just spoken to Niall, he's broken his clavicle and is in a shitload of pain and is monged on painkillers. Bugger.

Thanks tons, that's very reassuring! Have a good kip today Lynx, you must be exhausted xx

Thanks tons Nelaii. I've been training in orthopaedics so my mind is working overtime, FFS!! I'm not panicking though, just want to know he's relatively OK. We get married in less than two weeks!

If anyone has Lynx's number I'd be very grateful.

Um - please could someone update me on Niall? He's not answering his phone. Last I heard from him, he was in Kew just after 3am having a great time on the ride. Obviously I'm worried :-( I am stuck in Shropshire having treatment so I can't get home and I bet he didn't want to worry me :-(

What does it say at the top of the document, Singspeed? If there is a name I will do some lookups, see if I can find out more about this chap. It looks like he was called George A Cowell and he was from Coventry, is that right?

ETA He died in 2002 - this is from the Coventry Evening Telegraph, June 9th 2002:

"THE Warwickshire Royal British Legion's silver jubilee service and parade will be held next Sunday.

The service will be in St Mary's Church, Warwick, at 2pm and admission is by ticket only - all of which have been issued.

There will be 50 RBL and ex-service standards and three bands leading the parade which will follow the service at 3pm.

.........

CONDOLENCES to the family of George Cowell, a former standard bearer for the Burma Star Association.

A guard of honour of our standard bearers branch will attend his funeral on Thursday at Canley Crematorium."

A search of death records shows that he was called George Ambrose Cowell, was born on 3rd Nov 1916 and died in 2002. He had sisters called Laurel (b. 1920, d. 1920) and Amy (b. 1921).

That is silly Clefty, there were some amazing outfits on the ladies last year! Some fantastic vintage outfits, some brilliant handmade tweed stuff. It's hardly difficult to look for inspiration!