Much better run tonight, followed by a trip that could only aid my training- a visit to Richard House, the children's hospice I am running for.
The wobbly journey on the DLR to the dump around City Airport didn't fill me with positivity about the visit. I had armed myself with waterproof mascara and tissues, and was ready to put a brave (andpatronising!) face on for the kids, but also to be sad and upset and to count my
blessings. But I needn't have bothered. Honestly, I have never been to a place so full
of joy and humour and life. And the fact that it is joy, humour and life in tremendous adversity
heightened the positivity further.
True, I was not party to painful treatment of course,
and the rainbow sign that is hung on the door to the Rainbow Room when a child dies there was absent, but what became glaringly obvious to me, who had presumed hospices to be all about comfortable death, was that Richard House was all about LIFE! And living as fully as possible, as far as the wheely oxygen tank will allow. And you'd be surprised....
Richard House and it's staff are dedicated to fulfilling the dreams of the 200 children and young adults on its books, and it's not all Micky Mouse and football stars, but simple things, experiences we take for granted. For example, children who were not expected to make it to their teens, with advances in science, can now find themselves on the cusp of adulthood and with all the desires that go with that. So, one of the hospice's recent trips was to go clubbing in Blackpool!
Another project has been making their own films. This weekend they are having an Oscar Ceremony, complete with red carpet and Victoria Wood to hand out the awards!
I know it sounds like I'm painting a rosy picture of what must be one of the most traumatic experiences you could go through, to lose a child, but the point, I think, is that Richard House distracts from the pain, and supports during the pain, and makes as much living alongside the pain as possible, possible. We are all
dying after all. And a desire to live as much as possible makes foolish people like me want to run 26.2 miles.
So, now, in a very tiny incy wincy way, I feel proud, and certainly boosted with energy for training, and for fundraising!
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