Tremr

It's been an eventful week. On the 15th February 2024, I received an email from Norfolk County Council's Blue Badge Unit to let me know that my application had failed. The refusal was summarised in three bullet points: You do not have a level of qualifying disability or functional loss to be eligible for a Blue Badge. You state that you are able to walk in excess of the Department for Transport’s eligibility criteria. The symptoms of your condition(s) are variable in nature and therefore do not have a substantial and permanent impact on your mobility. I should explain that a blue badge in this case refers to a paper disc that one can display in the windscreen of one's vehicle to indicate a disability that qualifies for use of disabled parking spots in the UK. The first email I have from the Blue Badge Unit is from September 2023 although the saga has run on longer than that. I h...

Since being diagnosed with Parkinsons I have been touched by how many friends and family have donated to and raised money for Parkinsons related charities. At some point I made a mental note that I should return the favour for another charity one day. As the new year dawned I checked my Facebook feed and up popped a challenge from Diabetes UK: UK Wide Cycle Ride . The idea is that you choose a distance that would take you from one side of the country to another and to spend April accumulating miles toward that total and to gain sponsorship as you work towards that goal. I hadn't come across it before but I think a lot of charities also do something similar. Image by Ricarda Mölck from Pixabay Anyway, I hadn't made any New Year's resolutions, I've always enjoyed cycling and I've seen the serious impact that diabetes can have on families so I signed up albeit for the shortest available distance: 120 miles. That wo...