Cycle4Sepsis on the radio

Today Jorg and I got interviewed on BBC Radio Lincolnshire about the ride.

I don't need to write about this... just have a listen instead

Once you've heard us, please DONATE AT THIS LINK!

 

 

#cycle4sepsis

SPONSOR ME FOR #cycle4sepsis HERE

 

Blimey it's been 12 months since my last [proper] post. I guess with all the legal wranglings being over, I've kind of not felt the need to post. That does not mean I'm happy with the decisions made. Far from it. As I said to someone the tother day who foolishly asked me about it, I've absolutely no closure over the whole thing. The solicitors and the ULH basically left me in limbo with no real explanations to all the questions still rattling around in my head. For large organisations...neither of which really care (let's be honest!) about one person, they can easily forget and move on. When it is your entire life, livelihood and family that is affected, it's not so easy.

Anyway, so what has been happening in the last 18 months? Alot of cycling for sure. Achievements? Well that would have to be riding Paris Roubaix. Last year a small group of us rode the 140km route and this year we rode the full 170km with all the sectors of pavé... one of the toughest and most enjoyable events I've ever done

In between all this I discovered Sepsis UK were beginning to do a cycle event. By the time I realised, I was too late for last year's event. 

Some history on Sepsis UK...Dr Ron Daniels founded the UK Sepsis Trust a while ago. I'd been emailing him since 2011- I guess at the time I was looking for answers- and Ron was [and still is] most supportive. They began as The United Kingdom Sepsis Group ('the UKSG') which was a voluntary group of medical professionals trying to raise awareness to sepsis and the trust and charity grew from there.

When I originally set up Go With Crow, I was going to do a bike ride Lincoln to London finishing in the Olympic park. At the time this was not possible to organise (finishing in the olympic park was, I discovered, not going to happen as this was prior to the Olympics and so the area was quite secure with far too much red tape)

So the opportunity to do cycle4sepsis was perfect: Right charity and a course I'd planned to ride anyway. So now I just need a team.

A couple of years ago I was contacted by a guy who had read this blog. Turns out HE TOO had contacted sepsis at Lincoln County Hospital and for whatever reasons, my ramblings had been of use and interest to him. We had a common point of interest- The Lincoln Drill Hall. And so we met. I knew nothing about Jörg but he [having read my blog] knew everything about me. This was somewhat uncomfortable and we talked. I remember the Drill Hall being particularly noisy that day so couldn't hear all that Jörg was telling me. I also found our conversation really hard to cope with. I'd not done this before. I'm no counselor. I've not got the answers. I'm not comfy with this. Also, Jörg  had similar problems as me- gallbladder related- and he'd been transferred to the QMC...this is the place I was too ill to be transferred to...for a brief moment this had really angered me... how come he was fit enough to be moved when I was dying in ICU?... you see what shit this does to your head! It's not nice and it's not logical. It's not Jörg's fault ffs! I left thinking about it for days. It brought more flashbacks on. 

We'd arranged to meet just after Christmas and I cancelled. I couldn't cope. It took me ages to get my head around meeting another survivor of sepsis...it was like looking in a mirror. I thought I could cope. I thought I was getting over it all. Ha! Not a chance!

Since then we have met a few times and all is okay. Jörg is running which is brilliant, so I thought, let's see if he fancies #cycle4sepsis... and yes! We have a team!

#cycle4sepsis

Originally I would have liked to have had staff from Lincoln's ICU ride as well. In theory, they were saying yes but when I needed a definite answer not one of them came forward. I guess for some, when it is your job, you don't always want to 'live' it and so free time can be very precious. When you're the victim (that's a bit of a strong word, but you know what I mean) it means the world to you and becomes a conviction or even an obsession. To say I was disappointed that not even one person from ICU would ride was an understatement. But the two of us will be fine. The route is planned, hell, I even designed the jersey for the event! And we've over 50 riders from England, Scotland and Wales participating.

Too many people develop sepsis. Too few survive.

We're survivors of sepsis, bereaved family members riding in memory of loved ones, doctors and nurses (not Lincoln! LOL) all riding in to London for us all to converge onto Westminster for a reception with ministers at the Houses of Parliament and this will be the UK's way of marking World Sepsis Day. On the way down, all the different teams will be stopping off at hospitals to raise awareness of Sepsis and any other PR required.

The Sepsis 6 for healthcare professionals is one of the drums we'll be banging:

If you look it up on Wikipedia, it says- The Sepsis Six is the name given to a bundle of medical therapies designed to reduce the mortality of patients with sepsis

1. Give high-flow oxygen 

2. Take blood cultures 

3. Administer antibiotics 

4. Measure serum lactate and full blood count

5. Start IV fluids

6. Commence accurate urine output measurement

WITHIN ONE HOUR

And our charity page? Well, we're called Lincoln Sepsis Survivors. Click the link to go to the page and make a donation.

You can also text donations to 

FILY50 £10 to 70070 (or change the £10 bit to any amount)

or click here

So what happens to the money? This is an important one for me. Sponsoring a charity is very commonplace with everyone doing something for their fave charity. I think it is important the we all know where the cash actually goes. So I asked Sepsis UK...

"£100,000 received last year nearly £85,000 was spent directly on fulfilling our objects. As a 'service charity', i.e. one where we need to develop clinical pathways, systems, form coalitions, deal with the government, educate health professionals etc and therefore need to employ clinical staff, our salary costs will always be higher than, for example, a grant-making charity which assesses applications and awards funds. Our priorities for this year are the development of a national exemplar system and registry for patients with sepsis, continuing professional education and public awareness, and growing our support networks."

If I'm reading this correctly 85p out of every pound is used for the purpose it was raised for and therefore 15p is admin costs. I'm not sure the larger charities can show similar figures.

Social Media Rant to 'Like' or 'RT'...neither... just sponsor me!

And while I'm on here, as useful as social media is... be it Facebook or Twitter... A 'like' or a 'retweet' does not count as helping to sponsor me...it does if you 'like' then sponsor me or 'retweet' and then put some money in the JustGiving page... you have no idea how frustrating this charity thing can be.

Rant over!