37 miles to meet James Burton

Two of the main people in charge of the Kidney Care Appeal are Alice Smith, who I’ve met before, and James Burton, who I went to meet today. Alice comes from the university / science side of things, and James comes from the NHS side of things. He’s a consultant nephrologist – rather like James Medcalf who I met the other day – and he also has a hand in a variety of scientific research projects and the Leicester Kidney Exercise Team, some of whom I also met today.

One of them gave me a jam donut, which is a surefire way to my heart. I realised when I left I should have got a picture of them all, but as you may have noticed I am occasionally a deeply stupid man.

I was meeting him at 9am in the coffee bar in Leicester General. The weather seemed OK, so I thought I’d cycle – a 37 mile round trip. I set off at about 7:20, and there was quite a breeze against me. I didn’t think I was going to make it – which stressed me out a little as even though I am quite a slapdash sort of a human being, I hate being late for things. I cut it bloody fine but managed to get there only about two minutes late – check out the time on my GPS for how fine I cut it (8:59:39 as I passed the hospital gates).

We talked about a variety of things – largely what I could practically do to help the Kidney Care Appeal. It looks like I’ll be helping them sort out a website and source some good design work for their newsletters, and probably help out a bit with writing things and coming up with fundraising ideas, etc.

One thing I learned that I really liked was the yearly amount they allocate is in the region of £50,000 – I had no idea the sums of money involved – I assumed whatever I raised would be a drop in the ocean, but with a budget like that, the £7k ish that i look likely to raise for them is actually a very noticeable amount. So, everyone who has donated, thanks again – that money is going to go to excellent use.

Also, you’ll be pleased to know I got hailed back to the stone age on the way back. Here’s a slightly silly video of me bemoaning that fact as it happens.