Wednesday, August 19, 2009

Bloody Brilliant!

The British population has and still is overflowing with bloody brilliant talent! William Shakespeare, Sir Paul McCartney, Julie Andrews (or is it Dame Julie Andrews...either way, she brought us a spoonful of sugar), J.K. Rowling (Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint need a shout out as well), and the list goes on and on. Yesterday I found out about another Brit, worth mentioning for setting goals and not stopping until they are completed. This blog entry should probably be dedicated to my Mom, (Hi!) because she has been sharing her life with a not-so-friendly disease: My dad. Just kidding, Dad...but she has been battling the ups and downs of Parkinson's Disease and I wanted to share this journey of James Bowthorpe with her and the rest of my avid readers:)

James (I hope it's okay we are on a first name basis) has an incredibly interesting website that is worth a look http://www.globecycle.org/. Basically, James is raising money to research Parkinson's Disease. Sure, that's a great idea but the way he is attempting to raise 1.8 million pounds (1 British pound = 1.6554 U.S. Dollars) is admirable. He is doing the unthinkable. James is riding his bicycle around the world 120-150 miles a day for 150 days to reach 18,000 miles, and ultimately breaks the record for longest distance biked. This will beat the record by nearly 4 weeks! You can track him online http://whereintheworldisjames.com/ and see that he is currently in the U.S. I know there are millions of people raising millions of dollars for all sorts of organizations that fight diseases, cancer, equality, and so many more but I am so happy to hear about more raising money to research Parkinson's disease. I could write pages on how well my mom does at being stronger than the disease itself. I wouldn't be surprised if she got on her bike and met James for his ride up to New York. So there it is. Another Brit that shows his talent in a different category with his perseverance and drive. Now I think I can manage running 19 miles. Thank you James. Love you Mom!

Best,
Anne