Another Journey

WELL….. where to start?

It’s been a big week, big, big week!

In an orderly fashion, I’ll explain the stream of events.

Riding part

The night before, on the 21st, the Howlong Golf Club hosted us for a fundraiser, which was okay.  I say okay because there was a bit of confusion about the format due to an illness in the family of the staff member who was coordinating the gig. All in all, though it was a very fun night, and I got my point across. The next day, the pedal off was great. It was great to kick-start the campaign.  After 76km of heat and sunshine, I thought it couldn’t get much worse, but it turned out I was wrong (more later). That night we went to the Henty RSL with no intention of speaking, but they gave me the opportunity, so we seized it, to get the Cause out there but also to give me a rehearsal of what I was going to say in parliament. It was good! 

I’ll be frank, after two days of riding, I was crippled, I was walking like Yoda, quite literally! It felt like, when I was on the trike, I was doing backflips over Darth Vader, and when I was off it, I was hobbling around, taking an eternity to get from A to B. That was only 135kms in! I think the next day, though, was probably the hottest day we’d ever had on the rides. I think it loosened my muscles… It was still bloody hot, so we had to take a lot of breaks. Icy poles were a welcome treat.

Wednesday, it was spitting rain, and I was glad to get in and have a break from the bike, with Thursday being the rest day. Also got another opportunity to speak at the Cootamundra RSL, not quite as good as the previous talk, but it was a little bit of trial and error.

Friday was all headwind from Cootamundra to Harden, but it was manageable/survivable. The next day, though, Saturday was a different kettle of fish…. But first in Harden we met the mayor Bryan, a lovely bloke, and we talked about stroke, my stroke, and we swapped stories as if reliving the good old days.

A different story the next day, it felt like a different time,  almost another planet, it was outrageous! We climbed 1100+m of elevation, and even when we were descending, the wind was holding us up.  Someone had a bright idea, not the bloke flipping the bird at me, I/we think he had an IQ of about 2.  We got a great welcome in Yass from the Mayor, Jasmine and Councillor Adrian, but then someone had the bright idea to take the back road back to the caravan park, a dumb idea. It was a short 20% gradient climb, like I said, dumb. When we landed, we all collapsed.

Sunday was easier because we had the Pink Galahs Triathlon Team join us for the first part, which was so nice, then they left us at the gravel. Again, another person had the bright idea to drive straight through our pack of bike riders, again, IQ of zero.  If you haven’t worked out from the Socials, I hate gravel, so it was 6kms of pain and suffering….. the things I/we do for childhood stroke! Anyway, we made it to the outskirts of Canberra, where we were met by Max and his partner Maddy and Daniel, and they escorted us firstly to Parliament House and then to our caravan park. Then it was out for dinner to celebrate the landmark of the landing in Canberra.

Parliament House

Well, it was safe to say it was a major success, mostly thanks to Jo Briskey MP,  our local Member, finding the time to organise and coordinate the event, so thank you! We got to meet the class of 25’, who were the newly elected members for that year. As well, we got to meet David Pocock and have quite a chat with Minister Mark Butler, both being genuinely nice people. At the end of the day, everyone’s human and I think that’s important to remember. 

The 11 o’clock special event turned out to be a great hit with at least 10-12 MPs coming out to support us, listen to my story and what our purpose was and the kind of funding needed for research into Young Stroke. When all is said and done, we had a 20-minute conversation with Mark Butler to further reinforce the point.  Then it was into Question Time. I got a mention from Jo and then another mention by Milton Dicks, the Speaker of the House, which made me reminisce on all the efforts we have made to get to this point. I did feel honoured for sure.   I also felt a bit like a deer in the headlights when I was called out. I didn’t know what emotion to feel. I was extremely proud, that was for sure.

I probably do need to mention that there was a slight typo when the speaker mentioned my name. He said 156,000 kilometers around Australia, whereas it should have read 156,000 dollars, again, a slight typo, but I’m not complaining!

Jo gave me a call afterwards to congratulate me, and we had a brief conversation about advocacy and why we were doing this. 

The advocacy 

I think by now you all know what I’m banging on about here. I’ve lived with the stroke for just shy of twenty years. There are people who have walked alongside me the whole way, i.e. my parents, and there are many people who have joined us along the way to help spread the word about this important cause.  I believe the journey to Canberra has enhanced this, I think personally, WE have put it on the map!

Someone said to me something along the lines of ‘you should have done the 2 points right from the start’, and I agree, but I also disagree, as I don't reckon it would have had as much impact, and I don't know if Jo or Milton would have made mention of me in Parliament. Advocacy takes time. We needed to plant the seed, and now that seed is starting to grow shoots! 

On this, I think the road crew are getting worn out and might need to retire after a good innings, not out.

I’ll continue the advocacy. We've still got the 1 point, and I’ve got a few ideas in the works, but for now, just soak it all in, what WE’VE achieved.

Special thanks to Mark (behind the scenes), DJ, Heath, Rob, Robyn, Jack (editor), Anna and the whole 4 Points community, thank you!