It's not moneysaving, but you might help save a life !

mike_paterson

The fund is now at £43,454 - only £546 to go.
Pledge a pound by Pay Pal and it will be £545
Cheers
Mike

mike_paterson

9th July : 21.00

WOW! YOU’VE DONE IT!

We’ve hit our target of £44000. It’s taken only four months and eight days, and what a rollercoaster ride it’s been.

There are thousands of ‘thank you’s needed but I’m so scared I’ll miss someone out! There have been so so many of you who have helped us with our appeal, either by donating, organising events, fundraising on our behalf and doing sponsored events.

So to avoid leaving anyone out, I’d simply like to say a massive thank you to you all.

Also, I’d like to say a huge thank you to those of you who have given us emotional and spiritual support. Either in person, by sending emails, letters or cards as well as phone calls. We’ve had some wonderful words written and said to us over the last four months and they’ve made us feel very warm and loved.

I was dreading writing this update. I have so many emotions about reaching our total, so many things to say but simply can’t find the words.



So I’ve put together a short video which I’d really like you to watch. It basically sums up my feelings about all of this.

There are three files available- a lower, medium and high quality version of the video. Please choose the highest quality one you can, otherwise the picture quality tends to suffer.

If you’re on Broadband, the highest quality version will take only a few minutes to download.

Right-click on the files below and select “Save Target As” or “Save Link As” to save it to your computer. You can also just left-click on it to view it, but the video may stutter while it is still being downloaded.

HIGHER QUALITY - MEDIUM QUALITY - LOWER QUALITY

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So what happens with the site now?

I’ve discovered another cause to champion! And you’ll find out about that soon.

For the next week or so, the site isn’t going to be updated as I want to make sure that all our regular visitors get a chance to see the good news.



A huge thank you to every single one of you. This has been quite an amazing experience. Four months ago I was lost and desperate, not knowing what to do and feeling completely paralysed.

But you changed all that. Now we have hope.



Love you xxx



3rd July : 20.30

A tiny teeny-weeny update tonight, just to let you know that we’ve got some marvellous news that we’re saving until the weekend.

All will be revealed on Sunday night from 9pm GMT.

Bye xxx



30th June : 22.00



A tiny update tonight.

A HUGE thank you to everyone who’s sent us cards and emails congratulating us on our engagement. We’ve really been touched by the words you’ve written. As always, we’ve received messages from people we know and people we don’t, but all of them from friends. That’s how we think about it.

Su’s been quite well this week, although she’s still been suffering badly from fatigue. No nasty side-effects from her treatment though.

The above photo was taken in my parents garden on the way back from Port Isaac on Sunday. My parents were surprised and over the moon with the news of our engagement.

We’d dearly love to have our wedding this year, but it’s going to be a job finding somewhere for our ceremony. We don’t want a church wedding but we don’t want some anonymous registry office either.

Our friends Katie and John had a fantastic wedding last year. The whole thing took place at a lovely big hotel in the middle of a golf course. The ceremony took place in the massive conservatory, then the reception was in one of the many dining rooms. It was intimate without being claustrophobic, personal without excluding people and was just so darn right. And that’s what we’d like.

Anyway, I’m waffling. I’ll update you again soon.

Bye xxx





25th June : 15.00



Great news!

Last night, in Cornwall, I proposed to Su and she accepted.

We went on a quick weekend break to Port Isaac, a little fishing village on the north coast. The break did Su and I the world of good.

After a lovely day visiting different places and a fabulous meal on the harbour front, I took Su up to the coastal path and proposed to her. It was very sweet and romantic, with the gentle breeze blowing and the sound of the waves crashing beneath us.

Su’s engagement ring isn’t staying with us for long. The jewellers didn’t have one in Su’s size but we really wanted something to take away with us to show. So we’ve got the oversized one to show off for a couple of days and then we return it to our local branch, order the same thing in Su’s size and it arrives within 8 days.

I’ve made a page all about our little trip, with lots of photos and videos. You’ll need Windows Media Player to play the videos (not Quicktime as I previously said) as the files are in WMV format.

CLICK HERE TO SEE OUR VISIT TO PORT ISAAC



22nd June : 00.30

A very quick update tonight. Just to say, our story is in the current issue of “The Weekly News” and scans are available in our Media section. Be warned, they’re big pictures so if you’re on dial-up for your Internet connection, you’re better off going out and buying a copy!

Su is okay but very fatigued. She’s very achey and sore - she describes it as the kind of niggling pains you get with flu. She’s been sleeping a lot over the last few days. Also, her hair has started to rapidly thin too. She’s fine other than that and remains her usual cheery self.

I’m taking her to Cornwall this weekend to our special place - Port Isaac. It will do her the world of good to get out from these four walls.

Since she stopped working, Su’s barely been out of the house. Apart from hospital appointments, the (few) times I’ve been able to get her out shopping and the odd visit to a friend’s house, she’s been effectively housebound for the last six months.

A bit of sea air will be just the tonic.

Before I disappear into the cyber-ether, a huge hug and thank-you to Margaret, a fellow TA from our school. She did a fundraising event for us and raised £345 for us, which has left us within touching distance of our target.

A huge update will appear on Sunday afternoon at 3pm. I’ll have a ton of photos, a few videos (which will require Quicktime player - download it from HERE if you want to be ready!), plus some fantastic news. Nope, I can’t even give you a clue, but all will be revealed on Sunday evening!

See you soon x x x

mike_paterson

A Message From Su

Finally, finally I get my turn!

I have been bursting to write this for 4 months, which apparently is how long the website has been online but every time I begged Dave to allow me to put my side forward he’d say “wait until the end”.

So here we are - the end. We have reached our target. So here I am now in a position to have my say... But what can I say?

My friends within work and out have heard this so many times already, they’re probably cringing as they plough through my painful ‘thank you’ again! My stock line is the utter frustration I feel at our pathetically inadequate English language - how can I simply say ‘thank you’ after everything that all of you have done?

‘Thank you’ - 2 little tiny words that can in no way compare to the enormity of emotion I feel. How can ‘thank you’ truly reflect my gratitude for donations varying from £1.25 from a school child’s pocket money to 3-figure gifts from complete strangers in New York or people closer to home that wished to remain unmentioned? And to top it all, 4-figure donations from others who wished to remain nameless, but they know who they are!

It goes without saying that it’s not the size of the donation, but the love and thought behind it. Plus the craziest ways in which funds have been raised: from football matches to walking around Burnham badgering passers-by!

Family and friends giving up their valuable weekends to help when they have their own jobs and homes to juggle in their hectic lives. How can ‘thank you’ repay all that?

I have cried a few tears when first diagnosed, before Dave’s brain-child of a website was devised and when the future looked bleak, it looked like there wasn’t going to be one at all.

But over the last four months I have cried so many tears- and they’re all ‘happy ones’. Tears brought on by so much love and support shown by you all.

The abundance of cards, letters and emails that can’t help but make one feel so humble; but again the frustration that I can’t give anything back.

I can’t thank you enough - all of you. After all, you have given me a chance at life - the single biggest thing we hope for.

There are no guarantees with my treatment but thanks to all of you I have a chance, which four months ago, I didn’t have.



Thank you all so very, very much.



Love,

Su.