Wheelistically @ Claire.NU

On this com­ing Sunday, it will be a year to the day, since my beloved Grandad passed away.

Just a short while before his passing, him and Nanny gave me £5 “Easter money” (as an older grand­child, I was too old for a chocol­ate egg, so instead I received money). When Grandad passed, I became very sen­ti­mental about this £5 note, it seems silly now, but it was the last gift I ever received from my Grandad and I wanted to hang onto it. For a time, I went to great lengths not to spend or part with this par­tic­u­lar £5 note until K finally clocked-on to its import­ance and gave me an idea. She sug­ges­ted I put that par­tic­u­lar note in with the money I was plan­ning to donate to the hos­pital in his memory.

You see, when Grandad passed, he was in the middle of radio­ther­apy treat­ment for Can­cer, it was Nanny’s wish that instead of buy­ing flowers, friends and fam­ily were to give a dona­tion in Grandad’s name and memory to the depart­ment of the hos­pital that treated Grandad (to con­trib­ute towards the cost of purchasing/maintaining the radio­ther­apy equip­ment). K said that by doing this, I was doing some good with the money and it would forever be asso­ci­ated with Grandad and his memory, without me kart­ing ’round a scruffy fiver for the rest of my existence.

I thought that Grandad would be pleased with the ges­ture, if he knew and so added the £5 note to what I had planned to donate. Over­all, just through close friends and fam­ily, we raised around £700 for the Onco­logy Depart­ment of that hos­pital, which accord­ing to the per­sonal let­ter Nanny received, was grate­fully acknow­ledged by the kind staff there.

In a coin­cid­ental twist of fate a year later, another cause has come to light, also for the bene­fit of Can­cer suf­fer­ers. Maurice, the father of a fel­low blog­ger, Ame­lie, is run­ning 4 km in a sponsored effort to raise money for the Pro­state Can­cer Char­ity on the 9^th April. In a fit­ting trib­ute to Grandad, I have donated a now sym­bolic £5 towards his efforts.

I wish Maurice the very best of luck with his upcom­ing run and hope that oth­ers con­trib­ute to his spon­sor­ship so that he may raise as much money as pos­sible for his chosen charity.

If you would like to find out more about Maurice and his cause, you can read Maurice’s story here and spon­sor him, if you wish.