Monday, August 29, 2011

Ready to Go

Well after months of planning, training, fund raising and prep Megan and I are almost ready to leave for Quebec City to join the 4whatmatters National Cycling relay. We will be cycling from Quebec City starting on Wed Aug 31st and finishing in Digby NS on Sunday the 4th of Sept during the Digby Wharf Rat Rally.

We are both so thankful to everyone that has made donations, both big and small and supported us in so many way. We are very proud of the fact that we have raised just shy of $5,000.00 all of which will be given directly the Montreal based research project that we have chosen to support. There are some earlier post that talk about Dr. Sylvie and her team and I encourage you read about her work and the great team she has around her. I had the opportunity to visit the lab a couple of weeks ago in Montreal and I am convinced her work will lead to something great for Juvenile Diabetics.

Over the next few days of the trip Megan and I will be using various means to keep family and friends up to date on our progress and "life on the road" The following links are social media we intend to use, including this blog.

http://bit.ly/gjpaDQ

http://bit.ly/fEu3T5

Twitter @Beamerjdrf

www.facebook.com/cycle4 the foundations page

Thanks again everyone and look forward to providing updates as we roll on down the road.

Stephen and Megan

Tuesday, August 23, 2011

National Relay Ride Update

Well Megan and I are 7 days from leaving for Quebec City to join the National Relay Team as they make their way across the country. It has been a long summer of prep work including both physically getting some ride time in, which was a challenge in the early part of the spring summer with the weather, to the fund raising.

Megan and I are so thankful to all of those that have provided us with both financial support and encouragement since we first started the planning for joining this year Relay. From family to friends to complete strangers that have given of both their money and time, we are eternally thank full, it is your faith and trust that have helped keep us focused on the goal in hand, finding a cure for Type 1 diabetes.

We are promising to try and keep everyone up to date on our progress, for this final week prior to the ride as well as once we are on the road. A number of social networking tools are being used that will let folks track our progress and get ongoing updates, besides this blog, there are a number of tools listed at www.4whatmatters.com.

Over the last few days I have been doing a count down on my face book profile, the following is today's;

In 7 days Megan and I will be leaving for Quebec City to join the National Relay with www.4whatmatter.com and start our ride back to Nova Scotia. In respect to those 7 days here are 7 things that my daughter hates about diabetes;

1. The way some people believe that she or her parents could have done something to prevent her from becoming Type 1 diabetic.
2. Always having to do a finger poke to draw blood to test blood sugar levels 5-10times a day
3. Fruit Punch - especially at 3:am to treat a low blood sugar
4. Having to explain to a teacher/karate judge etc that the alarm that went off is not her cell phone but her insulin pump
5. Carrying a bag full of supplies, blood tester, insulin, pump infusion sets, a scale, extra lancets, alcohol swabs...
6. Weight all her food.
7. The belief (by those that don't know her that there are things she cannot do! Run track and field, play fiddle, blue belt in karate, straight A student.....Cycle from Quebec City to Nova Scotia

http://www.4whatmatters.com/champion/champion.aspx?asset=266

Wednesday, August 3, 2011

Halifax Waterfront Spin



Seems like forever since I updated this blog. Not really sure where the time is going but summer is speeding by. Megan and I are well into our preparations for the National Relay coming up in just under a months time. Flights are booked to Quebec City, fundraising is coming along, and physical prep is pretty much there, though at this point not much I can to be any more ready (short of finding a way to roll back a few years off the knees).





As part of our fund raising efforts we held a stationary spin event down on the Halifax waterfront last thurs the 28th of July. We had a great setup and we were right next to the ferry terminal, even the weather cooperated a little and it did not rain.



We met a ton of really great folks, from other type 1 diabetics to family members and friends. There were even a couple of people with type 2 diabetes that after talking with Megan, left feeling more inspired to look after themselves, test more and start watching what they eat and exercise more. If for no other reason this event was worth every minute on the bike.



At the end of the day we had collected about $500.00 in donations, spent about 7.5 hours peddling and logged more than 200km on the bike.



Stephen