Monday 11 July 2011

If I were in a triathlon I could run in the Clydesdale category.

I think 100kg is the cut off to be a Clydesdale in a triathlon.
So I took my sorry excuse for a fine tuned athletic body out for a run.  It was a beautiful night and I was going to pop over the Burrard Street Bridge from Kits Pool and come back over the Granville Street Bridge and back to the pool.  I felt pretty good so I bypassed Granville Street and ran to the Cambie Street Bridge.  Still feeling pretty good I decided to run around Science World and then back to the pool.  This was an error in judgement  I kind of regret!  Now my run-run became a run-walk.  I also was going to miss my ride to the Jericho Sailing Club for beers (add 6k to my now walk-walk-run).

As I run I try and think about stuff.  The train of thought revolved around my (slowly dying) legs.  That's is what Duchenne's Muscular Dystrophy is like.  Slowly dying legs.  Duchennes MD is a genetic disease that affects the gene that makes a structural protein important to muscles.  The muscles of the legs being the largest, symptoms related to standing and walking are first noticed.  From the age of 5 or 6 deterioration of the the leg muscles almost always leads to being wheelchair bound by 12.  DMD seems to creep north from the lower body up to the torso and arms.  Life expectancy for most is between their late teens or early twenties.
I know many boys from Canuck Place with DMD.

I miss the house.  I need to figure out some time to get back and be an active volunteer again!

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The Blog

My name is Malcolm and I was a volunteer at Canuck Place Children's Hospice in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada for nearly seven years. Now I support them by raising money by participating in the Canuck Place Adventure Challenges!


I said hospice. Not really a word that you associate with children but there you go. We will tell you about the house as this blog progresses with the hope that you will learn, and as you learn we hope that you will share. The purpose of the Adventure Challenge is to raise money for AND awareness about Canuck Place.

The name of each kid at the house you read about has been changed.

September 14th and 15th are the dates for the next Adventure Challenges.

You can sponsor me for the race here: Adventure Challenge
Maybe you should do the race?

Names:

Just a quick note about the names of the kids in the house that you will read about: they are made up!