My dad, the Macmillan fundraiser!

[Tony Wonfor]

Mad?

 

He's a bloody hero!

 

Please let us know if he passes through Audlem. There'll be a pint of whatever he likes on the bar at the Shroppie Fly and a nice warm meal to go with it.

 

There are many people on this forum who have been touched by this horrible disease and many more who have donated towards fighting it. Your Dad will no doubt re-light folk's generosity when they see him on his travels. There will be a donation going in tomorrow, especially after my wife Chrissie reads this.

 

Please tell him to carry on as far as he can and we'll be with him all of the way!

 

Mike

Thanks Mike thats really nice. The generosity of people continues to astound him and I don't think he'll ever get bored with it. Whether it be a passing donation into the "bucket" or an invite into a narrow boat for a cup of tea and a biscuit. He's finding it really hard (especially when it rains as he has to stay as dry as possible because he has no means of drying out!) but I think the moral boost more than makes up for it with peoples kindness.

 

Lost my mum six years ago to cancer - Macmillan and Marie Curie were amazing, got me through it no question. Good on your dad and I hope you and your family have many happy memories - as the years go on the funny and good memories become stronger as the sad and difficult memories fade (a little bit).

 

BTW - got my monthly donation direct debit set up - its all needed and I know appreciated.

 

Thanks CV32, I don't think (as Mike says in the previous post) you realise just how many people have been affected by this terrible disease and the sooner they find a cure the better. What he's doing has brought a lot of memories back for people on the waterways. I think he'd have been a lot further on now if it wasn't for the constant chats he has with people. He tells me he was consoling a woman in tears the other day as she made him tea as she had been affected also.

[Doorman]

Tony, let your dad know this! Mrs Doorman has been affected by this blight on modern society too, she will not give in to it and after eight years of being diagnosed with breast cancer, no end of hospital internments and the spread of it to her stomach, she's still here with me. If it wasn't for the caring people from all walks of the NHS, including the amazing MacMillan staff, I don't think she'd have made it this far. She decided to open a 'just giving' site to invite anyone who cared to donate towards Cancer Relief UK, with a humble target of £100, to date she's reached £10,500. Not without many kind donations from the forum members and people from around the world. To help with your dad's morale when the going gets tough, give him a target to reach. At first make it attainable, then when he's made that give him another. It's amazing how the mind and body can overcome challenges when there's a target involved. It is great to see the thanks and appreciation from the doctors and nurses when their patients or relatives give something back to help future causes. Keep him going and you never know, he might surprise himself and end up living on the water when he gets the bug. Mike.

[Tony Wonfor]

I know where you're coming from. He's solely doing it for Macmillan. Theres a slight bitterness I think when it comes to doctors as you'll see in the links I've posted. He appeared in some tabloids because my mum complained to the doctors for ages and was told she had nothing wrong with her. It wasn't until it was too late that they found out she had cancer. He has named his craft "Listen". The funeral went past the doctors surgery and the floral tribute in the hearse spellt out the word "Listen"

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133908/Listen-patients-Widower-sends-poignant-message-doctors-wifes-funeral-claiming-misdiagnosed.html

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4274370/Widower-tells-docs-who-missed-wifes-cancer-Listen-to-patients.html

 

Even Ann Widdecomb did a piece on it in her column......http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/317695/Why-don-t-doctors-just-listen

[Doorman]

I know where you're coming from. He's solely doing it for Macmillan. Theres a slight bitterness I think when it comes to doctors as you'll see in the links I've posted. He appeared in some tabloids because my mum complained to the doctors for ages and was told she had nothing wrong with her. It wasn't until it was too late that they found out she had cancer. He has named his craft "Listen". The funeral went past the doctors surgery and the floral tribute in the hearse spellt out the word "Listen"

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2133908/Listen-patients-Widower-sends-poignant-message-doctors-wifes-funeral-claiming-misdiagnosed.html

 

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/4274370/Widower-tells-docs-who-missed-wifes-cancer-Listen-to-patients.html

 

 

 

Even Ann Widdecomb did a piece on it in her column......http://www.express.co.uk/comment/columnists/ann-widdecombe/317695/Why-don-t-doctors-just-listen

Tony,

 

That is so sad to hear what happened through neglect. The disease is hard enough to cope with when diagnosed in its early stages but to be constantly told that it's IBS is simply neglect! I lost my mother-in-law twenty years ago through pancreatic cancer, even though a 'UK specialist' insisted that there was nothing sinister going on.

 

In Chrissie's case it was the early intervention of her GP who should take the credit for referring her for a scan, together with the brilliant Italian surgeon who performed surgery to remove the tumour and lymph glands. From there on in we cannot praise the NHS highly enough.

 

I suppose anyone who has been lucky enough to stay clear of cancer might well find this thread and this particular post, a little depressing. That may be so, but in reality, the odds are stacked against a high percentage of the population when it comes to the disease. All the more reason to support people like your dad and his worthy cause!

 

Mike

[Tony Wonfor]

Well said Mike!

[gaz_88]

Well done to your dad!!!!

I saw him on thursday going passed the Boat Yard Restaurant. was confused at first just seeing a head going passed the window ha.

 

Best of luck!!!

[Dr Bradley]

Passed him today on the Fulford Branch. He helped get my boat off the side in this wind.

[Tony Wonfor]

Some more posts from hi "journal" on the Macmillan website

 

i have to rectify an error , last night i stayed at rileys green , belonging to john my host, i did state that it was rileys marina , going a bit stir crazy.
not wanting to out stay my amazing welcome i sculked off at seven thirty as i arrived at the next set of locks " all seven of them " i was greeted by john and his son louis plus steve ,picture supplied, an egg and bacon sandwich was thrust into my hand as well .
they then proceeded to take me through all of the locks while i sat in the boat like lord muck,during this time it was raining but they werent bothered .
i dont know how to thank them all enough.
pulled up at a place called botany bay , what an amazing place , sold all sorts on five floors of a huge ex brewery , also dried out a bit .

 

___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

after the lads had help me with the eight locks i fet obliged to crack on a bit ,but the rain got worse , supposed to be nice in the south but it aint up here in lancashire.

i got to a place called botany bay an ex brewery taking up five floors , what a collection of " stuff " all sorts,i loitered for a time , i even asked carol " my late wife" as to wether i should set of or not , she said i only ask her advice when things get shitty so its your call , i decided " wrongly again " to set off , it rained harder within minutes , yet another of my trademark cockups , up went the brolly but i was soaked anyway , two hours later i arrived at the notorious twenty one locks at wigan, no way was i starting that little lot tonight , so , a shower , dinner , and bed , if i get up early enugh the locks the locks may still be in my favour , another totally diferant day .
its six oclock and the piggin sun has come out , " i dont believe it " what the bloody hell is going on , i am going to bed , sod it .

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

dongles , f..k em ,

lost half an hours typing.
again.
left the top lock of tweny two , at six thirty , did ten in about two hours or so , single hand , i was at peace with the world , then the wheels not only fell off , one came back and hit me in the face .
what happened , well two narrow boat were catching me up , and also two were coming up , so i pulled out of their way , i had breakfast , a lump of cheese and a two day old chocolate cake , i then carried on , but a nice lady had left one of the sluices open in my lock and as a result the bugger emptied , with " listen " sat on top of a raleigh chopper and a shopping trolley ,and no water, i was fuming , just a tad vexed , as i emerged from the chamber with no shoes and socks on , due to having lift up the boat i was confronted by a young man , he explaned that he had lost his mum to cancer , he put a fiver in my hand and then broke down , i gave him a consoleing pat on the shoulder and he went on his way, by this time i was in the same state he was in , as a result of this i did not give a fig about my predicament ,
i was cool .
to rectify my situation, i emptied the lock above , i reported this to the canal people , they blamed me for all this , but it was only blame .
they eventually got me going again, that was so abridged , but to end on a bright note , two school boys asked what i was doing with such a strange boat i told them and one of then put one pund fifty into the bucket , nice to know the young do care . see ya .

 

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

 

rufford

all of a sudden i am at the start of the rufford branch , lock one , its pissing down by now , i seek refuge in " guess where " a pub.
five locks later , soaking wet, i arrive at my last lock for the night , it was tottaly covered in floating rushes , no way i could get to the marina on the other side of the lock, but along came "dorothy" a lovely lady between up we pushed the reeds aside enough to get my boat through, thanks dot .
into the marina , st marys at rufford , a fabulous place , about to be lowered by my boat and me ,
mark the supervisor took one look and then another i asked if i could hook up for the night , he agreed and waved all charges , a gent , in the morning he let me use the showers , third one so far , and he donated a twenty pound not as well , thank you mark and jackie .
if i finish this days report i will be up to date, so i will, left the marina at nine , and the wind blew and blew , the next swing bridge i came to would not stay open , it just blew back , had to wait for a boat to turn up, this couple got blown to one side of the canal , it took ages to get us both through , thanks for their help .
reeds and more bloody reeds , i was stopped twice in midstream , had to declog on a blind bend , not much fun .
i have as i type arrived at "lock eight " , i am not going to be allowed on the "ribble with my boat for safety reasons , so this is as far north as this dude goes , its not the most northery point but it will do for me ,what no, turn around and go back to wigan in order to get onto the bridge water canal, that was more like a book . seeya .

[Guest]

Tied up at Parbold L&L last Sunday 28/4. I wish this person well with his venture; a very fine effort.

 

Edited April 30, 2013 by Guest

[Tony Wonfor]

His post for today,

 

"my return from tarleton to lathom was a carbon copy of the trip from lathom to tarleton , same wind, same reeds and same rushes , even dorothy helped me again , spooky that ,thanks dot.

just got back to lathom as it was getting dark, a pint in the ship, and bed .
tuesday , at least i think it is, was a strange day , not a bloody thing went wrong , plenty of shit in the locks to dodge, but no problems other than that , the sun even came out .
this is odd really , a whole day and nothing to winge about , yes there is , one of my socks keeps going to sleep, " slididing down into my shoe" , why doesnt the other one do it .
i am off to bed before i find something else to ramble on about , night all .
i will continue to thank you all for your kindness and donations , you know who you are , thanks.
macmillam.tributefunds.com/carolwonfor"

[Doorman]

Ah, St. Mary's Marina, I'd wished I'd known that you were going there. We still have friends who moor there and they would have chipped in with donations had they known about the cause. Very good of Mark + Jackie to help out too! Just as well John didn't take the wrong turn into Fettler's Wharf Marina by mistake, otherwise that would be the last we would have heard from him!

[Tony Wonfor]

I'm following his route on Google earth and marking it with a "path" but for the life of me I can't work out how he's going to get to Llangollen. He's at plank lane swing bridge right now (Leigh just outside Manchester). I usually follow the route ahead of him so I know where he's going but I seem to go off course. Am I right in thinking that at some point today he'll go across a little aquaduct across the Manchester ship canal?

[Guest]

I'm following his route on Google earth and marking it with a "path" but for the life of me I can't work out how he's going to get to Llangollen. He's at plank lane swing bridge right now (Leigh just outside Manchester). I usually follow the route ahead of him so I know where he's going but I seem to go off course. Am I right in thinking that at some point today he'll go across a little aquaduct across the Manchester ship canal?

Should do. He'll then venture through Trafford and Sale. A pretty straight run without locks and stuff.

[Graham Davis]

Am I right in thinking that at some point today he'll go across a little aquaduct across the Manchester ship canal?

 

He will turn right in Wigan, down the Leigh Arm to join the Bridgwater then cross the Barton Swing Aquaduct (Barton Tank) across the Shitp Canal.

[Tony Wonfor]

I've followed down from there and found the Anderton boat lift (which looks like an amazing piece of engineering!). I'm assuming that to get to Llangollen, he'll need to use that to switch back across to Wales?

[8 Hairy Feet]

Your Dad is a trooper...reading through his posts

he certainly isn't having a breeze.

I'm really in awe of his dogged determination.

We need more folk like him in this world

steffxxx

[Tony Wonfor]

Thankyou Steff. He's been a grafter all his life but to be honest, I can't believe he's stuck it out this long. Its been 3 weeks now and he has had awful weather, boating problems (due to lack of experience) some days without food so he really is putting himself through the paces. But I genuinely think its the kindness and generosity of the people that he meets along the way that will see him through. There have been times that he's wanted to say "enough's enough" and then one simple act of kindness will push him on through.

[Tony Wonfor]

Dads next post (01-05-2013)

 

"bridgewater canal , arrive at wigan , trouble free , i stop for the night at leigh , a mill town , with a " pub ", a meal , a football match and bed .

very quiet day that was .
may the first , and the trees are looking good , a bit green.
one mile out of leigh and i caught some guys fishing line , he was so pi**ed off that i began to laugh, this made him even madder , but i had never seen such a fit of temper , he asked for a tenner for the tackle he lost , i refused .
next up the engine starts sounding unwell , i stopped at bridgewater marina for some help, the proprietor dave found jim , he fixed the engine , karen made some toast , dave also found 12litres of petrol , on the house because he liked the macmillan cause , plus a few donations , the generosity of people astounds me , bless em .
next up i come to the manchester ship canal swing bridge , its broke , two hours later , i am off again, then it happened again , nothing went wrong for the rest of the day .
i stopped at warrington for the night , had dinner in another pub , this is now the norm, i will end up an alcoholic at this rate , good night , up to date again.
winge of the day, i asked why was the bridge not working , one of the workers said it could be fixed by putting a bung in a pipe, but they have to bodge it because obtaining a bung will take their management two weeks to obtain , you can buy them in travis perkins for twenty quid , progress .
night night."

Edited May 2, 2013 by Tony Wonfor

[Tony Wonfor]

Dads latest post

 

could not be ar**d to move .
eight oclock and i am off , first up a tunnel , i eat these for breakfast now , thanks to my ten quid wilkos torch.
out of the tunnel and thats it , the next lock is , " locked " , due to a breech some months ago , one mile and thats it .
met a guy named graham , he had been there a week , but he was not one bit bothered nor were the other twenty or so , he made me tea and also gave me loads of info , priceless when you dont know what you are doin or where you are going , thanks .
off to the pub , for a change , when i came back there was no sod to be seen , not a sole , while i was away they opened the canal , i went bed bed too late to set off now , night , night .

Narrow boat world have kindly done another write up on him http://www.narrowboatworld.com/index.php/leatest/5739-new-ceo-takes-pay-cut

[Guest]

Brilliant posts and a brilliant effort for a very worthwhile cause

[Tony Wonfor]

His latest post,

 

"the reopened canal is full of crap , most of which i found wrapped around my outboard, but i have mastered the art of removing it whilst on the move a bit scary but i cant be arsed to keep stopping.
i see graham from the day before , he waves me down so that i can check out the anderton lift , i did not know what it was , what a piece of kit , built in 1875, and still going.
graham and his mate keith proceed to hijack the site manager , jason watts ,so that i can be taken up and down on the lift , he takes a look at my boat and some how it met the criteria he required , he let me on , as long as i let the canal trust use the pictures that were to be taken for their site, no problem there.
jason also took my macmillan bucket around the trip boat , he came back with sixty five quid , and a cd of all the pictures he took ,what a diamond , also thanks to graham and keith.
next up , A SHOWER .!!.
then i met an angry lock , for some reason its mechanism worked the opposite way , but i tried to wind it my way , as a result it kicked back and whacked both my hands , i nearly f...ing swore.
time to find a spot to bed down , outside a pub , where else , you know when you walk into a pub and all eyes are on you , it was like that , how wrong was i to judge people like that , sorry folks , to a man they were great , even got offered a free meal , plus the landlady is going to do something for macmillan , i will not prejudge people again "

The Macmillan fund is swelling nicely. Its hit the £1k mark now and he's still in his first month. I imagine it will be a like snowball building momentum soon as everyone he meets seems to have been expecting him. Word really is spreading fast!

Edited May 6, 2013 by Tony Wonfor

[liberty.viner]

Is your father going to be around for the Crick Boat Show May Bank Holiday weekend.

[Nightwatch]

Sort of story they should cover on the One Show.

 

Anyone know anyone on the One Show?

 

Was too many ones?

 

Martyn

[Alanji]

Very glad to have met John and had a cuppa with him at Ellesmere this morning and helped to swell the funds a little.

 

Be generous people!

 

ETA He is not getting enough support - ideal for One show as Martyn suggested. Also local news and radio - the sort of story they would love. Anyone with connections please help.

Edited May 9, 2013 by Alanji

[8 Hairy Feet]

The One Show has a section on

it's website to send in ideas...