08/10/2023 - 'My life is full of love and cake' by David

My week started in the place I love to be. At a football stadium! Not only was it a night game, which is always more thrilling, but I was back in the very first league ground that I was taken to by my father when I was eight - Portsmouth's Fratton Park. I was in the away end, as my hometown club. Wycombe Wanderers were in town for a top of league one clash. We went 1-0 up then lost 2-1 to a cruel injury time winner, but Andy and I had a nice vegan pie inside the ground and enjoyed a good sing-song, and after all, even though we all want our team to win, it is only a game.



Since my diagnosis, I really have come to appreciate the small things that used to either pass me by or that I gave little thought to. I take great pleasure in stretching out my legs when I'm in bed and then snuggling up into the foetal position and it feels good. Both of these things, I will no longer be able to do once I lose movement in my legs so I'm making sure I enjoy it while I can. Equally, I am now stopping outside gardens on my walk to work to look at shrubs and flowers that I would have previously walked past. In the last few years, I have learnt from my mother, the names of many plants and now can tell the difference between an ox eye daisy and a lawn daisy. 

On my walk to work this week, I have started to use a walking aid. I haven't fallen yet but I have stumbled a few times and I sometimes feel a weakness in my legs as though they are going to collapse. I tried the walking poles, which give me the ability to push myself up the hills, but I do feel a bit like Edmund Hilary scaling Everest and felt a little out of place on a suburban street. I have since tried and settled on my dad's old walking stick as I feel a little more inconspicuous, and it gives me just the little bit of support I need, while I am still able to walk. 

At work, we like to discuss, eat and research cake. I'm actually in the Orthopaedic and Emergency research team, but we always find time to research the ingredients, texture, and taste of quite a few cakes during the week and my life is certainly full of love...and cake.


One of the many tasks that I have given myself to undertake before I get undertaken, is to catalogue and value my vinyl collection on Discogs and even though it will take some time, it is very interesting knowing what they are all worth. Most singles are worth two to three pound, some are worth literally nothing, but some little beauties are worth a lot more. So far, the most valuable 7" single is a Red Dwarf song from 1988 by Danny John-Jules called Tongue-Tied which is worth £30 and is rather annoyingly, Alice's (grrr!) 

Staying on the music theme, my friends at work organised a karaoke on Friday night and we ruined some really good tunes, as you should do at karaoke. 


As always, we ended the week with a parkrun, in our quest to run all the parkruns in Hampshire before my legs say no and this one was a very special one!

Unbeknown to me, Alice and our great friend Andy had organised a surprise meet up and nearly 50 vegan runners from Hampshire, Bristol, Wiltshire, Devon, Dorset and Surrey descended on Lymington just to show their love and support for me! As they all started showing up, all smiles, I realised something was going on and it was very emotional.


Alice and I have been running in green and black striped socks for a few years now and we get many comments about them. Another friend, Holly ordered everyone a pair and it was amazing and truly humbling to see so many lovely friends travelling so far to run with me in stripey socks! Thank you also to Mike, for blocking me temporarily from the Facebook group to conspire this meet up behind my back and to Louise for the lovely butterfly cakes!





We all packed into the Tinker's Granddaughter, a vegan cafe in Lymington, for breakfast and more cake!


How I can still manage to run a 5k parkrun, when I struggle to walk just over 1k to work, is an absolute mystery to Alice and I, but long may it continue!

Seeya punks x

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