£120, £1100,£1300, 200 ...

Gentlemen?

At least two of these gentlemen were present on Thursday at the Orrell Genlemen's Club, where I talked about Vic's Big Walk from SW France to NW England and the book of that name.

It was a very successful day. I raised £120 for Pancreatic Cancer UK. This tok my total raised in this new phase of fundraising, to approaching £1100. If you add in the Gift Aid element, the total is approaching £1300.

Also, I was approached to give the talk to another Probus Club, and to a U3A meeting at which the audience will be over 200 people.

Things are looking good.

To contact me for a talk to your club or meeting, email me on victalksthewalk@gmail.com

Pirates Plunder Pancreatic Cancer Donations

Every now and again, I receive a Google Alert to tell me that my books have been pirated and are being sold on sneaky little websites.

I suppose all authors are subject to this sort of theft., but in my case all the proceeds from my books go direct to Pancreatic Cancer UK to assist the search for a cure and to alleviate the suffering of those afflicted with this dreadful illness. Every time a pirate copy is sold, the money goes into someone's pocket - someone who did not walk for 14,500 kms and then spend months writing the book - someone who is definitely not giving the money to any charity. Someone who is stealing, not only from me, but from the sick and dying. That is pretty despicable.

If you buy a copy of any of my books, you should buy electronic versions only from bona fide sources such as Amazon, Apple, Kobo, Barnes and Noble, et cetera. If in doubt, email me and I will tell you whether the supplier is kosher or not.

Paperback copies can be obtained only from me, either at one of my events or by contacting me direct. You will receive a personally dedicated copy, signed by the author. Every penny of the proceeds will be sent to Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Contact me at

victalksthewalk@gmail.com

Where Are Hovercraft When You Need Them?

Ribble Delta From Lytham Seafront

The Ribble Delta this morning. On the other side is Southport, 7 miles but a 75 minute drive. We were there on Wednesday to Talk The Walk in a Masonic Lodge.

It went down well, we raised some funds, sold some books (which also raises funds). On to the next one, next week, to a Gentlemen's Club.

Once upon a time there was a hovercraft service from Lytham to Southport. That would have saved us some driving

Lives To Save

At Souhport Probus Club on Wednesday

We are one week back from the USA and already plunging back into the fundraising for Pancreatic Cancer UK.

On Wednesday I shall be Talking The Walk to Southport Probus Club at the Masonic Lodge.

The fee for my talk will be paid directly into my JustGiving page, which is:

https://www.justgiving.com/Vic-Heaney2/

Personally signed copies of my books, including Vic's Big Walk, will be available to the audience and al the proceeds from the book sales will also be paid into the JustGiving page by me.

I can do this for your club or group. What are you waiting for? We have lives to save here. No progress has been made in the past 40 years in finding a cure for pancreatic cancer. A breakthrough will come one day. Your donation or book purchase could be the one to fund that.

Snow Disaster In Boston

He's cleared the drive but still he can't get his car out!

We are taking a break from the fundraising speechifying. Back into it soon after we return to the UK from Boston, which is where I took these pictures this morning.

Boston has a couple more inches of snow to go (and more is forecast for Thursday) before it equals the previous record for snow in a whole winter - but most of this winter's crop fell in February, and is still on the ground. Herculean efforts have cleared the roads, but the sidewalks are still under several feet of snow, and many properties and cars are still severely affected. Samantha says that some of her friends in England, having seen the pictures, say "how pretty!", but actually it is a disaster.

Not advisable to stand under these.

That's not a wall - it's snow!

The cost of clearing the roads is 3 or 4 times the budget for that purpose. The number of work days lost is huge. There have been many days when people could not get out of the house, let alone get to work. Hourly paid people have lost a lot of wages.  And when the thaw comes, if temperatures rise too rapidly, there will be floods and much damage to property. 

Samantha's apartment is somewhere behind this iceberg.

Pretty, but ...

Second Gig Of The Week, Passed 10% of My Fundraising Target Already

Jonathan Introduces Me To His Group

Where Shall I Start?

Getting Into My Stride, So To Speak

It's All In The Book, Folks!

The second gig this week was at the Holistic Centre for Cancer Patients at James Cook Hospital in Middlesborough. 

Jonathan Taylor had invited me to speak. Jonathan is currently in remission from a particularly severe type of lymphoma. This has stopped him working as a builder but he has not been idle. He has formed a support group for lymphoma sufferers in the area and it was this group to which I was speaking. I was very impressed by the positive outlook and refusal to be sidelined which they all exhibited. 

I got a real feeling that they all enjoyed my talk, and Jonathan sent me this message after the meeting -
 "Just catching up with things today. Can I say a massive thank you to you and Gay for your fantastic talk last night, I've had some great feedback today from the people there say how good it was and what an inspiration you are to everyone, which you are. I really enjoyed it thank you, and I'm looking forward to reading your books ;-)

It was great to meet you in person finally, please stay in-touch and next time your in Darlington we'll meet up for coffee or lunch my friend."

As I mentioned, Jonathan's illness has stopped him working, but he has taken the opportunity to fulfil one of his ambitions by writing a science fiction book - The Forgotten Mission - The Return (1) -  which is doing very well.  You can find the Kindle or paperback  versions here on Amazon. 

My First Probus Talk -Good Proceeds to Pancreatic Cancer UK

I had never heard of Probus clubs 3 months ago. When Basil Strickland heard I was going to raise funds for Pancreatic Cancer UK by speaking to clubs and groups, he told me about Probus and suggested I should make contact with them.

I did, only to find out that, although there are lots of branches of Probus (for retired business and professional people) and although they have regular speakers at their meetings, they tend to book their speakers up a year or more in advance.

I made it clear that mine is a long-term project and I would be very happy to speak to any club in a year's time but that I could step in at short notice to replace any speakers who fell by the wayside through accident, injury or illness, or for any other reason.

This paid off and today I spoke to my first Probus Club, in Sandbach, at a week's notice. It was a pleasure to meet them all and I raised well over £100 including sales of autographed copies of my books and the speaker's fee, which at my request they paid direct into my fundraising page, which is, by the way:

https://www.justgiving.com/Vic-Heaney2

I know you have suggestions for talk or signing venues. No matter how crazy, let me know. I will talk to anybody. Or, if you want a signed copy of one of my books in return for a donation, or to contact me for any other reason, email me on:

victalksthewalk@gmail.com

Don't be shy. No venue is too small or too large. We have a disease to beat here.

If all other ideas fail you, why, you could just go to the "Donate" button on this page and send your money to the cause.

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@VicTalksTheWalk
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Vic Talks The Walk for Pancreatic Cancer UK